Reverend Wright

I think too much is being made about Barack Obama’s pastor, Rev. Wright’s controversial comments. Firstly, they were made by Rev. Wright, not Obama, and they are not all that inflammatory, as far as I can tell. When you have religious leaders regularly spreading hatred against homosexuals by falsely representing the Gospel, why then is someone demanding that America answer to its racist policies considered a big deal? I prefer Rev. Wright’s angry words to the homophobia I regularly witness on Sunday morning television. Also, Obama said that he was not aware of all the statements made by Rev. Wright, which I believe. I mean, who really listens in church? I don’t! It’s boring! That is why I don’t go!

7 thoughts on “Reverend Wright

  1. You’re right. There are thousands of religious leaders making hate statements against homosexuals from the pulpit. Why aren’t Republicans shamed by the media for attending churches where the anti-homosexual agenda is on display?

  2. I hear ya, and understand your point but….

    I do not believe Obama for an instant, and Fox news isn’t running for President.

    No, Obama didn’t say those remarks, but I do believe after 20 years of attending the church that he certainly knew what was going on.
    Not only was Wright his pastor, but Obama also placed him as “spiritual advisor”, on his campaign. Uh, OK.

    I do believe the remarks Wright made against the Clinton’s were inflammatory and unnecessary.

    At some point, when your church is talking smack, or your friends are talking smack you dump them.

    With the Republicans, we pretty much know what we are getting.
    They don’t make a secrete of what ASSHATs they are.

    So we have Obama chummy with Wright, and then earlier this year we had Obama touring South Carolina with Donnie McClurkin a self-proclaimed “former homosexual” who believes it is his mission to turn gays straight suggests that Obama can’t live without the support of the homophobic contingent of the black community and the black church in particular.

    Yet, this has not been enough for some people to wake up and smell the coffee….

    Dan Savage’s coverage
    http://againstobama.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/more-on-obamas-winks-and-nods-to-homophobes/

  3. I’ll qualify this by saying I don’t have a religion and therefore don’t join in the rituals, but I think the provocative nature of his comments are part of his style. Religious ritual uses awe as a tool. It invokes emotion (whether it then quashes it or not), it dredges up the primal in the name of taming it, it requires that people believe what they can’t see and therefore overwhelms in order to make people more receptive, it must create a sense of community and oneness because it must distinguish Us from Them in order for Us to be right. This religious leader is hardly the first to use this style. It may not be the majesty and solemnity of a cathedral or the exuberant joy of a country parish, but anger is as relevant a way to bring people together as anything else, and may just be one of the more effective. He likely developed this style as the most effective for his audience. It seems to me that everyone’s debating the paper and ink, and leaving the message to itself. All he’s really saying is that his god is more powerful than his country, that his country claims greatness but doesn’t follow through for its citizens, and that his country is imperfect and fallible and must change. Why is he saying it so angrily? He believes he’s talking to the very people his Great Country has failed. It seems, basically, to be “this nation has to change” coupled with an attack on idolatry (“let the sheep be blind only when following me”). RAMBLING.

  4. I wouldn’t vote for someone who followed one of those homophobe, ranting white preachers either. There are plenty of alarming hate-spouting white dudes out there too.
    But…
    Hate-mongering is hate-mongering whether it’s justified or not. MLK, Jr didn’t spout such crap. Neither did Ghandi. Both of those men affected real change.
    The bottom line is this: Obama has chosen to attend this man’s services for twenty years; he’s chosen to raise his children in that church. The fact that such comments don’t offend his sensibilities, especially coming from a man of God, is pretty alarming. I don’t want any country spoken of with such disrespect, whether it’s this one or any other.

  5. My father is a southern baptist minister, and I’m a lesbian.
    When I came out of the closet, he and my mother personally flew across the country
    to visit me, and my pastor. They attempted to get me to go to a camp to “fix the gay”.
    I haven’t been to church since.
    I still love my father
    my father still loves me.
    They think my current girlfriend is really good for me,
    even though they don’t agree with our way of living.
    I still call them for advice, even when it comes to my lesbian relationship.
    I still seek guidance, they will grow as I will grow.
    You can’t judge me because of the things my father, my pastor say.
    We all have our opinions about the world, but in the end,
    we are all the same – just people drifting through life, finding support
    from the people we love … no matter what.

  6. Does it make me a terrible person that a tiny little part of me totally and completely agrees with Rev. Wright? Does it make it better (or worse) that I’m a white American?

    I suppose it’s difficult for me to disagree with sentiments like those held by Wright because I am constantly bombarded by the sort of racist and nativist bullshit that Wright and his ilk are fighting against. I work in the restaurant industry, and I hear my boss berate Hispanics on a daily basis. (She convienently forgets that her kitchen is run by a Mexican immigrant, and yes, I am quitting on Friday.)

    Sure, it would be great if holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” were enough to unite the races. But I truly believe that for every Dr. King, the world needs a little Malcolm X or Rev. Wright. The same goes for gay rights and visibility. For every Ellen, we need ourselves some Margaret Cho. The poor, the disenfranchised, the screwed-over: all need agitators, fighters, people to stare into the eyes of those in power and say, “Enough.”

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