Still Waiting

According to ABC News, “Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing ‘God Bless America’ but God damn America.” Rev. Jeremiah Wright certainly has the right to express his point of view, but I have an equal right to repudiate his rhetoric, and his racism. In fact, I’m so opposed to this kind of vitriol that I refuse to attend any church that embraces such ideas. I can do this because I have the right of association, and I am free to worship God as I see fit. No one may force me to attend a church led by someone whose rhetoric is anathema to the core principles of my country’s constitution. Amazingly, in spite of Barack Obama’s entitlement to the same rights, he remains a loyal acolyte to Rev. Wright; and if he associates himself with the racism expounded by Rev. Wright, I have no confidence in Obama to lead this nation.

The ABC article continues:

“The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is ‘inflammatory rhetoric,’ including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own ‘terrorism.’”

“In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, ‘I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial.’ He said Rev. Wright ‘is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with,’ telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.”

“Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, ‘The Audacity of Hope.’” “In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism. ‘We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,’ Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.”

Scripture tells us, “We shall know them by their fruits.” Indeed, we shall. Wright’s lectures do reveal his racism, and his obvious ignorance of history. I do agree that American foreign policy is too often flawed — principally because my country is unable to produce any politician better than Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton, Durban, Byrd, Kennedy, or Murtha, but to use the final incident of World War II as an example of terrorism is not only astonishing, it is plainly, simply, and offensively unintelligent.

Mr. Obama (correctly) expects his democratic opponent to distance herself from recent comments made by former Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Feraro; my question is when can we expect Obama to distance himself from the racism of Rev. Wright? No, I don’t mean claiming the “old uncle” argument. I mean standing at the podium and categorically denouncing every racist comment Wright has made from the pulpit of a church with which Obama has a long-standing affiliation.

Still waiting . . .