So, I have been ignoring the Wright 'controversy' in here...

[jakem]

as I assumed it would just be just another Clinton manufactured debate,
but what exactly is the problem with someone saying that some people should or would say "God damn America?"


Don't every one of you say that every time you turn on the news? or walk down an urban street?

[better tomorrow]

1. I ignored it until I made this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7irdvIQmTA

and now I feel better......

[babylonsister]

3. One correction; hope someone backs me up on this.

First, good video! I have no clue how to do that, so I'm impressed!

The first shot of McCain hugging a preacherman you identified as Hagee; I think it's Falwell. Just an FYI. I don't know if it's possible to correct...

[better tomorrow]

5. thanks. If you don't tell anyone, I won't....

I just googled McCain Hagee and that photo came up in images. They are both just as bad....

[better tomorrow]

7. you are right. I will correct it... THANKS!

making the videos is easy. Just use Movie Maker. It comes with Windows.

[Window]

20. That is quite moving.

Thank you for sharing that.



Peace:thumbsup:

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. The problem is the electorate. Obama is not running for president of DU n/t

[jakem]

21. you cant preside over anarchy...

[Fredda Weinberg]

23. Viva la DU! n/t

[Coexist]

4. I would venture to suggest that a United States Marine has earned the right to say

God damn America if he/she wants (not to say that others can't, of course).

[Bake]

32. Sure he has the right to say it!

Nice straw man.

Wright has the right to say anything he wants to, regardless of whether he is an ex-Marine or conscientious objector. He has that right under the First Amendment.

Other Americans have the right, as well, to be offended by his remarks, and to refuse to vote for someone who tacitly endorses or at minimum subsidizes those remarks.

Bake

[Apollo11]

6. So you disagree with Barack Obama

who has distanced himself from the opinions and statements expressed by Rev. Wright.

I mean, this guy was only his personal mentor and source of spiritual guidance and inspiration.

There is no way that Barack could have known that Wright was outside of the mainstream.

We can't expect Obama to know what the pastor is saying at the church he attends.

[jakem]

8. Is this really troubling to you?

As a politician, saying 'god damn america' would be foolish.
Agreeing personally might be sensible.

Who is arguing that church sermons are literal?! Religious speakers use the context and emotion of the moment to make a point.
Religious leaders have significantly less obligation to guard their choice of words.

[elleng]

11. jakem, thanks.

A fair number here appear to be 'troubled' by this, and some appear to be enjoying and/or fomenting the dusruption. SO, please keep talking! This group really should cool down, if we're gonna get anywhere in November.

[leftynyc]

28. You say that like

trashing Christian ministries isn't an everyday occurance around here.

[elleng]

31. Unfortunately,

it appears that there is a lot of trashing, of all sorts, going on here. I want it to stop.

[EffieBlack]

18. Religious leaders have been preaching fire and damnation for centuries

and calling on God to damn all manner of people for all manner of wrongs.

Ministers - and others, especially politicians - call on God to bless this country when we go into battle, which means, of course that they want God to either damn or at least not bless the country we're fighting with so that we can kill more of their people than they do of ours.

So why, all of a sudden, is it an OUTRAGE that a minister has said "God damn America?"

Hypocrisy at best. At worst, we all know what it is.

[Apollo11]

22. To me - "Religious leaders" is a contradiction.

They are all making a living out of spreading lies and BS like life after death, etc.

But Barack seems to think this guy is worth listening too, for the past 20 years at least.

Now, suddenly, Barack Obama says he disagrees with some of the things that Wright has been saying.

Apparently you think Obama should have ignored the critics and defended Wright's remarks.

[jakem]

24. your problem seem to be with religion, which i understand completely.

But politically, I think Obama did exactly the right thing. He created distance from the comment, but not his social-spiritual community.
For him to denounce Wright as a person, would have been the height of hypocrisy. He did the right thing.


There is a concept in religion called skillful means. This entails using the power of words and ideas to move another individual spiritually, but the context of the moment is essential to the effect and the intent.


There is a Zen saying, "if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him." In religion, not all comments are to be taken literally or in all situations.


They are trying to make mountains out of Moses here...

[EffieBlack]

9. The problem is not that someone said it . . .

the problem is that someone is a black man.

White folks can damn America all they want- after all it's THEIR country and they have every right to say whatever they choose about it. But how DARE this uppity black man get mad at this country for what it has done over the years and how DARE he express his anger and how DARE Barack Obama not storm out of the church when he heard a black man express anger.

True colors are showing and they ain't pretty.

[elleng]

12. Thanks,

EffieBlack.

[Terry_M]

10. It's a media manufactured circus

Not because of a conspiracy, but because they have nothing better to do with real investigative journalism being pretty much dead on the big networks.

[Captain Hilts]

13. No. The United States is not George W. Bush. nt

[jakem]

14. I disagree.

America is George Bush more than it was John Kerry.

America is as America does.

We are a bully, a political and economic tyrant. An exporter of some of the best and worst ideas ever conceived.




We collectively fail to see that a country is not it's people. Many on DU condemn 'the Chinese' for everything that happens in China, well, welcome to the other side of the coin. I will not say God damn Americans... but God Damn, America.

I say it with disgust and love for this country. A country that has done and can do better.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. Problem: Black Folks Are Angry

Solution: Call them racists.

See? Easy, right?

[Saturday]

16. Candidate BO denounced the words. Ask him. nt

[jasmine621]

17. Your assumptions speak volumes about you. Pretty slick. nt

[jakem]

19. volumes? lol.

what, that i am bored by the clintons smear tactics?

that the primaries have gone on long enough, and she should 'suspend her campaign?'


didnt think i was being 'slick,' just reporting my thinking. feel free to disagree with something more than snark.

[Tatiana]

25. I said it when we invaded Iraq. n/t

[Sweet Pea]

26. Nope.

Don't every one of you say that every time you turn on the news? or walk down an urban street?

Maybe you hate this country and what it offers the world, maybe you say "God damn the US" as soon as you wake up and just before you close your eyes and every chance inbetween. Maybe you believe the government created the aids virus and used the CIA to deal drugs. Maybe you believe ALL those things that Wright said.

I don't.

My streets are clean and safe and have families of every race and nationality and color happily coexisting. We don't feel a need to split this country apart by race, which maybe you and Rev Wright do. We don't need to look to the government as a scapegoat when stupid people (drug users) are taken advantage of by stupid people (drug pushers). Maybe you and Rev Wright do.

I don't.

I could continue, but its obvious you hate this country.

I don't

[jakem]

27. WTF. you are perpetuating an absurd concept.

"hating" what America stands for for some people does not = "I hate America"



kind of like I can say that some DU members have their head up their asses, and I cant stand the idiocy on the GDP, but I dont hate DU...



And if you dont think the CIA is involved in drugs, you need to do some extracurricular reading...

[Sweet Pea]

34. You're right.....

some here on DU *do* have their heads up their rectums.

And I'm not the one who said "Don't EVERY ONE OF YOU say that every time....", projecting that as an absolute on everyone on DU.

And to accuse me of perpetuating an absurd concept when it is you who are saying everyone on DU wakes up and says God Damn America! as the natural matter of course is the height of absurdity and inanity.

Take your hatred elsewhere - where your head is would be fine.

[The Night Owl]

29. LOL! Good luck running on the "God damn America" platform! {EOM}

[jakem]

30. i am not running, neither is Wright.

[elixir]

33. No, I don't say God Damn America. I get pissed at situations and players but not the country.

do you blame america for what certain people have done?

"In major address, Obama condemns comments from his longtime pastor, but says, 'I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.'"