Breaking: Obama Denounces Wrights Statements!!! Blog on Huffpo!

[Yes We Did]

On My Faith and My Church

The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He's drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

Because these particular statements by Rev. Wright are so contrary to my own life and beliefs, a number of people have legitimately raised questions about the nature of my relationship with Rev. Wright and my membership in the church. Let me therefore provide some context.

As I have written about in my books, I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barack-obama/on-my-faith-and-my-church_b_91623.html

[book_worm]

1. I knew he would handle this well

It is a non-issue and the only ones who will make it an issue are the most rabid of Clinton supporters who will do anything to see their heroine get the nomination even if it means trying to destroy Obama.

[GoldieAZ49]

20. Handle it well ARE YOU KIDDING?

a blog post on a far left website is NOT handling it well.

I think it is a trial balloon

You think that effective counters Wright screaming GD America on TV for 2 days?

If he stops there forget about anymore white votes.

[Bake]

22. Let me guess. Everyone in America reads HuffPo.

What? They don't?

However, BHO is going on the networks tonight, according to what I've just seen. I imagine the purpose is to deal with the Wright Stuff.

Bake

[karynnj]

25. He already has two scheduled TV slots - he will likely use this as a prototype of what to say

It's an approach that has worked for others in the past. It has the advantage of the first statement being 100% his, in writing, edited and likely vetted by people he trusts. I agree with you - if it were JUST this it would be too little.

It is a great statement.

[angie_love]

27. Hes going to be on MSNBC, CNN and FOX tonight. Hes addressing it...relax.

[high density]

29. Three interviews tonight... what more can he do?

If cable news wants to replay it over and over and over like a Dean scream, I don't know what he's supposed to do about that.

[KittyWampus]

2. Wright's words IN CONTEXT are in line with any DU'er or Democrat posting. The words

are surely incorrect politically, but their meaning is true.

[Abacus]

3. Fantastic response.

as usual. k/r

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. Obama shows why he's presidential material. Addressed the issue head on and put it to rest.

[jenmito]

9. And now everyone should at least know he's a Christain and not a "secret Muslim."

He killed two birds with one stone.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

17. It's still not going to stop Hillary and her minions from preying on the uninformed.

[jenmito]

30. Yeah, but which religion will she be smearing him about?

[rucky]

5. Off to the Greatest Page you go!

[Scurrilous]

6. Great response.

K & R :thumbsup:

[Alexander]

7. He not only denounced but condemned Wright. What will the Shillbots say now?

[democrattotheend]

10. We need to get Obama's statement out there. Please don't ruin this thread

with an obnoxious dig at Hillary supporters.

[Alexander]

16. I don't attack all the Hillary supporters, just the ones with fake outrage.

They seem to be quite vocal and numerous as of late.

[rucky]

11. And he didn't undermine the good stuff the church has done. n/t

[backscatter712]

8. Obama wins.

True to form, he takes control with class and grace.

That's my next President!

[americanstranger]

12. Timing is good, too.

Right at closing time, no allowing opponents to get in another jab. Smart.

Between this and the H&C appearance tonight, he could very well put this fire out.

I think he fell a little short in not asking for Wright to resign from the AA Affairs committee of his campaign, though.

Watching with interest how this palys out.

- as

[Abacus]

14. I think it would be a mistake to ask him to resign.

It would look like he only did it because he got caught which would cause questions about his character. Keeping Wright is a bit more controversial, but this way Obama maintains his integrity.

[jenmito]

13. CNN's reading his response right now! At least much of it. And Donna Brazille praised his

comments and leadership with the way he handled it.

[kentuck]

15. Everyone needs to read this...

Especially Obama supporters, such as myself. :-)

[roguevalley]

18. lovely response. I tell you, I am late to the table on Mr. Obama. But

I find old school style here in his dignity and calm and measured responses. Makes me feel muy better over voting for him. I will in the fall I am sure as I believe he will be The One. <G> <Just a joke, k?>

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. rut roh...Isreal is not gonna like his defending the Rev Wright who preaches anti-semitism

[roguevalley]

21. he isn't defending him. he repudiated him completely. sheesh.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

23. oh really?..............

I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.


ummmm?

[mod mom]

24. and did you catch this?

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics

NEWS: For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill. Is she triangulating—or living her faith?

By Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet
Illustration by: Andy Friedman
September 1, 2007



It was an elegant example of the Clinton style, a rhetorical maneuver subtle, bold, and banal all at once. During a Democratic candidate forum in June, hosted by the liberal evangelical group Sojourners, Hillary Clinton fielded a softball query about Bill's infidelity: How had her faith gotten her through the Lewinsky scandal?

