MYCHAL MASSIE COMMENTARY: What Obama Really Believes

The conservative Republican commentator argues that Sen. Barack Obama may have left Trinity United Church of Christ, but what he calls the church's "'teeming cauldron of hatred" hasn't left Sen. Obama's heart: "It's not what the alleged pastor Michael Pfleger, whom Barack Obama declared "a close associate, a spiritual adviser and a key source of spiritual guidance," said at Obama's now-former church – it's what the people of said church did, and what they did not do, in response. What they did was to applaud, cheer and shout 'amen' to Pfleger's vitriolic diatribes. What they didn't do was walk out. It isn't difficult to understand why not one congregant condemned the message spewed forth from the pulpit that day. It isn't really difficult to understand why there hasn't been a mass exodus from a place that sanctions hate-filled, anti-biblical screeds. The 8,000-plus membership agree, believe and support the message fomented in that teeming ca[u]ldron of hatred. But it is not only adults in attendance; there are children and young people being indoctrinated with a message of hatred and resentment toward whites, America and anyone who doesn't subscribe to their beliefs. One must question how the message of bitterness and blame, which permeates every brick of said church, affects its congregants as they go about their daily routine at work, etc. Consider how disaffected the church's young people and children must be as they interact with non-blacks and various authority figures."

He continues his commentary: "Attempts can be made to spin it, but in the final analysis, the members of that church, the Obama's [sic] included up until last Saturday, are there because they believe and embrace what is taught there. A church is an association of the like-minded. There exists no reason that families and individuals would join such a collective and stay for generations, save on a plenary level they subscribe to its dogma – the 20-year tenure of the Obamas included. Trinity Church of Christ is a fundamentally flawed establishment masquerading as a church of believers that caters to and sets forth a virulent orthodoxy. Scorn me if you will, but I defy anyone to produce the biblical tenets that would prove me wrong – and name calling doesn't count. It is a sad commentary that there exist people who are able to find solace in such a community, because they are blinded by resentment and so easily misled."

And more: "Obama's recent announcement that it is 'with some sadness' that he and his family were resigning their membership is in many ways as troubling as the 20 years they held membership. Not just because of his numerous flawed biblical references, but because he holds views that are antithetical to the very 'Word' of God – which in and of itself calls into question the teachings of said church, but I digress. Obama and family attended the church because they found comfort and like-mindedness there – just as the thousands of other members. They installed a pastor who hydrated them with bitterness from the well of resentment, while the congregants joyously lapped it up. They invite speakers who conjugate their contempt for reality. If President Bush were to attend the same church that Klansman David Duke attended, he would be justifiably and unmercifully castigated. When one walks into the public domain of elected office, his personal associations are necessarily open to scrutiny. Obama can wrap his resignation from Trinity in a cloak of 'it's because of the media,' but that doesn't explain his being there for 20 years. Further undermining Obama's argument of not agreeing with all that was taught there is his association with Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger – both of whom he called close spiritual advisers, mentors and close personal friends. Added to his closest circle of friends is Bill Ayres and wife Bernadine Dorhn, who along with their domestic terrorist group Weather Underground were responsible for 24 bombings that included Harvard and MIT."

My response: Being a Chicagoan, I'm fairly familiar with Father Pfleger, who is a well-known priest here. While I strongly disagree with his comment that "America is the greatest sin against God" (more so than most of the world's totalitarian regimes, countries that restrict religious freedom, and places like Mauritania and Sudan that enslave black folks to this day?!) and other views expressed in that guest sermon before Trinity not long ago, he was on point about Sen. Hillary Clinton's sense of white entitlement to the Democratic nomination.