The Speech

[Popeye]

Interesting take by Andrew Sullivan on Barack Obama's historic speech:

The Speech

18 Mar 2008 11:32 am

Alas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history.

And it was a reflection of faith - deep, hopeful, transcending faith in the promises of the Gospels. And it was about America - its unique promise, its historic purpose, and our duty to take up the burden to perfect this union - today, in our time, in our way.

I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

Bill Clinton once said that everything bad in America can be rectified by what is good in America. He was right - and Obama takes that to a new level. And does it with the deepest darkest wound in this country's history.

I love this country. I don't remember loving it or hoping more from it than today.

 

[Napoleon]

I think the old adage "actions speak louder than words" applies here. He can give as many race speeches as he wants and publicly claim that he wants to unite the races to solve common problems but it doesn't change the fact that he remains a loyal member of a church which dedicates all of it's efforts EXCLUSIVELY to the black community while demonizing the white community and rewarding and honoring rabid anti-semites.

 

[asur]

A pastor is not a relative. The thing with relatives is we don't choose them. They just are.

Pastors and places of worship don't work that way. You choose where you go. You listen and decide.

Obama decided to stay and worship in a black racist church.

 

[Dr.Who]

I think the old adage "actions speak louder than words" applies here. He can give as many race speeches as he wants and publicly claim that he wants to unite the races to solve common problems but it doesn't change the fact that he remains a loyal member of a church which dedicates all of it's efforts EXCLUSIVELY to the black community while demonizing the white community and rewarding and honoring rabid anti-semites.

Within the speech are the hints at what he really thinks. He has a great ability to say what everyone wants to hear. But when he actually acts (votes) he is a typical liberal with no surprises.

 

[SW85]

This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

Oy vay.

Obama is a supporter of a church that preaches an ethnocentric heresy. Wright's black liberation theology is, in no recognizable way, Christian. And if Obama is OK with it, then neither is he.

 

[Dr.Who]

Oy vay.

Obama is a supporter of a church that preaches an ethnocentric heresy. Wright's black liberation theology is, in no recognizable way, Christian. And if Obama is OK with it, then neither is he.

Right. Although I would say the problem is that it is close enough to Christianity that people would falsely recognize it as such. When one's christianity has been subverted to an ethnic or political viewpoint to that extent it is like salt that has lost it's saltiness.

 

[Pandora]

The speech made me mad, i mean it had its high points and was well spoken but he never adressed the one thing that had me so upset to start with. a race speech? i never saw so much racial devide in my life as i have since he started heavy in the race for president.

I was up in arms and i am still up in arms about the anti american statements of his pastor, his wife and even in small degree his own self. he never addressed that and I really think that is what people were more upset about than anything.

 

[Libsmasher]

Libbies are in the twilight zone. Obama's speech was pure politics, an attempt to change the subject from his racist connections - a clumsy and transparent attempted whitewash.

 

[Coyote]

It's interesting that they make such a big deal Obama's church affiliation - ignoring what Obama actually has to say - but made no such fuss about the affiliations of other candidates or current political figures with the likes of Jerry Falwell who said and supported equally bigoted views. The voices were strangely silent on that.

 

[Coyote]

i never saw so much racial devide in my life as i have since he started heavy in the race for president.

That's because we haven't had a serious black presidential contender before.

 

[Libsmasher]

It's interesting that they make such a big deal Obama's church affiliation - ignoring what Obama actually has to say - but made no such fuss about the affiliations of other candidates or current political figures with the likes of Jerry Falwell who said and supported equally bigoted views. The voices were strangely silent on that.

Back that up - what did Falwell say that is the equivalent of calling whites greedy, giving awards to an anti-semite like Farakhan, and making unfounded charges that the government created AIDs to kill blacks?

 

[Coyote]

Back that up - what did Falwell say that is the equivalent of calling whites greedy, giving awards to an anti-semite like Farakhan, and making unfounded charges that the government created AIDs to kill blacks?

First, on Farrakhan, Obama said the following: "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan...I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

Second, Falwell said the following which is every bit as hateful and bigoted as anything Wright said:

“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”

The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final. http://www.frostillustrated.com/full.php?sid=1384

Concerning 9/11: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.

 

[Dr.Who]

First, on Farrakhan, Obama said the following: "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan...I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

Second, Falwell said the following which is every bit as hateful and bigoted as anything Wright said:

“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”

The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final. http://www.frostillustrated.com/full.php?sid=1384

Concerning 9/11: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.

Well in my mind you have done an adequate job of demonstrating that Falwell was a bigot.

But here is where I am lost; who has been calling him their mentor and asking us to think that they can heal our nation's racial/sexual divide?

 

[SW85]

It's interesting that they make such a big deal Obama's church affiliation - ignoring what Obama actually has to say - but made no such fuss about the affiliations of other candidates or current political figures with the likes of Jerry Falwell who said and supported equally bigoted views. The voices were strangely silent on that.

Uhm, can't speak for anyone else here, but I have criticized Falwell/Robertson/et al. in the past, and I've done it without feeling the need for qualification.

But are you conceding that Wright's words are at least as bad as those of Falwell/Robertson?

 

[Libsmasher]

First, on Farrakhan, Obama said the following: "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan...I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

Obama's disavowal is disingenuous - he sat listening to the wright rants with his children for20 years, and only spoke against it when he was found out and running for president.

Second, Falwell said the following which is every bit as hateful and bigoted as anything Wright said:


“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”

The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final. http://www.frostillustrated.com/full.php?sid=1384

Concerning 9/11: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.

Falwell's bible condemns homosexuals - you might not like it, but that's what it says. Falwell's comments have always attacked homosexual's behavior, not homosexuals themselves.

None of this is anywhere near Wright telling thousands of blacks that the government is out to kill them all with AIDS. And about the race stuff - things he allegedy said 50 years ago - he changed his mind before he died and had black members of his church.