Please show me specifically how this is true. My understanding is that the clips were taken out of context from several sermons that were on video. We don’t know what else was on the videos or the content of many other sermons he gave. If that’s true then splicing together a few seconds out of hours is hardly an accurate representation and cannot be realistically called “what the church chose to put forth”
Maybe I’m wrong. Show me something.
I don’t assume anything. I’m going by what I’ve seen so far until I see more. I have some idea of how media, politics and life in general work so I won’t judge the man based on limited sound bytes.If there is much more then I’m thinking it will come out. I also don’t assume that those sound bytes represent what he and his that church are all about without additional evidence. I went to the web site and listened to part of two sermons they provided. Nothing like those words.
One minister was talking about Wright, his pending retirement, and black liberation theology. I didn’t hear anything I objected to. In fact they spoke that fighting for freedom is part of Christ’s message to all people of every color and country.
I don’t agree with the comparison but regardless,
Holy crap man we have ex Klansman in congress now don’t we? If we can elect them then why the hell couldn’t we elect a black man whose friend said some things he disagreed with? Your sense of proportion seems askew.
Whew, indeed! Thank goodness for that, or I might’ve had to start another thread.
I don’t think he’s around, so I hope you don’t mind me answering in his stead. The Obama campaign office in Ohio I spoke with when I was ordering supplies to send up there, said they were requesting orders be placed through demstore.com, here, because they’re a known vendor and a union shop. I also found they have better prices and more and better shipping options than some of the other sites out there, as well.
You must have watched a different video than the link. Nobody said Barack equals Jesus.
He said Jesus knew what it was like to grow up in a country controlled by rich white people and so does Barack. Is it horribly wrong? Way way off the mark? As part of the black community is it hard to understand the train of thought even if you don’t agree? It’s about social justice not hating whitey.
Oh, and another piece of evidence to counter your concerns, Belowjob2.0, news from the Iowa County Conventions that were held today is starting to roll in, after 2 days of this crap playing in the news:
That is a MUCH wider margin than he initially won the state by. With Edwards in the mix still, it was Obama 38%, Edwards 30%, Clinton 29%; only a 9 pt spread between Obama and Clinton. He’s now increased that to nearly 21%!
Yesterday’s fracas did not demonstrably hurt Obama’s campaign.
McCain should get called for his support of Creationist events. Start a thread and I will join.
And you still have not answered my questions. Earlier, you implied that Obama was unaware that this stuff was being preached in this church. So I post this again:
If this was not an ideology of the church, I find it hard to believe that the congregation would have reacted the way it did to Wright’s statements. Beliefs that the government invented HIV or knew about Pearl Harbor are only held by extremely ignorant people and are only cheered by people deluded by ideology. Do you find it at all hard to believe that the congregation as a whole would cheer Wright’s statements on HIV and Pearl Harbor if there nothing about these beliefs that related to the ideology of the church? It is a hell of coincidence that such ignorant and deluded people ended up together if the church had nothing to do with beliefs of this nature.
Do you think it is just a coincidence that there were so people in the congregation willing cheer on ignorant statements about the government inventing HIV or to you think there is something about this church that is attracting these people?
Shayna … “all politics is local” and the local in question right now is PA, not IA. How will it play with voters there? Will more working class affirmative action resenting not quite racists come out for Hillary because of this? Will some who might lean to Obama be a little less likely to? She needs a big win there to try to sell her case to the supers. Can this crap help her do that? Yes it can.
Wright-gate is a sty in Obama’s eye, but it is one that will heal because Obama didn’t let the thing fester and crust over rather than address it right away. I don’t see this hurting him because it has come out so late in the primary season and so early with respect to the general election. I don’t think it’ll change too many minds about him. Those who will probably start seeing him as an anti-white unpatriot who makes poor judgements when it comes to making alliances probably didn’t want to vote for him anyway but needed an excuse. So now they have an excuse.
