Dr. Wright's sermon entitled "Confusing God and Government"
This sermon contains the sound bite "God Bless America? No, No, No. God Damn America." The part that seems to be resonating in the media echo chamber. Unfortunately when a message as complex as Wright's is harvested for sound bites, the severed words lose their original meaning.
The irony is this:
The anger bubbling up over Wright's words are aimed at perceived "HateSpeech" toward the United States of America. It's as though questioning the US government or recognizing that it has committed many deplorable acts in OUR sted is blaspheme. If you listen to the sermon, you might realize that this is exactly what his message is about: "Confusing the Government for God."
I'm no fan of FoxNews. I've expressed myself on this matter before and I'm sure will do it again.
One of their tag lines is "We Report, You Decide." I think it's important to take NO media outlets at there word, which is why a clip like the following takes much longer than the actual clip to research the back story, consider the information and digest the whole story. The simplicity with which the news approaches all issues, especially those as complex as race and class, is extremely damaging. When journalists become paper dolls reporting on caricatures in a narrative as complex as a Dick and Jane story while critical thinking skills have gone the way of the dodo, we are in serious trouble.
Here's the clip from the beginning of 2008:
Here is some pertinent information that FoxNews would never think to give you:
Here is the King that Jeremiah Wright thinks of when he wants to respond to Hannity's assertion that he should be more like MLK. More like King? If you really look and listen to Wright he IS carrying on in King's footsteps.
This is from a good friend Scott Jones' blog. He is a minister in Oklahoma City in a church that is associated with the UCC, the denomination of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago which has gotten so much press as of late. I think the views of the leader of the denomination are very important to consider.
Below is a statement released to pastors of UCC churches by the President of the Church, Rev. Dr. John Thomas:
What Kind of Prophet? Reflections on the Rhetoric of Preaching in Light of Recent News Coverage of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. and Trinity United Church of Christ
John H. Thomas General Minister and President United Church of Christ
Over the weekend members of our church and others have been subjected to the relentless airing of two or three brief video clips of sermons by the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ for thirty-six years and, for over half of those years, pastor of Senator Barack Obama and his family. These video clips, and news stories about them, have been served up with frenzied and heated commentary by media personalities expressing shock that such language and sentiments could be uttered from the pulpit.
One is tempted to ask whether these commentators ever listen to the overcharged rhetoric of their own opinion shows. Even more to the point is to wonder whether they have a working knowledge of the history of preaching in the United States from the unrelentingly grim language of New England election day sermons to the fiery rhetoric of the Black church prophetic tradition. Maybe they prefer the false prophets with their happy homilies in Jeremiah who say to the people: “You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.” To which God responds, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. . . . By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed,” (Jeremiah 14.14-15). The Biblical Jeremiah was coarse and provocative. Faithfulness, not respectability was the order of the day then. And now?
What’s really going on here? First, it may state the obvious to point out that these television and radio shows have very little interest in Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright. Those who sifted through hours of sermons searching for a few lurid phrases and those who have aired them repeatedly have only one intention. It is to wound a presidential candidate. In the process a congregation that does exceptional ministry and a pastor who has given his life to shape those ministries is caricatured and demonized. You don’t have to be an Obama supporter to be alarmed at this. Will Clinton’s United Methodist Church be next? Or McCain’s Episcopal Church? Wouldn’t we have been just as alarmed had it been Huckabee’s Southern Baptist Church, or Romney’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?
Many of us would prefer to avoid the stark and startling language Pastor Wright used in these clips. But what was his real crime? He is condemned for using a mild “obscenity” in reference to the United States. This week we mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war conceived in deception and prosecuted in foolish arrogance. Nearly four thousand cherished Americans have been killed, countless more wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered. Where is the real obscenity here? True patriotism requires a degree of self-criticism, even self-judgment that may not always be easy or genteel. Pastor Wright’s judgment may be starker and more sweeping than many of us are prepared to accept. But is the soul of our nation served any better by the polite prayers and gentle admonitions that have gone without a real hearing for these five years while the dying and destruction continues?
