An interesting and insightful article by Cenk Uygur (via The Huffington Post) regarding the Rev Wright controversy.
Different Standards for Black and White Preachers
Cenk Uygur
Posted March 19, 2008 | 11:50 AM (EST)
Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.
Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.
Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.
Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.
Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."
What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's? You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims -- that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America -- it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.
I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.
If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."
But one thing is indisputable -- the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine -- and hardly a peep.
If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?
The following is an article by Roland Martin addressing some of the incendiary statements made by Rev Wright which have been in heavy rotation in the media as well as on youtube for the past few days. Irrespective of what one may think of these highly publicized statements in question, it is evident that a concerted effort was made to provide an erroneous caricature of Rev Wright and the church over which he had presided. Indeed, disingenuous, unprincipled, agenda-pushing folks selectively took the most controversial SOUND-BITES of Rev Wright completely out of context, maliciously pasting together the most provocative declarations from various sermons in order to paint the most reprehensible picture of this pastor in a vicious and pointed attempt to politically damage Sen Obama.
Truth, motive and context are always important.
Video clip of Rev Wright’s 9/11 sermon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related%3C/p%3E
March 21, 2008
As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I’ve been saying all week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what the heck is going on.
I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001.
One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.
He was quoting Peck as saying that America’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril:
“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.“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.“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”
“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.
“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.
“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.
“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.
“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.
“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.
“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.
“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.
“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”
He went on to describe seeing the photos of the aftermath of 9/11 because he was in Newark, N.J., when the planes struck. After turning on the TV and seeing the second plane slam into one of the twin towers, he spoke passionately about what if you never got a chance to say hello to your family again.
“What is the state of your family?” he asked.
And then he told his congregation that he loved them and asked the church to tell each other they loved themselves.
His sermon thesis:
1. This is a time for self-examination of ourselves and our families.
2. This is a time for social transformation (then he went on to say they won’t put me on PBS or national cable for what I’m about to say. Talk about prophetic!)
“We have got to change the way we have been doing things as a society,” he said.
Wright then said we can’t stop messing over people and thinking they can’t touch us. He said we may need to declare war on racism, injustice, and greed, instead of war on other countries.
“Maybe we need to declare war on AIDS. In five minutes the Congress found $40 billion to rebuild New York and the families that died in sudden death, do you think we can find the money to make medicine available for people who are dying a slow death? Maybe we need to declare war on the nation’s healthcare system that leaves the nation’s poor with no health coverage? Maybe we need to declare war on the mishandled educational system and provide quality education for everybody, every citizen, based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay. This is a time for social transformation.”
3. This is time to tell God thank you for all that he has provided and that he gave him and others another chance to do His will.
By the way, nowhere in this sermon did he said “God damn America.” I’m not sure which sermon that came from.
This doesn’t explain anything away, nor does it absolve Wright of using the N-word, but what it does do is add an accurate perspective to this conversation.
The point that I have always made as a journalist is that our job is to seek the truth, and not the partial truth.
I am also listening to the other sermons delivered by Rev. Wright that have been the subject of controversy.
And let me be clear: Where I believe he was wrong and not justified in what he said based upon the facts, I will say so. But where the facts support his argument, that will also be said.
So stay tuned.
- Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor
www.rolandsmartin.com
Editor’s note: Read other blogs from Roland Martin and the team of 360 contributors at CNN.com/360
Filed under: Barack Obama • Roland S. Martin
It is awfully evident to every commonsensical individual that Hillary has resolved that unless she is the nominee, she will actively and surely destroy the prospect of a 2009 Democratic presidency. Hillary and her campaign have actively sort to discredit Sen Obama’s record and credentials, damage his reputation, place his integrity into question and obliterate the notion of him serving as Commander-in-chief. For all intents and purposes, Hillary has emphatically endorsed Sen McCain and strenuously touted Sen Obama as unfit for presidential office. Her objective, in the event that she is not the nominee, is to prevent an Obama presidential victory, since it would facilitate her 2013 presidency.
