Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11

[HAL 9000 96]

oooohhhhhhhhhh...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Right to trash the nation and be racist against someone white. The issue is that if Hillary innocently sat next to someone who supports the KKK, they would have burned her on the stake for it; As they did with that Ferraro lady for speaking the truth and exercising her right.

Since Wrights hates the white man, America, Europe etc so much I have two questions for him.

1. Why doesn't he go back to wherever he came from? since the white man is so evil.

2. Why is it that every second person from that continent is dying to get into our countries? I bet there are millions of people who are willing to switch places with him, from Africa, and come live in America.

I am getting tired of that prevalent attitude by people of the black American community.

Here we go...

As I said to you, numerous times - its one thing to make statements like this as a member of a group that has been historically repressed, and is still dealing with the lingering social consequences of that today. Its another to make comments as a member of a group that has political power (and has always had it) and is preaching the rhetoric of "superiority" and justifying the social order that supports the past and continued repression of the other group.

Also. Once again. The Ferraro lady was not speaking any "truth". Should she have stepped down for it? Arguable - but then again HC did say (clearly) she didn't agree with what she said. Just as BO has said he disagrees with the controversial comments this pastor has made. Where's the problem?

[Heracles 417]

Here we go...

As I said to you, numerous times - its one thing to make statements like this as a member of a group that has been historically repressed, and is still dealing with the lingering social consequences of that today. Its another to make comments as a member of a group that has political power (and has always had it) and is preaching the rhetoric of "superiority" and justifying the social order that supports the past and continued repression of the other group.

yawn. Heard your rhetoric about these suppressed communities before. I think you want them to keep on fighting. As you want people in the poor inner US city communities to stay poor. Because if you did care about them you would be talking about getting them out of their situation rather than pandering to their views of someone else or event is to blame for their situation.

Also. Once again. The Ferraro lady was not speaking any "truth". Should she have stepped down for it? Arguable - but then again HC did say (clearly) she didn't agree with what she said. Just as BO has said he disagrees with the controversial comments this pastor has made. Where's the problem?

20 years is a long time to disagree with somebody. Hillary heard the comments and immediately distanced herself. If I heard you speak at a venue I would be out of there in under a minute. Let alone 20 years later.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Right to trash the nation and be racist against someone white. The issue is that if Hillary innocently sat next to someone who supports the KKK, they would have burned her on the stake for it; As they did with that Ferraro lady for speaking the truth and exercising her right.

Since Wrights hates the white man, America, Europe etc so much I have two questions for him.

1. Why doesn't he go back to wherever he came from? since the white man is so evil.

2. Why is it that every second person from that continent is dying to get into our countries? I bet there are millions of people who are willing to switch places with him, from Africa, and come live in America.

I am getting tired of that prevalent attitude by people of the black American community.

word

[no name 1]

(CNN) — Barack Obama's Chicago minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is under fresh scrutiny, after an ABC News report Thursday shed light on some of his controversial sermons.

In one delivered last December, Wright argues Hillary Clinton's road to the White House is considerably easier than Barack Obama's because of his skin color.

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube.

"Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a '***!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person," a fiery Wright also says. How is this any different from what Gerry said?

Wright, who retired from his post earlier this year, also is seen saying in the video, "Who cares about what a poor black man has to face every day in a country and in a culture controlled by rich white people?"

Wright's sermon shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks is also under scrutiny, during which he said America had brought on the attacks with its own practice of 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," he says. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas has now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Obama and Wright have long been close. Obama has been a member of Wright's church since his days in law school, and Obama's bestselling book, The Audacity of Hope, takes its title from one of Wright's sermons. Wright also married the Obamas and baptized their two children.

But Obama has long maintained he is at odds with some of Wright's sermons, and has likened him to an "old uncle" who sometimes will say things he doesn't agree with. He has also specifically denounced Wright's 9/11 comments.

An Obama campaign spokesman also said Thursday the Illinois senator "deplores divisive statements whether they come from his supporters, the supporters of his opponent, talk radio, or anywhere else."

