Note updates at the end of the post
**
From ABC News.com via Kathryn Lopez:
Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."
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."
An
ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by
the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he
described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black
Americans.
"The
government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a
three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no,
no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people,"
he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens
as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she
is God and she is supreme."
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.
"We
have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South
Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done
overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's
chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
Sen.
Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of
Rev. Wright's 9/11 sermon. "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and
without justification," Obama said in a recent interview. "It sounds
like he was trying to be provocative," Obama told the paper.
Rev.
Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and
loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing
traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.
"I wouldn't call it radical. I call it being black in America," said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.
Me: What does it say about a person (Obama) who has willingly sat under a man preaching such views for such a long time? And who has furthermore called him a friend and mentor and guide? To me it says a lot. Spooky. Note: I previously blogged about Obama's pastor here. - For Victor Davis Hanson's comments, keep reading.
Victor Davis Hanson says:
I recently listened to, and read from, various disgusting excerpts of Rev. (“God damn America!”) Wright, the Obama pastor and his Ward Churchill-like “chickens coming home to roost” rhetoric.
The problem is that he is not simply a well-meaning black pastor, sounding themes of African-American self-improvement. His loopy references about the past, and the many sins of a white racist America, coupled with his promiscuous use of slurs about other races and religions, (and his own country), put him clearly in the camp of extremists. In other words, he is a nut, and the more Obama’s tries to pooh-pooh that, the worse it gets. Most who could sit through those diatribes and venom each week might find it difficult to have a balanced view of so-called “white” people or the country at large.I’m surprised that Obama has not dealt with the issue more forcefully, since the Rev. will become a media fixation. And, given his temperament and zest for attention, he will delight reporters and journalists with weekly doses of his gratuitous slanders. And it won’t do to suggest that such worry is “guilt by association” or that Rev. Wright is analogous to other controversial religious figures endorsing other candidates. Wright baptized the Obama children; Obama belongs to and attends his church and has listened in the past without objection to these extremist sermons; and he took his “Audacity of Hope” book title from a Wright lecture. In that incestuous context, Obama’s weak disclaimer, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial, " is as disingenuous and ‘old politics’ as they come. (more. . . )
Updates 3/15/08:
- Rush Limbaugh's transcript from his program 3/14/08 can be found here.
- In general, the media is not reporting the story. Tim Graham via Kathryn Jean Lopez:
A Nexis search of network transcript shows that up until now, Obama's church and ministers have been barely mentioned — and usually as an Obama defense mechanism.
Up until this week, NBC has done nothing. CBS has devoted about a minute to controversy in a February 28 CBS Evening News story. ABC's Jake Tapper offered Obama's church-and-minister defense three times in November and December.
Update 3/15/08 - Today The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Ronald Kessler which takes another look at the ultra-radical, anti-American positions taken by Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is worth quoting in full:
In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama's longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president.
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."
Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."
His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."
Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."
Considering this view of America, it's not surprising that in December Mr. Wright's church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. "His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening," Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest."
After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright's church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.
Instead, Mr. Obama said, "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree." Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright's church out of the church's offices, and Mr. Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
Meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Feb. 24, Mr. Obama described Mr. Wright as being like "an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." He rarely mentions the points of disagreement.
Mr. Obama went on to explain Mr. Wright's anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state's support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his previous claim that his church gave the award to Mr. Farrakhan because of his work with ex-offenders, Mr. Obama appears to have made that up.
Neither the presentation of the award nor the Trumpet article about the award mentions ex-offenders, and Mr. Wright's statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way. Mr. Obama nonetheless told the Jewish leaders that the award to Mr. Farrakhan "showed a lack of sensitivity to the Jewish community." That is an understatement.
As for Mr. Wright's repeated comments blaming America for the 9/11 attacks because of what Mr. Wright calls its racist and violent policies, Mr. Obama has said it sounds as if the minister was trying to be "provocative."
Hearing Mr. Wright's venomous and paranoid denunciations of this country, the vast majority of Americans would walk out. Instead, Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle have presumably sat through numerous similar sermons by Mr. Wright.
Indeed, Mr. Obama has described Mr. Wright as his "sounding board" during the two decades he has known him. Mr. Obama has said he found religion through the minister in the 1980s. He joined the church in 1991 and walked down the aisle in a formal commitment of faith.
The title of Mr. Obama's bestseller "The Audacity of Hope" comes from one of Wright's sermons. Mr. Wright is one of the first people Mr. Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. He prayed privately with Mr. Wright before announcing his candidacy last year.
Mr. Obama obviously would not choose to belong to Mr. Wright's church and seek his advice unless he agreed with at least some of his views. In light of Mr. Wright's perspective, Michelle Obama's comment that she feels proud of America for the first time in her adult life makes perfect sense.
Much as most of us would appreciate the symbolism of a black man ascending to the presidency, what we have in Barack Obama is a politician whose closeness to Mr. Wright underscores his radical record.
The media have largely ignored Mr. Obama's close association with Mr. Wright. This raises legitimate questions about Mr. Obama's fundamental beliefs about his country. Those questions deserve a clearer answer than Mr. Obama has provided so far.
Mr. Kessler, a former Wall Street Journal and Washington Post reporter, is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com and the author of "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack" (Crown Forum, 2007).
I have made additional posts on Rev. Jeremiah Wright here and here .