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The real problem is not Rev. Wright's comments. The real problem is that he mentioned things that America is not ready to face but that America herself would damn any other country for. Killing and enslaving Africans for a free work force, slaughtering and force migrating Indians (native Americans) to steal their land, slaughtering innocent women and children in Vietnam for strategic military positioning against Russia. Slaughtering innocent Iraqi's (who never attacked us) in an unjust war for control of oil/future pipe lines and military positioning. Imagine if someone else did that instead of us. We would say "God Damn them". The fact that we want to crucify anyone who mentions it smells like Hitler's Germany to me.
When I was eleven years old there was a UNICEF fund raiser going on at the Mall. You could go out and get your sticker and collect money in your community. My Mom drove me out there to get my sticker and collection box. I went out into my neighborhood so proud to help raise funds for such a good cause. An old white lady called the cops on me. I was in the back seat of the patrol car and the policemen turned around and looked at me. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. "You're treating me like a criminal" I said. I'll never forget his answer. It happened 35 years ago but I can still here it. "Until I find out different.. you are" he didn't even didn't even bat an eye. I swear I don't think there was any recoginition in his brain that I was a scared little eleven year old black boy. That's why Sean Bell died. Even after I graduated from Harvard University and was a successful professional I still got stopped on the New Jersey TurnPike by some troopers who drew their guns, ransacked my car, told me "We know you got drugs, where are they, why are you out this late at night?". When they didn't find anything they just left. No ticket or even a goodbye. I didn't argue cause I knew they would have shot me. And later that year some young black kids who didn't understand control/authority and how to things really work in America for a Black Man did get killed.
But here's the paradox, I have great white friends who would do anything for me. I have Asian, Indian, hispanic friends who would give me the shirt off their back. I have police friends who look out for me and my family. One time a straight up redneck from the backwoods of Virginia help me get my car out of a ditch. He was splattered with mud when we finished but had nothing but a smile on his face and a handshake from his heart. Maybe it's God Bless America and God Damn America at the same time :o) Hey.. I don't know.. I love this country....for better or worse.. It's way more complex than anyone can possibly explain in words. And.. no pun intended it's not just black and white. There is a whole lot of grey area.

What about Bush's peculiar brand of Christianity. Kill 500,000 human beings (Iraqi's and other Muslims) for control of oil and military strategic positioning. What about Bush's peculiar brand of patriotism. Suspend habeus corpus and due process and leaving human beings (Americans who were victims of Katrina)to fend for themselves.

It is sad in America that you can not have a different name without being villified. In the land of the free and home of the brave; free speech, religion and free not to have religion. But to be president you have to be white desent (totally) and catholic! However, no one has said anything about Rev. Hage and the likes who call catholic whores, New Orleans should have been washed away, Gays deserve to died...but I guess that is okay as long as the ministers are white and the candidate is white.

I went to the link and your right...He sounds great..

I have a question I have not seen or read an answer...
If Obama is a christian, why the Muslim name??
Why is he ashame of Hussain as his middle name. I think he still is a Muslim as he cannot change back to his Christian name without a major backlash from his Black Muslim friends..His church is 90% Muslim...Why try to be Christians without the Baptisum as required to be a christian.
Obama has always said his children are Baptised Christians...He has never said this about him. As this will be a major problem for him

Is Wright an albatross around the neck of Obama? Only if he lets it be. He absolutely must distance himself from this man, uncle/friend or not, and the teachings he espouses. If he does not, then it is over for Obama.

We cannot have a president who hangs with this crowd. Never, not in a lifetime.

If Barack wants a new world, then he must be change he espouses. He must take the step for the change..from hate to what our country really stands for. If he cannot do this, he cannot be strong enough to lead us.

Cannot.

Either you all have swallowed every word your pastor has ever said to you, or you've never gone to church.