UPDATE: Speaking with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Obama said, "I profoundly disagree with some of these statements."

"Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe," he also said.

link

Edited March 14, 2008 by illumine

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

yawn. Heard your rhetoric about these suppressed communities before. I think you want them to keep on fighting. As you want people in the poor inner US city communities to stay poor. Because if you did care about them you would be talking about getting them out of their situation rather than pandering to their views of someone else or event is to blame for their situation.

No I'm not talking about suppressed communities - I'm talking about social inequalities between ethnic groups. Inequalities which can be quantified, observed and measured.

As to whether I "care" - aren't you being just a little unfair here? This is simply a discussion on a message board, why do I get singled out for not doing anything - just because I make a comment that you don't agree with? Perhaps I should ask what you're doing to change poverty and "victim society" - or perhaps that is simply irrelevant to the mode of this discourse?

Also. Once again. The Ferraro lady was not speaking any "truth". Should she have stepped down for it? Arguable - but then again HC did say (clearly) she didn't agree with what she said. Just as BO has said he disagrees with the controversial comments this pastor has made. Where's the problem?

20 years is a long time to disagree with somebody. Hillary heard the comments and immediately distanced herself. If I heard you speak at a venue I would be out of there in under a minute. Let alone 20 years later.

I have relatives and friends who have some pretty far out ideas - politically. Should I not talk to them anymore simply because I disagree with some of their beliefs?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

In one delivered last December, Wright argues Hillary Clinton's road to the White House is considerably easier than Barack Obama's because of his skin color.

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube.

"Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a '***!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person," a fiery Wright also says. How is this any different from what Gerry said?

Yeah I read that. No it isn't very different - but in context he isn't actually looking at HCs current campaign success and then saying that this is due mostly to her gender.

What should BO though? He's already said he doesn't agree with this guy's more controversial comments, and the pastor is already retired.

I mean... should charges be brought?

[no name 1]

In one delivered last December, Wright argues Hillary Clinton's road to the White House is considerably easier than Barack Obama's because of his skin color.

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube.

"Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a '***!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person," a fiery Wright also says. How is this any different from what Gerry said?

Yeah I read that. No it isn't very different - but in context he isn't actually looking at HCs current campaign success and then saying that this is due mostly to her gender.

What should BO though? He's already said he doesn't agree with this guy's more controversial comments, and the pastor is already retired.

I mean... should charges be brought?

well, he said it's easier for her because she's white. And he threw out reverse racism which is just as bad.

He's not on his campaign but as a religious role model and one who likely shaped part of O's ideologies, he's going to continue to get scrutinized.

The pastor may be retired but I doubt he will go quietly....

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well sure - but what is BO supposed to do?

You can only say "I don't agree with this" so many times.

What people seem to be doing here is trying to make the case that BO is some sort of extremist religious nut, because he goes to a church and is friends with a pastor who says controversial things in a heated way that he must somehow agree with everything the man says.

Simple fairness would suggest some benefit of the doubt. Surely.

[Heracles 417]

As to whether I "care" - aren't you being just a little unfair here? This is simply a discussion on a message board, why do I get singled out for not doing anything - just because I make a comment that you don't agree with? Perhaps I should ask what you're doing to change poverty and "victim society" - or perhaps that is simply irrelevant to the mode of this discourse?

...

I have relatives and friends who have some pretty far out ideas - politically. Should I not talk to them anymore simply because I disagree with some of their beliefs?

I understand what you are saying and to an extent agree with you. But I have always been a person who believes in moving on and figuring out how to help these people out. Some communities just do not understand that as long as they keep that attitude up, they will be forever be caught in a trench warfare style blame game.

Yes but being friends and attending a venue where someone speaks is two completely different things. This pastor needs to go back to school to learn that a church service is not the place for him to discus his political views. Either is preaching hate towards others or saying GD. Wright reminds me of someone using Islam to justify violence against others. When in reality he is the one and not the religion who wants violence.