We might like to think that racism is a thing of the past, that Martin Luther King’s harmonious multi-racial vision, articulated in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and then struck down by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis in 1968, has somehow been resurrected and now reigns throughout the land. Significant progress has been made. A black man is a legitimate candidate for President of the United States. A black woman serves as Secretary of State. The accomplishments are profound. But on the gritty streets of Chicago’s south side where Trinity has planted itself, race continues to play favorites in failing urban school systems, unresponsive health care systems, crumbling infrastructure, and meager economic development. Are we to pretend all is well because much is, in fact, better than it used to be? Is it racist to name the racial divides that continue to afflict our nation, and to do so loudly? How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.
The gospel narrative of Palm Sunday’s entrance into Jerusalem concludes with the overturning of the money changers’ tables in the Temple courtyard. Here wealth and power and greed were challenged for the way the poor were oppressed to the point of exclusion from a share in the religious practices of the Temple. Today we watch as the gap between the obscenely wealthy and the obscenely poor widens. More and more of our neighbors are relegated to minimal health care or to no health care at all. Foreclosures destroy families while unscrupulous lenders seek bailouts from regulators who turned a blind eye to the impending crisis. Should the preacher today respond to this with only a whisper and a sigh?
Is Pastor Wright to be ridiculed and condemned for refusing to play the court prophet, blessing land and sovereign while pledging allegiance to our preoccupation with wealth and our fascination with weapons? In the United Church of Christ we honor diversity. For nearly four centuries we have respected dissent and have struggled to maintain the freedom of the pulpit. Not every pastor in the United Church of Christ will want to share Pastor Wright’s rhetoric or his politics. Not every member will rise to shout “Amen!” But I trust we will all struggle in our own way to resist the lure of respectable religion that seeks to displace evangelical faith. For what this nation needs is not so much polite piety as the rough and radical word of the prophet calling us to repentance. And, as we struggle with that ancient calling, I pray we will be shrewd enough to name the hypocrisy of those who decry the mixing of religion and politics in order to serve their own political ends.
I found a new source of information to fuel my current obsession: 2008central.net
Okay, it's gone past an obsession. I have to come to grips that I have a disease. If I'm not hooked up to campaign news on the internet or listening to NPR waiting for another story about the election, I'm jonesing for the stuff. It's gotten bad enough that I recognize my problem, but still I read on. I've caught myself several times reading the inane comments random people leave on You Tube videos and getting upset with them. I've gotten mad at "FeudFan76" for goodness sake. "FeudFan76"!!!
One would think this is the bottom, like realizing how disgusting it is to pull left over tobacco out of cigarette butts in public ashtrays, rolling it in the torn back corner of the local rag and smoking it on the way to get some nicarette.
"I'm okay. Really. I can stop anytime."
But then I see a blurb about alleged voter fraud in the Texas Caucuses and I've got to have more. The blurb shows up on my latest source of political crack:
They have been cataloging press releases, videos and conference calls from, about and between the predidential candidates. I had heard about an "Emergency Conference Call" that the Clinton campaign organized on March 4th, the night of the second step of the "Texas Two Step." The call was meant to level complaints of Vote Irregularities and Voter Intimidation in Texas. The crazy thing was it was crashed by Bob Bauer, Obama Campaign’s General Counsel. He took over for a few minutes and brought up complaints the Obama campaign had from previous competitions. You can listen to the interesting part here.
The website linked this press release with the allegations from the phone call:
[Clinton Campaign Press Release from March 4, 2008]
March 4, 2008
MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Lyn Utrecht Campaign Counsel
RE: Caucus Irregularities
The campaign legal hotline has been flooded with calls containing specific accusations of irregularities and voter intimidation against the Obama campaign. This activity is undemocratic, probably illegal, and reflects a wanton disregard for the caucus process.The three most egregious categories are:
1) Irregularities: Prematurely Taking Precinct Convention Packets by Obama Campaign
Numerous calls have shown that Obama supporters prematurely removed convention packets from polling places. Packets may not legally given out until 7:15 PM or when the last voter has cast a ballot in the primary. The Texas State Party warned the Obama campaign in writing that they may not take these packets early or remove them from the polling locations. The Party directed that these irregularities be reported to law enforcement “since they amount to criminal violations.” The Party stated “removing convention packets . . . will not be tolerated.”
