Posted by
Mhu Cao on Friday, March 07, 2008 9:05:07 PM
Obama must explain Rev. Wright's influence on his views of race, religion, and unity in this country.
Who is this Rev. Wright? Why is such an inquiry relevant?
Obama belongs to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Its pastor, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. is Obama's spiritual mentor (in Obama's words).
Wright preaches using a black separationist philosophy based on "black liberation theology." What does this mean?
Wasn't Wright the one who converted Obama to Christianity? Surely, after 20 years, Wright has made some impact on Obama. If not, was Obama really attending church to find spiritual inspiration, or did he attend just because it was fun to go?
In 2007, TUCC and Wright presented Farrakhan with a Lifetime Achievement Award, praising his "integrity and honesty" as as one of the giants of the African-American religious experience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
What does it take to be recognized for a Lifetime Achievement Award by Wright and TUCC? Wouldn't the selection of the awardee give substantial insight into the views, values, and beliefs of the awarding spiritual organization and its spiritual leader?
Farrakhan is the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI). (NOI is *not* a Muslim sect or a branch of Islam, but a socio-political organization borrowing the word Islam to achieve its ends. Some Muslims refer to the NOI teachings as "Farrakhanism." The "soldiers" of the NOI are known as the Fruits of Islam).
Farrakhan's occasional good deeds for the community notwithstanding, he is a raving bigot who *openly* advocates the outright destruction of America.
Farrakhan is rabidly anti-white, anti-Asian, anti-Hispanic, anti-Jew, anti-Christian (of flavors he dislikes), and homophobic.
Farrakhan has made hate speeches and lectures for over three decades, targeting Jews ("bloodsuckers"), whites ("blue-eyed devils" and the "anti-Christ"), America, and homosexuals.
Farrakhan believes that Jews control the government, the media, and some black organizations. Women are expected to remain in the background, serving their men.
So, this is the kind of "man" who deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award from Wright and Obama's church. Certainly, it would be reasonable to make some logical inferences.
Not guilt by association as much as grounds for pointed questions to be asked, of Obama, if not Wright.
What else does Rev. Wright advocate? Slavery reparations.
The following is available on the Internet via the included links:
============================================
Reparations for Blacks, a ‘mission of God’
The Reverend Jim Wallis has called racism America’s greatest sin before God. That sin is exacerbated by the fact that America has never repented for the sin she committed against hundreds of millions of Africans in chattel slavery. “To admit to that sin, to confess that mistake and to apologize for a wrong for which there is no justification is not something that anyone with a racist mind would ever consider as a possibility,” says The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, of Chicago.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of presidential candidate, Barak Obama, will be the keynote speaker at the 20th Anniversary Gala of the National Conference of Blacks for Reparations in America (N ‘COBRA) on Thursday, June 21 2007, 7:00PM at 3801 Market Street. “The biblical principle of true repentance is that the offended party is given compensation to make up for that which has been stolen from them, the losses they have been inflicted upon them and their families,” said Rev. Wright in a written statement to N’COBRA.
===================================
Note how Wright advertises himself as "pastor of presidential candidate, Barak Obama." Not bad self-promotion there, Reverend.
So what do we understand about Wright?
Both Wright and Farrakhan are ardent black separationists.
Both Wright and Farrakhan are ardent slavery reparations advocates.
This isn't guilt by association as much as "birds of a feather, fly together." With Farrakhan and Wright, it isn't guilt by association as much as association of the guilty.
At least, Wright has *not* been anti-Semitic, as far as I could see.
It is not enough that Obama "distances" himself from Wright's Lifetime Achievement Award comments, considering that, for 20 years, Obama called Wright his spiritual mentor. Is Obama going to renounce 20 years of Wright's separatism, too?
Is it not enough that Obama gives a wink-and-nod "rejection" of Farrakhan, considering that Farrakhan himself acknowledged that Obama's rejection was a necessary inconvenience. Farrakhan and Wright go way back. How far back does Obama go, too?
These are legitimate questions for a Presidential candidate.
Obama must provide clear, unambiguous explanations of his views on racial divide, particularly how 20 years of Rev. Wright's black separationist sermons have influenced his views.