Interestingly, Hillary’s more immediate plan involves coercing the superdelegates into overturning the will of the electorate on the basis of Sen Obama’s unelectability. What is remarkable about this argument is the fact that although her contention is currently unfounded, by the time the Convention rolls around it may indeed have merit, since phase one of Hillary’s sinister scheme involves both widely and perpetually defaming Sen Obama as well as characterizing him as not only inexperienced, but unqualified.
Hillary has long been successful, via her conduit - the beholden media, in selling a dramatic, though utterly misleading and fallacious contrast in experience, by touting her mythical “35 years of experience” while disparaging the purportedly “inexperienced” Obama. However, her new arsenal includes the odd and paradoxical commander-in-chief threshold argument, which incidentally, thus far, she has failed to explain. Yet, Hillary promotes the notion that she alongside Sen McCain have “crossed the commander-in-chief threshold”, along with the implication that Sen Obama has not.
Since ALL of the candidates are essentially novice in this specific area, on deliberation a sound mind would likely offer that the only measure that may possibly represent such a “commander-in-chief threshold” would be each candidate’s ultimate assessment with respect to the resolution to wage a war against Iraq in 2003. Whereas Sen Obama publicly admonished that the war was ill-advised and would bear grave consequences, both senators Clinton and McCain quite willingly authorised a war that was based on questionable intelligence, lacked a comprehensive strategy and was deemed unconstitutional by some. Hence, considering the decisions of senators Clinton and McCain as well as that of Sen Obama in their most indicative commander-in-chief criterion to date, if there is in fact a commander-in-chief threshold, undoubtedly both senators McCain and Clinton should be disqualified from the presidential nomination process forthwith. Such irony in Sen Clinton’s assertion is indicative of the Clinton “kitchen sink” strategy which has proven malicious and toxic, at times juvenile, but consistently devoid of rationale.
Another irony in Hillary’s ludicrous strategy is the swiftboating of her fellow Democrat in conjunction with the advocating of the opposition. Although since switching allegiance from the Republicans to the Democrats Hillary has legendarily demonized the Republican Party and members therein, Hillary is now McCain’s most fierce ally, constantly singing his praises and citing his laurels while ripping into and tarnishing the potential nominee for the Democratic Party. Incidentally, if Hillary somehow manages to usurp the nomination, it will be quite interesting to see her defend her own endorsement of the Republican nominee. In fact, I can picture a few of the Hillary endorses McCain ads even as I type.
Further analysis of Hillary’s self-serving, gutter scheme reveals another outlandish contradiction. Hillary consistently espouses that Obama is wholly unqualified while at the same time promoting a Clinton-Obama “Dream ticket”. But be not beguiled, this like all of Hillary’s antics is simply tactical. The goal is to ostensibly appease and consequently garner the votes of the electorate that would otherwise support Sen Obama by dangling the predestinely doomed idea of a 2-for-1 situation with the implication of a subsequent Obama presidency.
Nonetheless, what should not be lost in all of this is the critical question of loyalty. Hillary’s agenda and tactics are very telling for anyone who has sought to question her allegiance. Considering her frighteningly deplorable, jeopardous, self-serving antics to undermine and ultimately ruin the presidential run of any democratic candidate that is not her, it is painfully clear that Hillary’s sole allegiance has been and will always be to herself. Unquestionably, the debacle of the Democratic Party would merely be one of many Clinton casualties in her ruthless, power-hungry, single-minded goal of seizing the presidency.
Make no mistake, EVERY and ANYONE who sits on the sidelines and refuses to take a stand to both REJECT and DENOUNCE Hillary and her self-seeking, caustic, perilous antics is in fact aiding in the destruction of the Democratic Party and by extension, facilitating the continuation of the Bush-Cheney agenda - neglecting of the interests of the average American and yes, having the blood of thousands of our valiant soldiers and Iraqi casualties (in a prospective 100 year war) on our hands.
The fact that the DNC, numerous high ranking Democratic officials, the Democratic Party as a whole and many in the democratic electorate continue to aid and abet the callous Clintons in not only the destruction of the party, but the obliteration of the hopes and the well-being of Americans is an utter disgrace and a horrible, unspeakable tragedy.