I've been a member of a church that, theologically, didn't believe that women should be pastors. Jim and Ben, I think you know how I feel about that sort of nonsense! But I stayed because I was part of a mentorship program that was doing amazing things with youth of the inner city, and was wisely indoctrination-free. Going to judge me as harshly as you're judging Obama?

Let me put this another way. I had the privilege to become close friends with someone whose family lives in South Carolina, in an area and culture where the n-word is not only used, but used in every other sentence. Racism is rampant there - true racism, the kind that is so sickeningly sincere I wanted to throw up every time I visited this family. Yet, they were very good people in other aspects of their lives, and I think a certain amount of grace must be given them on the basis of the fact that they'd never experienced anything else besides racism. Now, just because It seems to be necessary, I'll clarify : I don't condone their racism. AT ALL. But at the end of the day, my friend still loved his family, despite disagreeing wholeheartedly with their racist views.

Again, I ask - will you judge my friend for still loving his family, if not their ideas? At the end of the day, a church is about people - with all their failings and faults. Of course this is political hay, but I ask again, what gives you the right to judge? If someone says they disagree with their church, then my guess is, they probably do.

I don't want to mischaracterize the arguments of my opponents, but I think I'm hearing something here and I want to raise the issue:

Are we to believe that a cynical embrace and exploitation of wrongheaded religious thinking -- a'la McCain and Hagee, Bush and Bob Jones -- is somehow preferable to a genuine embrace of wrongheaded religious thinking, a'la (supposedly) Obama and Wright?

Wouldn't both be wrong?

Or are we trying to draw somewhat-artificial distinctions to make the other guy's embrace of wrongheaded thinking somehow worse? I suspect I know the answer to that.

So called leaders who represent the religious right of the Republican party have spewed as much nonsense as any Obama's pastor has. Spare us the moral outrage ye hypocrites. (Jesus mentioned hypocracy in one form or another over 22 times in the New Testament).

thanks for the response Ben..I agree with your idea of taxability, they should at the very least be paying land taxes..I still would like to have this so called church reported however so they can make their "donation".. kind of a hate tax you could call it..
I think that there is enough negativity in our society without this kind of hate being spewed.. egad..this is the KKK in reverse. American needs to "clean" up if we are going to survive and it has to start by banning any kind of hate organization and I mean getting actively involved in searching out and banning these low life scum that pollute every level of our society under the guise of religion and "clubs" and brotherhoods etc.
I posted my thoughts about this church and Mr. Wright..(wrong)..on another blog site.. and I had an offer from an African American lady I had been bantering with and she offered to send me tapes that were ten times worse than Wright.. she said.."I live in the Bible belt" and so I can send you tapes that would make Wright look like an angel".. What is this saying about so called "Christian" churches in this country..hate mongering and slandering people under the roof of a church does not make it acceptable. When are we as a people going to take some kind of action as a responsible society to rid ourselves of this kind of rhetoric and damaging pandering and slandering? I am not talking about personal affront I am talking about legislating and fining and finding ways to change the attitudes of hate mongers..the blind sheep that follow for they know not why..
I am so tired of the moronic mind set of ignorant people in our society.. tired of the dumbing down, tired of the negativity.. We live in the most advantageous country in the world..it's time to lift ourselves out of the gutters and start behaving like civilized intelligent citizens who actually love our country instead of idiots that are trying to destroy it. With some of these attitudes that exist today we don't even need terrorists.. we will destroy it ourselves.

No, it really isn't about religion. It's about ideology in religious garb, however. I'm sympathetic to this analysis by The Anchoress:

These are not “racist” or “sexist” gambits being played by Wright... but appeals to emotion, and appeals to emotion are too often used to gloss over a lack of substance, or so I have been told by my correspondents on the left, lo these many years, as they accuse the GOP of governing on “fear,” (because terrorism is not a real threat).

And while the victim card appeals to emotions, it tends to noisily set off rage in those who listen and perceive themselves as being identified as the “enemy.” So everyone gets emotional, everyone starts yelling, and no one is listening or making any sense.

