Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" but When my Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero

[Hope And Change]

Frank Schaeffer


Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" but When my Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero


Posted March 16, 2008 | 04:23 PM (EST)

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.

Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.

Consider a few passages from my father's immensely influential America-bashing book A Christian Manifesto. It sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books. Nevertheless it sold more than a million copies.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-minister-committe_b_91774.html#postComment

[depakid]

1. Now that's what I'm talking about

The campaign needs to get this guy some bookings on the MSM.

[blm]

5. Hopefully - Obama campaign should use this man as a spokesperson if media ignores this.

Which is quite likely as we all know.

[DearAbby]

2. K&R

[TwilightGardener]

3. Well, his father apparently wasn't black, and didn't enjoy all of the

historic advantages and awesome power of being black in American society, so obviously his white father (and the rest of the Christian right) had a lot to complain about, and deserve our understanding. Ferraro, on the other hand, was right--look how LUCKY Obama is to be black! Shame on him, for being associated with, and responsible for, ungrateful and angry black agitators!

[Crunchy Frog]

4. K&R.

[New Dawn]

6. K&R - Republican preachers blamed 9-11 and hurricane Katrina on the American people too

Yet the corporate media does not say a damn word about that!

[boston bean]

8. That is not true, people were outraged. nt

[gabeana]

7. thank you for posting this

below is my favorite part of the article for this audience at DU, when this broke the clinaton fans (Not all) were peeing themselves with joy. Calling it treason, racism, all the while ommiting the history of the black experience. Hopefully they will feel a little shame, they won't though because its Hillary at all cost, and they call us a Cult




"Today we have a marriage of convenience between the right wing fundamentalists who hate Obama, and the "progressive" Clintons who are playing the race card through their own smear machine. As Jane Smiley writes in the Huffington Post " are, indeed, now part of the 'vast right wing conspiracy.' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/im-already-against-the-n_b_90628.html )

Both the far right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clintons are using the "scandal" of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency. Funny thing is, the racist Clinton/Far Right smear machine proves that Obama's minister had a valid point. There is plenty to yell about these days."

[sudopod]

9. You're not allowed to condemn America

for unimportant things like homeless people dying of preventable diseases. You can only hate America because it allows abortion and gay rights.

:p

[Tom Joad]

10. "The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today is my own government" ML King Jr.

We need more preachers like that, and let the "I Love The Status Quo" preachers go to hell.

[PylesMalfunction]

11. Thank you for posting this!

I am so sick of the double standard. Republicans can spew hate and they are patriotic. When Democrats point out injustice and show our anger, we hate America.

[eShirl]

12. I was surprised to see this was in GD:P (found it on the Greatest page)

it is good enough to be in GD

[FrenchieCat]

13. Triple Standards!

[NJmaverick]

14. Great stuff

Exactly what is needed to blow thing up right in the repuke's faces!

[texas_indy]

15. When did Obama's minister commit treason? Any examples of this accusation? (nt)