I must be nuts...or else everyone else is.I got home this evening and turned on the news shows and it's now nonstop hand wringing over the Reverend Wright 'controversy' and I'm hot as a pistol over it.
Honestly, the more they talk about it, the more endeared I find myself being towards the guy. If I have any complaint about the candidate, it's that he didn't give the country a big "F-U" when they started hassling him about his preacher.
I'm no Bible thumper, but if Barack chooses to spend his Sunday mornings listening to a Christian guy with a leaning towards liberation theology and a sharp tongue, the rest of us should be careful lest we open ourselves up to what we're doing every Sunday morning and the actions of the institutions we may choose to attend.
Beyond the live-and-let-live argument, I'll posit that the preacher had a point in the 'chickens coming home to roost' argument.
"America, Love it or Leave It" is a clever vote-getting scheme, but it's clearly a bullshit worldview and I wish Obama would step up to the plate and say it.
6 comments:
I listend to the podcast on the bus this morning of him on "the Journal."
Very interesting, and he tries to repeatedly make the point that his is a pastor and the audience is a different than a political one.
Kinda like reading the bible as a historical text, its not a historical text but a theological one.
But you're right, the controversy is a little too manufactured. It has lost its pungency, if it had any to begin with.
Then again, I have considered myself a liberation theologian for some time. Straight from the seminaries of Leuven.
Also, as he said in the sound bite, he was "quoting a white ambassador, not some black militant, ... who is trying to wake us up."
Its kind sad that we really can't ask why the 9/11 attacks occurred, its just taboo. And taboo to also imply that this nation of greatness can simultaneously be responsible for ungreat, and dare I say, evil* things.
In regards to the war on terror, just because the bad guys are bad does not directly imply that somehow we are good. Goodness needs to be judged independently, by actions.
It's that whole "love it or leave it thing" that really undermines the spirit of this country. When one wittinesses the greatness and potential of our country it inspires them to try to make it better, and by making it better they somehow get labeled as unpatriotic or whatever. Which is ironic, as it is America herself which is the original inspiration.
"We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal," is inspirational. But we fought a huge and bloody war to actualize the inspiration of that piece of the idea of America.
The 'City on the Hill' is another example. When people insist that we live up to, or point out that we are not, living up to our own ideals they are chastised. The idea [of America] inspires them to speak out, and they get labeled as not loving America.
Perhaps some feel that the idea of America is simply enough. Transcription from idea to reality is not necessary. As Bush said, "America does not torture." When someone then insists that we do not torture they are called terrorist lovers, when they should be called America lovers.
besides, how relevant is some crap from a guy who isn't even running. Besides that though, if it really is relevant, then lets actually have a rational and perhaps intelligent debate on what was actually said.
The most frustrating thing about the whole affair is the utter lack of meaning to the whole thing. There is no meaning in any of it.
* Evil as defined as a direct contradiction to the teaching of Christ and the word of God. The absence of God? Platonic evil, if you will.
I'm going to have to hunt around and find this National Press Club speech from Monday.
The coverage I've seen has been unanimously mocking of the guy. I wonder if it really was that bad.
Hmm...
I am amazed at how much coverage there has actually been. I read somewhere this morning, that people are wondering whether he is trying to cast himself as this Sharptonesque purveyor of the 'black soul' of america?
He=Barry? Or Jerry?
Jerry. He is, and knows he is, doing a real disservice to Barry.
They also went into the gernerationalism of it all too. Why Bubba can't stand Barry, even though they are likely cut from the same cloth.
Those old dogs aren't ready to lie down yet.
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