The victim card is an odd card to play in a presidential race; victimhood in and of itself seems like a strange theme for either presidential candidate to embrace. “Vote for me; I’m the bigger victim and this qualifies me to…” what, exactly, lead the wailing?
Maybe if the next president can say to Al Qaeda, “don’t fly into our buildings or bomb our subways, because I’ve been ill-treated by the man,” our enemies will put away all their flight manuals and bomb-belts and the world will finally “live as one,” yeah… that’s the ticket!

As for Trinity's tax status, Professor Bainbridge tackles the question here.

Jim writes:

This matters, Monica. A lot. Everything Obama says on the stump is the complete opposite of the teachings of his "spiritual mentor." He's either lying to himself when he enters the church, or lying to the American people when he exits. I'll place my bets on the latter.

I mean no disrespect, Jim, but I believe you place your bets on the latter in part because it is advantageous, politically, to do so.

In my experience, lots of people walk through the church door without being 100 percent in agreement with what they find inside. They do this for a variety of reasons: To maintain appearances in the community; to make sure that children receive moral instruction; to appease a spouse; to find guidance on a search that hasn't found its object; because of habit. The list goes on and on. If you're right that this is an "either-or" situation, then let me suggest you take an uncharitable view of many Americans.

The point is not to defend Jeremiah Wright's comments. The point is, I think, that people are entitled to a little bit of grace where their religious beliefs are concerned.

Should Obama delineate where he agrees and disagrees with Wright? At this point, as a matter of pure political tactics, I think he has little choice. And Obama has, during this campaign, avoided much interaction with the press -- even Hillary Clinton has done better; it's time he start explaining what he believes and what he doesn't.

But this "either-or" business, I think, doesn't fit the experience of most people I know. Religion, for many of us, is a complicated business -- one that, in your framing of it, makes liars of nearly all of us.

I heard these clips on the radio today and that, coupled with research I've done on their website tells me this church has big problems.

Aside from the obvious problems in the sermon, what about that pledge of a non-negotiable support of the "mother land", esp. in light of Obama's dual citizenship.

This gives Christianity a bad name too.

Helium.com Home Page

What Ben has only hinted at is just how radical Obama's church really is.

The church describes itself as "unashamedly black," holds classes in "African-centered Bible study," spreads a cult-like credo called the "Black Value System," and preaches a kind of radical racially exclusive theology that contradicts the tenets of Christianity.

It is telling that the church has now taken a lot of this stuff down from the "About Us" page of its Web site. In its place, says Investors Business Daily, is an innocuous video (featuring a white man) put out by the mainstream arm of the United Church of Christ.

Obama has said that he belives "in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change." We can only presume he includes his own religious tradition in that.

Obama has called Wright his "spiritual adviser" and said of spending lots of time with him: "It was the best education I ever had." Should we not look closely, then, at what Wright teaches?

Barack and Michelle Obama were married by Wright. The reverend also baptized both of his children. Those are not-so "little details," but point to their deep admiration for Wright.

It would be nice if liberals (and the media) who howled that George Bush and John McCain would even step foot for a day on the campus of Bob Jones University would show even a smidgen of that outrage and concern about a man who has received his spiritual guidance from a radical like Wright for 20-plus years.

This matters, Monica. A lot. Everything Obama says on the stump is the complete opposite of the teachings of his "spiritual mentor." He's either lying to himself when he enters the church, or lying to the American people when he exits. I'll place my bets on the latter.

Please tell me you don't actually believe that. Is it so impossible to acknowledge that someone can go to church without endorsing the senior pastor's worldview, including every little detail? I have gone to a number of churches where I loathed the senior pastor, but stayed for many years because of other people who enriched my life. Obama has already denounced this man's particular brand of Christianity in so much as it is radical, so what's your point? Yes, this video is going to be made political hay out of, because the tabloids - I'm sorry, networks - have nothing better to do. Surely our bar is a little higher than that.