After a glancing shot at Republican "pharisees," Clinton explained that, of course, her "very serious" grounding in faith had helped her weather the affair. But she had also relied on the "extended faith family" that came to her aid, "people whom I knew who were literally praying for me in prayer chains, who were prayer warriors for me."

Such references to spiritual warfare—prayer as battle against Satan, evil, and sin—might seem like heavy evangelical rhetoric for the senator from New York, but they went over well with the Sojourners audience, as did her call to "inject faith into policy." It was language that recalled Clinton's Jesus moment a year earlier, when she'd summoned the Bible to decry a Republican anti-immigrant initiative that she said would "criminalize the good Samaritan...and even Jesus himself." Liberal Christians crowed ("Hillary Clinton Shows the Way Democrats Can Use the Bible," declared a blogger at TPMCafe) while conservative pundits cried foul, accusing Clinton of scoring points with a faith not really her own.

-snip

Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection. "A lot of evangelicals would see that as just cynical exploitation," says the Reverend Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue who now ministers to decision makers in Washington. "I don't....there is a real good that is infected in people when they are around Jesus talk, and open Bibles, and prayer.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html

TALK ABOUT DIRECT PARTICIPATION!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. LMAO you poor dear

[roguevalley]

31. condescension is a poor reply. oh yeah. Poor dear.

[mod mom]

32. HARPERS: Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover Among America's Secret Theocrats:

Jesus plus nothing:
Undercover among America's secret theocrats
TYPE

Originally from Harpers Magazine, March 2003, by Jeffrey Sharlet, discusses 'the family' in Washington D.C.

-snip
By the end of the war, nearly a third of U.S. senators attended one of his weekly prayer meetings.

In 1944, Vereide had foreseen what he called “the new world order.” “Upon the termination of the war there will be many men available to carry on,” Vereide wrote in a letter to his wife. “Now the ground-work must be laid and our leadership brought to face God in humility, prayer and obedience.” He began organizing prayer meetings for delegates to the United Nations, at which he would instruct them in God's plan for rebuilding from the wreckage of the war. Donald Stone, a high-ranking administrator of the Marshall Plan, joined the directorship of Vereide's organization. In an undated letter, he wrote Vereide that he would “soon begin a tour around the world for the , combining with this a spiritual mission.” In 1946, Vereide, too, toured the world, traveling with letters of introduction from a half dozen senators and representatives, and from Paul G. Hoffman, the director of the Marshall Plan. He traveled also with a mandate from General John Hildring, assistant secretary of state, to oversee the creation of a list of good Germans of “the predictable type” (many of whom, Vereide believed, were being held for having “the faintest connection” with the Nazi regime), who could be released from prison “to be used, according to their ability in the tremendous task of reconstruction.” Vereide met with Jewish survivors and listened to their stories, but he nevertheless considered ex-Nazis well suited for the demands of “strong” government, so long as they were willing to worship Christ as they had Hitler.

In 1955, Senator Frank Carlson, a close adviser to Eisenhower and an even closer associate of Vereide's, convened a meeting at which he declared the Family's mission to be a “worldwide spiritual offensive,” in which common cause would be made with anyone opposed to the Soviet Union. That same year, the Family financed an anti-Communist propaganda film, Militant Liberty, for use by the Defense Department in influencing opinion abroad. By the Kennedy era, the spiritual offensive had fronts on every continent but Antarctica (which Family missionaries would not visit until the 1980s). In 1961, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia deeded the Family a prime parcel in downtown Addis Ababa to serve as an African headquarters, and by then the Family also had powerful friends in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Back home, Senator Strom Thurmond prepared several reports for Vereide concerning the Senate's deliberations. Former president Eisenhower, Doug Coe would later claim at a private meeting of politicians, once pledged secret operatives to aid the Family's operations. Even in Franco's Spain, Vereide once boasted at a prayer breakfast in 1965, “there are secret cells such as the American Embassy the Standard Oil office to move practically anywhere.”

By the late sixties, Vereide's speeches to local prayer breakfast groups had become minor news events, and Family members' travels on behalf of Christ had attracted growing press attention. Vereide began to worry that the movement he had spent his life building might become just another political party. In 1966, a few years before he was “promoted” to heaven at age eighty-four, Vereide wrote a letter declaring it time to “submerge the institutional image of .” No longer would the Family recruit its powerful members in public, nor recruit so many. “There has always been one man,” wrote Vereide, “or a small core who have caught the vision for their country and become aware of what a 'leadership led by God' could mean spiritually to the nation and to the world. . . . It is these men, banded together, who can accomplish the vision God gave me years ago.”

-snip

http://harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525


NEW WORLD ORDER-ANYONE?

[knixphan]

28. Now, Let's see McCAIN'S essay....