I sympathize with him, though. My own mother believes a lot of the things Wright was saying, and she too is a minister. If I were running for President, she’d no doubt want a role in my campaign, especially since she had a short spat in politics herself, and I wouldn’t have the heart to say “no moms, since you believe that HIV was created by the government to kill gays and black folks, you can’t be on my team”. Perhaps Obama’s main mistake was not asking him to scale down the crazy talk because of the potential problems it could cause his campaign. If it’s not a major fixture to his sermons, then this shouldn’t have been a problem.
I don’t think Wright’s comments were racist. (I also don’t think Ferraro’s comment was racist, either.) Infammatory, self-victimizing, and “us versus them-ish”, yes.
Two and half it does not surprise me that there will be a contingency in an urban Black congregation that is willing to believe in government conspiricy theories. (Heck a lot of middle class Whites do too.) That comments naught on insinuations that such are congregational articles of faith.
Well, in the white, working-class, midwest state of Iowa, the John Edwards delegates had the option of realigning with Hillary today. In overwhelming numbers, even after 2 days of this Reverend Wright crap being out there possibly swaying them, they switched their allegiance to Obama over Hillary. I think that portends a possibly similar outcome among other predominantly white states still to cast their votes. So while of course it can, will it? I don’t think so.
Comparatively speaking how much of what is preached there is about these things you object too? Doesn’t that matter?
Preaching about social justice and how the gospel relates to the black experience in America, love, family, helping others, this man says some wacky things. Does that mean every positive thing he’s said and done are negated?
I went to the website and listened to part of two sermons. Didn’t hear anything like that. I don’t think the point of Wrights social message is to get people to believe those things you keep repeating. I’ve been to several churches. Chances are not everyone agrees with everything thats said even by the pastor. It’s the overall message and spirit of the place that often attracts people.
That seems to be something Wrights critics haven’t bothered to investigate.
Well, let’s consider that viewpoint. This thing is close and not yet decided (cheerleading notwithstanding), and it will be decided by just the few remaining primaries. The ones that have already been held don’t matter anymore except that they give Obama a slight head start going into the ones that, as of now, are the only ones that do matter. Those,* as of today*, do constitute the primary season - and this blew up right on schedule for them.
It is encouraging, and any good news for Obama is very welcome at this point. But I can’t help but think that state delegates are a different breed than primary (or caucus, for that matter) voters, and that Edwards delegates in particular are more likely to be out to beat Clinton than the general voting population (even people who liked Edwards at the start).
You’re not referring to that poorly reported story on ThinkProgress about which you started a Pit thread last year, are you? If so, calling that a Creationist event is absurd.
Yay!! Happy dance.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Barack’s message of a new approach to politics , combined with the population being sick to death of this kind of crap, actually worked and enough people decided to give him the chance and the support to make some needed changes?
Shayna as has been previously pointed out, James Carville said it before, PA is Pittsburgh to the west, Philadelphia to the east, and Alabama in between … without the Blacks. IA it aint.
I haven’t read this thread yet, but I would like to say that Obama said the reverend has never spoke this way in front of him, and I believe Obama. Furthermore, the reverend’s political views have absolutely nothing to do with Obama… another thing, some of what the reverend said was true… so deal with it. One more thing, I don’t think this should affect Obama’s popularity at all, the reverend’s views are completely irrelevant to Obama. They are two separate entities.
Oh… and let me just add that unless you have walked a mile in the old reverand’s shoes, then you can judge him, otherwise, put a cork in it…
OK, sorry I came across as harsh, it’s just that I’m so freaking sick and tired of seeing these videos of the reverend and I cannot help but wonder who exposed this shit to begin with…
I agree with you. I wasn’t referring to thatpart… as well as the govt being behind 9/11. Thats just paranoid and retarded. I was referring to some other stuff the reverend said. I can see where he was coming from, being an older black man who has lived through a lot.
I hope you have enough life experience to know that very good hearted and otherwise highly intelligent people can be very wrong about certain things. That doesn’t erase their value as a person or cheapen the real contributions they have made.
The sum total of a person’s life is a little more complicated than that.
Gotta run , the aliens need to borrow my tinfoil helmet.