Edited March 14, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Peikko 1,575]

Does anyone think it would help if polls were conducted without the breakdown into all these groupings? I can't help but feel that somehow, these polls that suggest things like 'white males under 35 vote in X way' do a disservice to the general will of society to treat everyone equally regardless of race/gender/income? and to an extent age, although that is less politically sensitive for the most part.

I know some will argue that the candidates need this information, but I disagree. Campaign on the politics and get the voters behind you, regardless of who they are or where they come from.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I understand what you are saying and to an extent agree with you. But I have always been a person who believes in moving on and figuring out how to help these people out. Some communities just do not understand that as long as they keep that attitude up, they will be forever be caught in a trench warfare style blame game.

Then how are you "helping"?

[SpiritAlight 1]

Obama's Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Has a History of What Even Obama's Campaign Aides Say Is 'Inflammatory Rhetoric'

By BRIAN ROSS and REHAB EL-BURI

March 13, 2008

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.

"He has impacted the life of Barack Obama so much so that he wants to portray that feeling he got from Rev. Wright onto the country because we all need something positive," said another member of the congregation.

Rev. Wright, who declined to be interviewed by ABC News, is considered one of the country's 10 most influential black pastors, according to members of the Obama campaign.

Obama has praised at least one aspect of Rev. Wright's approach, referring to his "social gospel" and his focus on Africa, "and I agree with him on that."

Sen. Obama declined to comment on Rev. Wright's denunciations of the United States, but a campaign religious adviser, Shaun Casey, appearing on "Good Morning America" Thursday, said Obama "had repudiated" those comments.

In a statement to ABCNews.com, Obama's press spokesman Bill Burton said, "Sen. Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they're offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church. Sen. Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn't detract from Sen. Obama's affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done."

link

Well the reverend certainly says a lot here.

It is up to each person to believe what they want....as always.

How could anyone get someone to change their mind by simply asking?

Hmmmm...

And how could some remarks from anyone get someone all riled up if they are "comfortable in their own skin"?

(meaning they know they are living a fully compassionate and non-judgmental life as mush as humanly possible amongst other things)

As to whether I "care" - aren't you being just a little unfair here? This is simply a discussion on a message board, why do I get singled out for not doing anything - just because I make a comment that you don't agree with? Perhaps I should ask what you're doing to change poverty and "victim society" - or perhaps that is simply irrelevant to the mode of this discourse?

...

I have relatives and friends who have some pretty far out ideas - politically. Should I not talk to them anymore simply because I disagree with some of their beliefs?

I understand what you are saying and to an extent agree with you. But I have always been a person who believes in moving on and figuring out how to help these people out. Some communities just do not understand that as long as they keep that attitude up, they will be forever be caught in a trench warfare style blame game.

Yes but being friends and attending a venue where someone speaks is two completely different things. This pastor needs to go back to school to learn that a church service is not the place for him to discus his political views. Either is preaching hate towards others or saying GD. Wright reminds me of someone using Islam to justify violence against others. When in reality he is the one and not the religion who wants violence.

YES!

And the political office is no realm to discuss religion and view points on gods.

Edited March 14, 2008 by SpiritAlight

[HAL 9000 96]

In one delivered last December, Wright argues Hillary Clinton's road to the White House is considerably easier than Barack Obama's because of his skin color.

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube.

"Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a '***!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person," a fiery Wright also says. How is this any different from what Gerry said?

Yeah I read that. No it isn't very different - but in context he isn't actually looking at HCs current campaign success and then saying that this is due mostly to her gender.

What should BO though? He's already said he doesn't agree with this guy's more controversial comments, and the pastor is already retired.

I mean... should charges be brought?

I just think it amusing how we forget our own history to even tie that in to yet another smear attempt.

[no name 1]

Well sure - but what is BO supposed to do?

You can only say "I don't agree with this" so many times.

What people seem to be doing here is trying to make the case that BO is some sort of extremist religious nut, because he goes to a church and is friends with a pastor who says controversial things in a heated way that he must somehow agree with everything the man says.

Simple fairness would suggest some benefit of the doubt. Surely.

Since O grew up listening to him & attending his church - some of his rhetoric *may* have rubbed off on his congregants, no?

Something to think about.