Barack Obama and the Audacity of Division!

By now everyone is very familiar with the situation surrounding Barack Obama, the church that he has attended for the last 20 years, the pastor (Jeremiah Wright) that has presided over that church and who has played an influential role in Barack Obama’s life as a mentor.

The media has been buzzing the last several days over this and the quotes by Reverend Wright have been on the talk radio shows, the cable television networks, and even in some newspapers (although they may be buried in the back thanks to a little liberal bias).

The comments by Reverend Wright are disturbing. The hate America first mentality, the support for Louis Farrakhan a racist and antisemitic, the support for anti-American and anti-Israeli governments like Libya and Syria, the racist terminology toward white people and Jews, it’s all shocking to many Americans, myself included.

So Barack Obama chose to respond today with a speech, here is an excerpt that stuck out to me:

“Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.” - Barack Obama on his 20 year relationship with controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Sorry Mr. Obama, but that doesn’t cut it! You spent 20 years in this church listening to this pastor spew hatred, racism, anti-Americanism, and to simply shrug it off as a simple disagreement that everyone can relate to in their pastor, priest, or rabbi is insulting.

As someone who is a regular church attendee, I can tell you that I would be out the door looking for a new church in an instant if these kind of hateful ideas was being preached. The many hateful comments from Reverend Wright have nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I would hope that anyone who is attending a church is aware of the theological positions of their church and is actively using their brain when it comes to evaluating sermons by their pastor, positions taken by the church. You would assume that everyone who is a member is on the same page. You don’t actively participate in a church family without knowing the message and mission of that body of believers.

Obviously there are going to be some disagreements from time to time within a church body over minor theological positions or methods and programs. One can disagree over whether or not Vacation Bible School should be this week or that, or whether or not the church should start a contemporary worship service. These issues are minor though! If you disagree with the major positions at a church, you find a different church!

The anti-American, racist, views held by Reverend Wright are major positions! How can you draw any other conclusions after hearing these disgusting statements? Barack Obama did not simply get an endorsement from Reverend Wright. No, he has had a 20-year relationship with Reverend Wright. Barack Obama has endorsed Reverend Wright and his views by being a member of his church for the last 20 years! He calls him a mentor, and I don’t know of anyone who has a mentor with whom they fundamentally disagree on major issues like this!

Barack Obama has not distanced himself from this ideology, and I don’t think he can. 20 years at a church is a long time. It would be hard pressed for anyone to believe that after 20 years in a congregation, in a church family, you had no idea about these major positions of hate. Why would you not distance yourself from them by leaving the church unless you at least passively agreed with them. This is simply inexcusable and is painting a different picture of Barack Obama whom many considered to be above this sort of racial division.

*Now, I’ve heard all sorts of people saying things like, “What about the messages of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, or John Hagee? Don’t they preach hate toward gays? Don’t they blame America? Don’t they preach intolerance?”

Quickly let me debunk this rhetoric. First, I don’t know of any presidential candidates that were members of the congregations where these men have been preaching for the last 20 years. Second, the argument that speaking out against a behavior (homosexuality) has any comparisons to racism is ignorant. Third, there is a distinct difference between hateful speech, and constructive speech. Most of these pastors seem to believe in the goodness of traditional America and its values. They may preach against deviating from these values, but they don’t preach hatred toward America. Reverend Wright’s words are the exact opposite.