A sampling of the precincts where this occurred are:
659 – Tarrant
709 – Houston
2316 – Tarrant
1205 – Dallas
3127 – Bexar
3082 – Fort Bend
18/224 – Harris
3221 – Dallas
87 – El Paso
851 – Houston
115 - Harris
470 – Galveston
388 – Harris
3000 – Dallas
1214 – Dallas
20 – Medina
205 – Walker
2) Voter Intimidation: Lock-out of Clinton caucus goers by Obama Campaign
Numerous calls have been received that the Obama campaign has taken over caucus sites and locked the doors, excluding Clinton campaign supporters from participating in the caucus. The Clinton supporters have been unable to enter the premises to caucus. In at least one instance, law enforcement was called and forcibly opened the caucus site.
A sampling of the precincts where this occurred are:
4401 – Dallas
2052 – Tarrant
4402 – Dallas
75 – Harris
18 – Hardin
259 – Harris
124 – Nueces
4050 – Tarrant
115 – Harris
6 – Roma County
78 – Jefferson
117 – Denton
3) There are numerous instances of Obama supporters filing out precinct convention sign-in sheets during the day and submitting them as completed vote totals at caucus. This is expressly against the rules. The sign-in sheets were copied by the Obama campaign from the Texas Democratic Party website and taken by supporters to various polling places to sign-up caucus goers prior to the start of the caucuses
I read a comment about You-Tube videos showing voter fraud in process. Since I'm a true junkie I hopped out there to find 'em.
The description for this video reads:
"Nobody knew what to do - and an elected official yelled at people for asking about verifying voters..."
The video shows nothing of the allegations from the memo above. It looks more like a understandably frustrated poll worker that was ill prepared for the overwhelming turn-out. The woman that took the video later wrote this in the video comments:
"This is my video - I took the footage. This is in North Dallas. Obama supporters were attempting to intimidate Clinton supporters into not asking questions about the voter verfication [sic] process never having been done."
Notice the shift from an "elected official" to "Obama supporters." This is one of many circumstances that prompted the calls to Clinton's "legal hotline." Frustration with a poorly run process turned into feelings of disenfranchisement. (aside: Is it a sign of real change in the system when a white woman feels disenfranchised by a black woman? This is something new in the history of the US of A.)
Then we have this picture of a different caucus locale:
"Nothing Fraudulent Here." -
Looks fun if you ask me. Another location that ran much like this one reported there was a tie. The precinct had an odd number of delegates, so a coin toss decided which candidate would get the extra vote. A twelve year old tossed and a ten year old called. The sweet smell of democracy at work.
Of course FoxNews had to weigh in.
Commenting on a picture taken from a helicopter of a large number of African American voters in the overflow area of this inadequate caucus facility:
"Looks like the outside of a jail instead of a caucusing." (Can you really use "caucusing" like that? Afterward, have you been caucused?)
As a white man my racism-dar isn't well tuned but isn't that a little bit racist? Rather, a LOT bit. A really whole lot bit racist. But it is FoxNews and they have misled many times before and continue to do so.
A Texan commented on YouTube:
"I was at one of the caucuses in Houston. This description of a "mob" is completely false. The caucus I attended had to many people that they couldn't fit in the building and the caucus had to be held outside. There were about 300 people at the caucus who had to wait outside for two hours, in a quiet and orderly fashion, because the precinct folks were completely unprepared for the turnout. There was no mob and these charges are simply outrageous."
