Subscribe to Breaking NewsRev. Wright Goes Bye-Bye
Last week Barack Obama had to jettison his spiritual mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. A number of Wright’s sermons, including one he did for Christmas 2007, are getting a lot of play on YouTube because Wright goes off the deep end when it comes to racial matters: America is run by rich whites, Clinton doesn’t know what it means to be poor, America is racist, AIDS was created in some United States lab, blah, blah, blah.
Team Obama went into warp drive to distance itself from Wright. Obama and his peoples went on the air this week-end to insist Obama only took spiritual guidance from Wright, not anything about race or politics. The good reverend officially resigned from the Obama campaign, and Obama wrote an editorial explaining his relationship with the church and Wright.
Whatever skills Obama has as a rhetorician are going to be needed to side-step this Wright mess. Black pastors calling America racist don’t play well in a White House bid and it’s difficult to present yourself as a post-racial man of color when your spiritual adviser spouts nutty sermons on race. Obama has said a number of times that he and Wright don’t agree on things, but for this to stick he will need to say it another sextillion times.
As usual, James Withers prostitutes himself for Hillary Clinton.
Amazing how Withers can declare a few days ago that Geraldine Ferraro said nothing racist and today condemn as racist the Wright comments, all of which were bitter complaints about the very real history of white racism in the U.S.
How about this: Withers just agrees to shut up about anything related to race, since he’s so utterly clueless?
What I don’t understand is why people can’t get over the fact that bloggers here have opinions. Was it not a few weeks ago that Withers was being crucified for being bias towards Obama?
What the gay community needs to do is stop bashing either candidate and be prepared to stand behind whichever Democrat in November. If you didn’t notice, not one of the Republican candidates showed up for LOGO’s presidential forum.
Rev. Wright damns America for its sins — not the least of which include the genocide of Native Americans, slavery of blacks, disenfranchisement of women, persecution of gays — and he’s accused of being anti-American? Maybe it’s not the sinner named America he’s condemning but just its multitude of sins. You know, love the sinner, hate the sin. Of course, that kind of talk got Jesus Christ crucified, too. Keep giving them all hell, Rev. Wright.
What I don’t understand, BMD, is why you think the fact that a blogger has an opinion somehow means that opinion is immune from criticism. It’s called public debate.
Withers deserves to be criticized when he dismisses remarks by Geraldine Ferraro that obviously were racist while jumping all over remarks by Rev. Wright that, though intense, were nothing unusual for a zealous advocate for a subordinated group. I mean, has no gay leader ever ranted about straight privilege? Gimme a break!
As for the fall, BMD, you express a fine sentiment in urging reconciliation behind whichever candidate wins the nomination. That was exactly my mindset until about three weeks ago, when the Clinton campaign descended even further into race-baiting and swiftboating. I won’t support her in the fall. Period.
I am with Steve: there is no condition under which I will vote for Hillary “Republican” Clinton in the fall. Her “kitchen sink” strategy against Barack Obama not only demonstrated that she is willing to sacrifice the Democratic Party to serve her own political ambitions but her continued race-baiting — including comments by Bill “perjurer-in-chief” Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro — confirmed to me that she is rotten to the core. Doug Ireland over at Gay City News has a great opinion piece on why he too will not be supporting HRC and has chosen Barack Obama. The cynical Clinton strategy of triangulation finally degenerated into base racism. Bill & Hill both should be booted from the Democratic Party, and good riddance to them.
Wright goes bye-bye?
Good.
I mean, what do we need with a black advocate in the pulpit who urges more women into the clergy and preaches that gays should have the right to marry (as they do in the UCC)? Who needs another black minister as our ally when we have so many to choose from…
Wait.
Hang on.
Damn.
Rev. Wright come back!
Steve, James is just having his Sister Souljah moment. It’s okay, James, we get it.
@Steve – I’m not sure why you think James is clueless about race. Because he disagrees with you? But even Obama said today that not all the opinons Wright holds are good ones (and it is not completely clear from his speech, but it seems like Obama also agrees with James that Ferraro’s remarks were *not* racist).
I suspect that’s true of all of us. We have some well-informed opinions and some crazy ones. To suggest that James is clueless about the history of white racism because he disagrees with some of the more well-publicized quotes of Rev. Wright is grounded in nothing.