Obama's Pastor Trouble

I have been aware for some time that Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was eccentric, inflammatory, and preached at an exclusively black church. This looks odd, but I have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are and were pretty controversial, and few conservatives criticized them much. (An exception was John McCain). As for the all-black thing, yes, it’s odd, but not unheard of. Many Catholic churches were originally built for single ethnicities (although the practice has died out as America has become more racially integrated), and mostly black churches are not exactly unheard of. I felt uncomfortable attacking someone’s church.

No more. Jeremiah Wright is crazy and a racist. I simply do not see how anyone could possibly go to this man’s church more than once. It is inconceivable that anyone of any intelligence could have Wright as a spiritual advisor, as Barack Obama does.

Take a look at this video. Really, take a look at it, as it is well worth viewing. Ignore the crazy rhetoric, for the moment, and savor the ridiculousness of Wright’s melodramatic, overdone delivery. He sounds like Jesse Jackson doing a really bad imitation of Cotton Mather.

And the content, of course, is stupid. I really doubt that Jesus looked black (he probably looked like Middle Eastern Jew), and if He did I really doubt that He identified Himself as a black man. I don’t think that race entered the equation much. And even if he did, the whole scenario is stupid anyway. I don’t think it’s really accurate to say that Obama is a Jesus figure, while Hillary represents the Romans. While it may be gratifying to Obama’s ego to hear that kind of thing, it is pretty offensive to others.

It is not only offensive, it also may be illegal. The Trinity United Church of Christ is a nonprofit organization, and nonprofits are not allowed to endorse political candidates. Jeremiah Wright, in his customary unhinged manner, is clearly endorsing Barack Obama.

Barack Obama’s participation in this church is troubling. Wright clearly dislikes white people as a group, and I fall into that group. I really don’t care what some pastor in Chicago has to say about my ethnicity. I do care that someone who wants to be my President is willing to stand by and let this man slander my race.

Were the situations reversed, and John McCain a habitual attendee of a church where blacks were routinely slurred, I would withdraw my support for his candidacy. I believe that Obama should live up to the same standard.

Wright’s comments here are not an isolated incident. After 9/11, he suggested that white America had it coming, and that “white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just “disappeared” as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns” He also told his congregation that blacks should sing “God damn America”! Obama may well have been in attendance at the time, and he certainly was an active member in the church. He did not have the fortitude to speak out against his unhinged pastor. He did nothing

Obama’s excuse for his pastor’s crazy views is that Wright is like your crazy uncle who sometimes embarrasses you, but means well. That is not a nice to say about your pastor, and that is not acceptable. One can’t choose one’s relatives, but can choose one’s pastor. Jeremiah Wright is scary.

Recently, the Hillary Clinton campaign came under fire from Obama’s supporters for indirectly suggesting that Obama was a Muslim. Obama quickly denied it. But now that America can see what goes on in his actual church, he may want to revive the old Muslim rumor. It’s a lot less embarrassing than the truth.

Instapundit has some good coverage of this.