Asserts the libertarian Republican commentator, about Sen. Barack Obama's speech about his association with controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., race, and religion. He argues that Sen. Obama's rhetoric states one thing, but his actions in attending Trinity United Church of Christ suggest support for a victimology agenda: "Long before the blowup over Barack Obama's pastor, I wrote about this angry, 'Afrocentric' church in my new book, 'Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card -- and Lose.' 'Barack Obama,' I wrote, 'attends Chicago's popular Trinity United Church of Christ. He described its minister, Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as his 'spiritual mentor.' On its Web site, Trinity United Church of Christ describes itself: 'We are an African people, and remain 'true to our native land,' the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.…It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.' 'Consider the grief President George W. Bush attracted when he gave a speech at Bob Jones University, an institution that formerly banned interracial dating. Imagine a Republican attending a church that professed 'Caucasian-centric' Bible readings."
Elderado adds: "Obama gave a soaring speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, in which he said, 'There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America. There is the United States of America.…We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.' Once upon a time, Obama actually told '60 Minutes'' Steve Kroft, 'I think if I don't win this race, it will be because of other factors. It's gonna be because I have not shown to the American people a vision for where the country needs to go that they can embrace.' Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted."
LARRY ELDER COMMENTARY: Obama: From Valiant To Victicrat
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Mr. Obama, I suspect, is capable of forging his own political views and doesn't have any religious or intellectual obligation to parrot or practice the secular political views of his minister. For Mr. Elder to suggest such a thing, that a man should leave his church not because of a clash on scripture but because of the political opinion expressed by the Pastor or any other speaker I believe is political correctness in it's most blatant form. Rev. Wright, a Marine veteran of Vietnam is entitled to view the history of this nation and it's past and present policies as he feels it has presented itself to him. It is entirely understandable that a person of his generation knowledgeable, as I'm sure he is, of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments and other racial precedents in this nation's past could conceive that the Aids virus was invented in our biological warfare laboratories and tested upon the despised of this society. It may or may not be true, but it is not unthinkable or the product of demented rationality. It is not unreasonable for someone attached to religious scripture to conclude that God would frown on a nation that embraced brutal slavery and Jim Crow laws, that has perpetrated coups and assasinations, committed genocide of the native peoples and have performed every despicable act that the human heart and mind is capable of (you sir, might include abortion among this litany and would leave your church if you minister held a view contrary to your own- I'm sure). By God's standards this nation is deeply flawed- as are other nations. But it hurts Mr. Elder's tender sensibilities to hear Rev. Wright say these things. We must salute the flag and believe everything the government says and does. We must accept that the "supposed" terrorist attacks of 9/11 are completely divorced from our policies, actions and alliances abroad and believe the infantile fallacy that we're hated and resented solely because of our goodness and freedom and altruism. We must believe that race is routinely discussed in the barber shop and on the street corner but the subject is suddenly new in the black pulpit.
Mr. Elder, you're trying so hard to be a conservative you will divorce yourself from reality if need be. Mr. Obama's explanation of his position in regards to the secular comments of Rev. Wright was both excellent and adequate. He can do no more than sincerely explain himself, which he did with eloquence and intelligence. Still I'm sure you would prefer Mr. Obama shop around for a good conservative church where the pledge of allegiance is performed and the praises of Bush's war in Iraq are sung. Politically correct churches are what this country needs, even more a good five cent cigar.
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