Another echoed:
"i live in houston. this was in houston. except what the national news is not telling you, is that this was a scene outside of a caucus...after four hours of being locked out from entering the caucus. no one came out to let anyone know when or how they would caucus. this event had nothing to do with an unruly mob or causing a disturbance. the police were there, because the citizens were chanting...loudly."
After all of this, if you now go to the Hillary Clinton website you will see that the original press release is nowhere to be found:
Was the apparent Voter Fraud magically cured? Or were these more false allegations (read "mud") thrown and failing to stick? I guess it was worth a try.
Another video has an Obama volunteer helping sign people in at a caucus site. The video description says among other things, that "the lady in the denim shirt with the sign up sheets is an Obama supporter that appointed herself precinct chair. She is NOT an election official, therefore she should not have access to the sign up sheets. Voters were asking her questions believing that she was an election official. As you can see, there is not an election official checking for proof of voting earlier in the day."
Why one might ask has this lady "appointed herself" precinct chair? Maybe she watched this training video from the Obama camp on how to high jack an election:
Did you hear the part about forcibly taking over the caucus site or locking Clinton supporters out or taking away Hillary Clinton campaign signs or filling in your candidate on any supporter designation lines left blank or anything else nefarious? Of course you didn't because it wasn't there. Obama supporters were not trained to do any of that stuff.
Voter fraud and voter suppression seem to swirl around any hotly contested race but not every allegation is credible. Here is an Obama supporter during the Kansas Caucus that voices a couple about the location of caucus sites. Is it active voter suppression?
Another example from Texas. About 45 seconds in we see a Hispanic man has gotten the paper work first and is the precinct captain. He says that we then fill in the support blank with "WHO? Hillary. Obviously." The man next to him does not agree. -
Voter Fraud? Voter Disenfranchisement? Not that I've seen.
Voter misunderstanding? Supporter over zealousness? Poorly organized by election officials? Most certainly. In my opinion the caucus system should be revisited and questioned. If the number of people participating continues to increases, the ability for Caucus States to adequatly manage the process will be challenged ever more.
As far as this election is concerned: Is this a problem with the two candidates playing dirty? Maybe a little in each camp. If this were a basketball game, I would say the problem was in the refs (election officials) and fans. It's not the players' fault that beer was thrown in the stands and a fight broke out in the parking lot.
Now back I go to watching videos of speeches and TV appearances and reading the blogs of so many pundints and the comments of so many readers of so many blogs of so many pundints.
Much has been made of Barack Obama's middle name. It's been used by many, including talk radio host Bill Cunningham, to imply a connection between Obama and terrorism, and has been used to support the theory that Obama is some sort of al qaeda sleeper agent. Then there is the easy shot with the mention of Saddam. Here are a couple of points-of-view that I've found helpful when thinking about this issue:
Here are Stephen Colbert's thoughts:
Here's a little more serious commentary on Obama's name from Juan Cole the President of the Global Americana Institute:
I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!
Christian, Western heroes have often been bequeathed Middle Eastern names. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the medieval Spanish hero, carried the name El Cid, from the Arabic al-Sayyid, "the lord."Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the Republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And, American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunninghamism will never understand.
Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."Here is a list of how many times barak appears in each book of the Bible.
Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word, hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form. Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel, The Kite Runner, is Khaled Hosseini.
I am a concerned Democrat from Louisville, KY. I am writing to respectfully ask that you push to have a redo at the polls OR abide by the current situation before allowing the results from 1/15 to stand. I am glad to have the opportunity to vote on May 20 with both of our strong candidates on the ballot.
It's a shame that the decisions of the Michigan Democratic Party to break the national party's rules (which the MDP voted on), stripped so many Michigan Democrats of the ability to do the same. It is unfortunate that so many Michigan Dems will not have the chance to vote for the person the want in the White House, will not be able to vote their conscience and their values, having been forced to vote for "Uncommitted." It would be deplorable and inexcusable if these votes were pushed through to the convention like nothing was amiss in the Michigan Primary.
I fear for what might happen if the current results are put in place as is. The rules will have been thrown out the window along with many a faith in the Democratic process.
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