In earnest, can America really afford any more victims in the Clintons’ self-serving, ruthless, win-at-all-cost wake? Even if one excludes the 12-year old girl who Hillary irretrievably traumatized by vilifying and gratuitously grilling as part of her aggressive defence of the little girl’s alleged rapist, or the many women who have fallen prey to Bill (including his alleged rape victims), or the associates and security personnel that have mysteriously gone missing, and suspiciously died or committed suicide, there is no shortage of Clinton victims. Furthermore, with regard to the Clintons’ political casualties, one need only consider the immediate repercussions of Bill Clinton’s corrupt, combative and divisive presidency, which perhaps single-handedly lost the Democrats both the House and the Senate and cost the American people nearly 100 million dollars due to several malpractice and criminal investigations.
Can America (especially in these trying times) really afford the spiteful, self-serving, my-way-or-the-highway, governing-while-living-life-above-the-law, would-sell-my-soul-to-the-Devil-for-power Clintons?
When does this tragic lunacy end?
Who will finally confront the beast and stand up for America?
WILL IT BE YOU ?
On hearing a politician, namely Sen Clinton, utter the WORDS, “words are cheap”, it got me thinking.
“Words are cheap”, so why does Hillary so desperately want to debate?
If words are so cheap, why does she bother giving speeches?
If words are cheap, why does she even write legislation?
If words are so cheap, why does she use words to “offer solutions”?
If words are cheap, why does she care about Obama’s words?
In fact, if words are so cheap, does that make her words “words are cheap” even cheaper?
On a serious note, does Hillary think that the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance are cheap as well?
I guess in Hillary’s estimation, the oath of office is cheap also. Do we really want a representative who disregards the oath of office, diminishes the Declaration of Independence, disparages the Pledge of Allegiance, reduces the Constitution and respects not the “words” of a single doctrine?
Do we really want a president whose words by her own admission are “cheap”?
The assertion that “words are cheap” is perhaps the most preposterous and blatantly irresponsible statement that a politician can make, especially an honest one (which undoubtedly Hillary is not).
Fellow hopemongers
I strenuously caution, now is not the time for us to become complacent or get ahead of ourselves. Always be mindful that nothing is more dangerous than an opponent with the mindset that he/she has nothing to lose. Moreover, there is nothing Americans and human beings in general appreciate more than rooting for and supporting the supposed underdog.
Subsequently, if the media continues to play up the Obama string of victories while the Obama campaign continues to offer overconfident bravado, I am inclined to believe that the American people will again serve notice to this campaign, a la New Hampshire and a few states on Super Tuesday. I am sure that most of you recall that sickening, awfully dejected feeling in the pit of your gut after our bitter defeat in New Hampshire. Furthermore, the subsequent losses in New Jersey and California on Super Tuesday hardly tasted much better.
It is imperative that we all in this campaign (from top to bottom) remain humble in our victories and gracious, but optimistic in our defeats. Regardless of the predicament, it is critical that we proceed both cautiously and deliberately.
I would be remiss if I failed to remind everyone that we are dealing with an incomparable, formidable Machine that have been tweaked over two decades, the most popular political brand of this era, and two remarkably unyielding individuals that share the ‘win-at-all-cost’ mentality and are uniquely skilled in masterful spin. Consequently, have no doubt, this battle is far from over. In fact, a mammoth war is on the horizon.
Accordingly, be prepared for any and everything which detractors as well as our adversaries will undoubtedly throw at us. Tactics employed by our opponent will undoubtedly include going negative, attack ads, character assassination, race-baiting and campaigning based on fear. As a matter of fact, during Sen Clinton’s Texas rally, she was quite adept in painting Sen Obama as an uppity, dim, inexperienced candidate whose naivety and lack of foresight would not only fail to address the country’s present ills, but pose a risk to our national security.
Thus, the onus is on all of us to be even more alert, more thorough, more prudent and more deliberate in not only getting our message out, but in methodically, forcibly and promptly combating the mischaracterizations, distortions, spin and downright untruths that would otherwise jeopardize this campaign and eventually compromise our country’s future.
Most importantly, irrespective of the circumstances, we must remain dignified, respectful, humble, resolute and hopeful, and continue to make concerted efforts in consolidating our victories, securing the nomination, winning the general election and ultimately advancing America.
Keep the faith.
Sam
