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I will be the first to admit that Rev. Wright, if one is chiefly concerned about how he makes Obama looks, for sure says things that would make one cringe (even me), but these are not Obama's words. And that is the bad part about this whole current fabricated situation.
Just to let you know, my husband is a minister and also the assistant to the pastor of our church, which is very similar to TUCC, as it is a large church 5,000 strong in a poor predominately Black community. The church is specifically located in that community because those are the people that need the help. Unlike Prosperity Churches that spend money on flashy CDs and programs and cushy chairs, and are oftentimes located in affluent neighborhoods, our church spends the tithes collected on the poorest in the community of which it is part of.
My Pastor, by some, could be judged as having quite the ego in some ways, as he has been head of our church for a long time, and he is 75 years old. The fact that he has had to run the church with a strong hand forces a bit of that. Churches can be real Peyton places, and my pastor tolerates very little nonsense. But his congregation loves this man, and reveres and respects him and strokes that ego quite a bit. The older ladies bring him gifts of food, and praises, and many of the Deacons and Deaconesses are quite in awe of him (he cared for his invalid wife for years before she recently passed away). The young people look up to him, much as they would their high school principal, but with more love.
and so, like Rev. Wright, my Pastor has earned respect and recognition for his good work...like building up our church to now have three wings and a Family Life Center (where all types of events like plays, and dinners are held). The church has a Prison Ministry, an AIDs' ministry (Bono was at our church last year), a charitable foundation in his wife's name that gives to African Causes, needy food banks, senior assisted living residences (that stretch for two blocks), scholarship help for teens, afterschool youth programs, and much more. He famously bought land from the Black Panthers years ago in order to expand the church. Governor Arnold the Terminator put him on the board of trustee of California Colleges a couple of years ago. Barbara Lee calls him her mentor, and she, in fact, wrote the preface in one of his books. Our pastor has traveled all over the world (he spoke at the U.N. against Apartheid, and spoke at Oxford just last summer), written six books and met with many dignitaries.
I will tell you that as much as my husband and our pastor have spent much time together and conversed, they are not anything alike, although they agree on more than enough, there are enough areas in where they do not agree (my husband is quite a bit younger, so his viewpoint is different, to begin with). In fact, my husband is more conservative and reserved, while the Pastor is quite liberal and demonstrative in his outlook. They have quiet debates and discussions about God (the pastor encouraged my husband to attend seminary school and provided him with a recommendation letter)and a bit of politics, but at the end of the day, my husband doesn't come home having adopted the ways or even most of the ideas of this man, although the Pastor may have given him a passage in the Bible that he will look up. In addition, my hubby would never insist in making any forceful demands that the pastor changes how he thinks about anything, or how he communicates with others. In discussions, they might educate one another, but the Pastor is pretty much set in his own ways, and My husband is very respectful of this. As far as my husband is concerned, just like most of the rest of the flock, he considers this man his elder, and a man educated in the Bible and God.
My Pastor gives fiery sermons, very similar to Rev. Wright. He gets the Holy Ghost, and might start softly and ends up sweating by the time he's done preaching hour long sermons (which can be listened to on the radio in our area). Sometimes, some of us in the audience wishes that he wouldn't always go on and on like he sometimes does, but we sit there, and we worship and make the best of it. Oftentimes his sermons are magical (he speaks Hebrew and Greek as well), sometimes maybe not as much. But you can be sure that in the receiving line after service, no member of the church will walk up to him and shake his hand and mention that maybe he went on too long, or that he might not have needed to say this and that. In most religious cultures, that is simply not something to do. Instead, part of what the flock does is lifts the pastor up with encouragement, and praise.
By contrast, my husband, who has a Law Degree, when he speaks, is in a whole different realm, because he does not have the type of personality that would lend to him giving these "Fiery" Holy Ghost sermons. And so his sermons are more intellectually presented, and just simply different from the pastor's because his sermons are more "him". My husband chooses his own topics to preach on, does his own bible research, and writes his sermons himself (I sometimes do help him with the editing).
And so, my husband, who loves the pastor and admires him greatly, has his own set of ideas in terms of his message, as well as how he expresses himself.
I believe that Obama has a similar relationship with his pastor. Obama, I'm sure learned a lot from the pastor about God, and about the world as his Pastor might see it, and specifically about history (Pastors have a tendency to be fluent in history....probably from having written many sermons), but it wouldn't be even my husband's place (as close as he might be to the pastor every Sunday) to correct the Pastor or tell him what he should say in the church, etc....
Now that I think of it, I guess my husband could never run for public office, because...heck, our Pastor had dealing with the Black Panthers in 1979....and you know how that association chase goes.
And that is why judging the Pastor has nothing to do with Barack Obama, and that is what is wrong with this entire exercise that the media has forced upon us.
First they came for Barack, and next, they'll come for my husband, and then they'll come for me.
Maybe that's why it sickens me so.
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