Barack Obama’s pastor just doesn’t want to give up the limelight. And, quite frankly, that’s a good thing for the rest of us.
It’s allowed us to see a little of what’s inside Senator Obama such as why he doesn’t wear an American flag pin, as do the other candidates.
Somewhere along the line a little of Jeremiah Wright’s message has gotten through to the presidential candidate.
By now we are all too familiar with the portions of his sermons played on the air and the venomous, anti-American, anti-white rhetoric he spewed upon his congregation.
How could Senator Obama have been member of that church for 20 years and had no inkling of his pastor’s closely held feelings?
It’s a question which continues to plague the candidate.
Some make the point that Mr. Wright is retired and no longer serves on the Obama advisory committee.
They say that ends the matter.
(You know, let’s move on, there are more important things to talk about.)
The question remains unasked and unanswered: Why does Barack Obama belong to a church known to be a leader in a seemingly radical, black-centric, movement known as "black liberation theology," a philosophy derived principally from scholars such as James Cone?
A natural question then becomes: How will Mr. Obama’s beliefs, ideas and actions as president of the United States be influenced by his association with this movement?
In various speeches given recently Jeremiah Wright refused to back off any of his controversial remarks, reiterating them all in the same or similar terms.
It has brought to light Wright’s philosophy and is going to, hopefully, begin a dialogue on just exactly what is black liberation theology?
It’s something unknown to most Americans until recently. This is probably an oversimplification, but black liberation theology has its roots in the racial turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s and, although Mr. Wright would have us think this is the typical message of black churches, many black pastors view it as a misguided, if not aberrant, form of Christianity.
Its main premise is not freedom from man’s sin by the salvation of Christ, but the black struggle for freedom from the oppression of whites.
"If God is not for us and against white people," James Cone wrote, "then he is a murderer and we had better kill him.
"The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community."
What the black community wants, Cone says, is for God to assist in its goal of destroying "the white enemy."
It’s interesting to note that the Trinity United Church of Christ has removed from its "About Us" page a section outlining a radical belief system for blacks.
This by a church which described itself as "unashamedly black."
Until recently, Trinity’s website outlined a controversial code of ethics written by blacks for blacks called the "Black Value System."
"These black ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever blacks are gathered," the original webpage said.
In an article in the Washington Post, unnamed ministers said black liberation theology, "encourages a preacher to speak forcefully against the institutions of oppression …"
Left unsaid is exactly what those institutions might be.
I’m sure it’s not the welfare state created by the Democrats since black liberation theology is a product of the leftist politics of the 20th century.
Naturally, the vehicles used by liberals to expand statism can’t be the cause.
The same Washington Post article stated that Wright "translated the Bible into lessons … about the misguided pursuit of ‘middle-classness.’"
In the world of Cone and Wright, black victimhood is the doing of white society, not the doing of angry black leaders and leftists, who see power and profit in keeping too many people captive in their black communities.
On the positive side, black liberation theology also teaches self-reliance and responsibility of blacks as individuals, families, communities and churches.
These churches energetically provide programs to improve education and the economic standing of their congregants.
But on the dark side, it encourages separateness.
The fate of all of us, blacks and whites and all others in America for that matter, is bound up in our commitment to common ideals, beliefs, values and aspirations. We are also bound up in our willingness to work and live together.
