Did this article come from the Associated Press or directly from the Obama campaign?
Obama found a home in his church
A young Barack Obama was searching for answers, and perhaps a place to belong, when he decided to visit a fast-growing church recommended by friends. What he heard left him in tears.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preached that day about suffering — about the seemingly endless problems of the world and of individuals. But he also talked about the importance of hope, the audacity of believing things can be made better.
"Hope is what saves us," Wright said.
That message moved Obama to embrace Trinity United Church of Christ, along with its philosophy of translating faith into action. But it's a side of Wright that has been overshadowed by his inflammatory remarks about everything from race relations to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The furor over Wright's remarks has provoked the greatest crisis for Obama's presidential campaign thus far, but Obama has refused to leave Trinity or sever his ties with Wright, saying there is much more to Wright and the church.
Asked Wednesday on MSNBC's "Hardball" if he thought the questions about his relationship with Wright were unfair, Obama said: "I think that's fair game in the sense that what my former pastor said was offensive. I think that in politics, whether I was white, black, Hispanic or Asian, somebody would be trying to use it against me. I do think that it is important to keep things in perspective."
Poor Obama.
His political enemies are using his spiritual mentor's words to attack him.
Wright has said some controversial things, but he's really a good man.
Trinity is a predominantly black congregation in a mainline, mostly white denomination — the United Church of Christ. Its 8,000 members include politicians, doctors, lawyers and other leaders on Chicago's South Side.
The rapper Common, the former director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, the former director of the state Department of Professional Regulation, and at least one state representative are members of the church. Oprah Winfrey has attended services there.
The church offers a long list of services — housing and employment programs, scholarships, a ministry to people with HIV/AIDS — that mesh well with Obama's political philosophy.
"It's his deep faith in God and his desire to be an agent of change in the world. That's kind of the Trinity mantra," said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a priest at a South Side Roman Catholic church.
...Obama argues it would be wrong for people to judge Wright solely on a handful of remarks. He has tried to place Wright's comments in the context of anger from a black man who came of age in a time of segregation and civil rights turmoil.
Oooh! Politicians, doctors, and lawyers attend the church.
And Oprah went to services there.
OK. Never mind. It must be a good place.
Yeah, right.
...People familiar with Trinity compare its emphasis on African culture to the way some Catholic churches play up Irish or Italian roots.
ENOUGH.
I have attended thousands of Masses at Catholic churches. I can't count how many different priests have presided, but at no time, EVER, did I hear a homily that was remotely like Wright's message of "God damn America."
I've been at plenty of Masses that played up the people's Irish and Italian and Polish roots, but they weren't divisive at all. They weren't separatist.
NEVER did I hear the sort of hate spewed by Wright at a Catholic Mass.
Put simply, it's an absolute crock to equate Trinity's black separatist theology, with the services and missions of Catholic parishes.
In a March 2, 2007 interview on Hannity & Colmes, Wright expressed his allegiance to "black liberation theology," Dwight Hopkins and James Cone.
Excerpt:
HANNITY: I studied theology; I went to a seminary. And I studied Latin.
WRIGHT: Do you know black liberation theology?
HANNITY: I'm very aware of what you're calling black liberation, but let me get my question out.
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: I said, do you know black theology?
HANNITY: Reverend, I'm going to give you a chance to answer my question.
WRIGHT: How many of Cone's books have you read? How many of Cone's book have you read?
HANNITY: Reverend, Reverend?
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: How many books of Cone's have you head?
HANNITY: I'm going to ask you this question...
WRIGHT: How many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?
HANNITY: You're very angry and defensive. I'm just trying to ask a question here.
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: You haven't answered — you haven't answered my question.
HANNITY: And it seems to be, when you say the black community, black family, black work ethic, black community...
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: It seems arrogant, ignorant...
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: I'm asking you...
(CROSSTALK)
WRIGHT: ... how many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?
HANNITY: Sir, I'm going to say this whether you like it or not. I'm going to get my words in, and I'm going to tell you right now...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: As a Christian, sir, I think, as a Christian, you should not separate by race in this day and age. And that's why a lot of people are going to look at that and say, "We're all supposed to be united under Christ, aren't we?"
Wright certainly holds up Dwight Hopkins and James Cone as his mentors.
As part of his theological analysis, Cone argues for God's own identification with "blackness":The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism...The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity. (A Black Theology of Liberation, pp. 63-64)
"The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism."
As a Christian, as a Roman Catholic, that's not what I was taught. That's not what I believe.
I don't buy this attempt by the lib media to makeover Wright.
I buy that he preached about love and service to the community. But he also preached racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism. He is what he is.
Wright can't divorce himself from the hate that he's preached. And Obama won't divorce himself from Wright.
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