Joe Carter at the EO has a really great, detailed post on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s real problem – and by extension, Obama’s problem – the fact that Black Liberation theology has it’s roots in hateful racism and biblical heresy. And although Obama is not racist, it is too late to save his candidacy – he should have had the judgment to get out years ago, and the fact that he did not is troubling. His speech today, though pretty good, was still tepid, and too little too late. So long Obama, we barely knew ye. Select quotes from Joe’s post below.
1. The About Us statement of Obama’s church is racist:
Consider their introduction on the “About Us” section of the church’s website:
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization….We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
Trinity United Church of Christ is a racist church. That should be beyond dispute. But if you disagree, substitute the word “white” for “black” and “Aryan” for “African.” Now consider how comfortable you would be with Hillary Clinton or John McCain going to such a church.
2. Their 10 point vision is African, but not Christian
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION [of whom from what?]
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION [of what?]Several of the points seem laudatory and explicitly Christian (#1, 2, 3, 5) while a few are unnecessarily divisive (#4, 6, 8, 9). But the use of orthodox Christian terms (salvation, reconciliation) is given perverse new meanings in black liberationist thought.
3. The founder of Liberation Theology, James Hal Cone, was a racist heretic, who wrote:
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, 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 … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.
4. Obama’s problem – he stayed too long in a ‘racist’ church
This is the crux of the problem for Obama: Set aside the inflammatory rhetoric of Rev. Wright, even concede that the Senator knew nothing of his mentor’s hate-filled rants, and you’re still left with the troubling fact that for 20 years Obama was member of a church that is founded on this racist and anti-Christian theology….And yet we’re to believe that despite being immersed in this wicked, hateful theological sewage for two decades Obama wasn’t aware of what his pastor or his church believed?
An interesting point is whether or not Wright’s rhetoric is really hateful, or just hyperbolic. And while it does not stoop to promoting violence, it does attack people of other races – well, just one. Whites.
5. If Obama is not a racist, what is the alternative? He lacks judgment, or is apathetic to racism
Imagine if I were to spend 20 years attending the Aryan Church of the White Christ. Unlike the nice people in the pews, I myself am not a racist–but I didn’t disassociate myself with them either. I looked the other way and feigned ignorance of what my church teaches even when presented with evidence that I would have to be a fool to have ignored. Would I be a person of integrity, much less one who is qualified to be the President of the United States?
MY CONCLUSIONS
I hate to keep beating the drum on this issue, but this is no actually no longer about Obama. Unfortunately, Obama is a bit of an innocent victim of the putrid racism in the black church that his candidacy has uncovered. The stink of it is going to now be opened up and talked about for months even though no one thinks he is a racist. Basically, a sh*t bomb has gone off, and he just happened to be the one to step on it. His problem is that he lacked the forethought to get out of the minefield for 20 years. It’s too bad, he’s really a good guy, but he’s gonna go down with the stinking ship of Black Liberation theology.
What if Rev. Wright is not racist?
Let’s just say for a moment that Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor, is not a hateful racist. Let’s say that he doesn’t subscribe to the hateful theology of the movement’s founder, James Hal Cone. Then what to we make of the anti-white rantings? Are they just rants at institutional racism? Complaints against the powerful?
I think Obama hit it on the head when he intimated that Rev. Wright is caught in the 60’s, as if blacks have not made any advances. In fact, this perpetuation of perceived oppression and victimhood is what has kept many blacks from taking responsibility for their lives and working their way out of poverty, rather than playing the victim, and why poverty persists in their ghettos while minorities of other stripes work themselves out of poverty in one generation.
And this anachronism is now CONTRIBUTING to racism, not solving problems. Those like Rev. Wright need to move on through a set of TRUE Christian virtues – forgiveness, repentance for their own hatred, and renewed obedience to preaching the Gospel.