GOD AND POLITICS

For Those Who’ve Fallen, Salvation Amid the Suds

The new gospel of the post-Wright pastors

By Allison Samuels | NEWSWEEK

Mar 31, 2008 Issue | Updated: 1:06 p.m. ET Mar 22, 2008

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Posted By: NELEGER @ 04/04/2008 11:57:56 PM

Comment: It is amazing to me that so many preachers and community leaders are so ready to offer excuses for the biggotry of Dr Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Hipocritycal responses they are. Both need to be denounced and separated from. The problem of today is not the problem of 50 years ago. I have never own anyone, and I have never hurt any Black person. As a matter of fact, I have always have tried to help anyone I can help without looking at their race.
I have listened for the most part how much Black resent and even hate all other people, not only white people. Why is it? Are some Blacks becoming the real racist in this life drama?
Don't hate, but help. Hate will destroy you and all those who profess hatred and that is not a good thing.
What is very hard for me to understand how much Black people disrespect and denigrate their own Black women, and then their leaders in an incredible feat of hipocracy speack about white people. The greatest harm to Black people is perpetrated by Black male themselves. Just listen to rap music, view crime statistics, and social demografics. Black people don't need anyone to hurt them. They are doing a great job at destroying themselves, and that is a great shame. Those are the wages of sin.
Posted By: ERNIER @ 04/04/2008 6:47:50 PM

Comment: Under the Obama bus you will find women, Jews, new born babies, latinos, his grandmother, and most ???typical??? white people.

Obama dismisses those that don???t embrace ???the great Obama light??? as laughable and ignorant. He relishes ???a following??? that includes college kids that don???t pay taxes, liberals consumed by guilt, the party dedicated that want change for change???s sake, and everyone else with a chip on their shoulder that portray America as an evil country ??? while wrapping themselves in the free speech and liberty that allows them condemn us.
Posted By: kylecanerday @ 03/31/2008 1:59:28 PM

Comment: responding to Johndavidprince.

Wow, what a paradox. Under our constitution we ALL have a right to the freedom of speech, which includes the right to disagree. So what do you do with my right to speak of what I believe the holy scriptures say? You call me bigotted and arrogant! Like the Apostle Paul, I am compelled to by the Spirit to preach the word that Jesus is the only WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. You don't have to agree, I'll leave it to the Holy Spirit to convince your heart. However, it doesn't mean that I am disrepectful of you, or intollerant of you just because I believe these words from Scripture to be true. In fact, it should be out of love and concern that the gospel is shared. You are free to your opinion of "my" truth, maybe at your peril. Freedom to speak goes both ways!!
Posted By: PastorPage @ 03/29/2008 11:31:47 PM

Comment: Mental gymnastics practiced in the arena of reason can result in a iifetime of suppositions. I choose, rather, to believe the word of Almighty God.

http://www.easyread.us
Posted By: Johndavidprince @ 03/29/2008 3:37:42 PM

Comment: To be offended by thought is to be offended by those who dare to question.
Why do people find it so important for there to be either prayer in school, religion in government, creationism thought in science classes, or the need to have every person believe the same faith or view of religion. That is the ultimate display of greed. Islamic fundamentalists, most Christians, and many other religions are very evangelical. They want to convert everyone to their point of view. How selfish, egocentric, and contrary to the concept of personal Liberty which these lusts for the monopolization of faith seem to be. I believe that we have the right to have faith in anything. You can believe as you so choose. We all have the freedom of religion, which is directly related to the freedom of thought and expression. Yet we have to ballet every day with those in our society who feel that the freedom of religion only applies to their faith, sect, or religion. This is proof positive that a sense of superiority, greed, and the lust for any sense of Divine Entitlement are the result of evangelicalism, fundamentalism or extremism. These aspects always run counter to the constitution, thus competing with the principles that make us a civil society, a free society, a just society. When people discuss the freedom of religion they seem to always refer directly to their religion only, rather than the freedom of all religions. Let us also remember that religion is not just church or faith; rather it is belief and thought. My thoughts, your thoughts, every thought is a belief. We cannot have one without the other. If we think, feel, or believe a particular way about something and repeat that thought more than once we have ritualized a thought. Ritual is what makes religion, religion, plus the aspect of worship, placing, or believing in something that is exalted, praised, or deified in the mind of the individual. Still there are many fellow Americans who have no respect for other???s religion, for their thoughts, or their belief. We have to respect all thought and at the same time respect those who dare to question our thoughts. We also must remember that questioning belief is not disrespect for the individual because if we never questioned any thought we would not have any debate. But it is those people who refuse others the right to believe how they choose or attack people for questioning ideologies that do not respect the constitutional principles of freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. It is such a simple principle, we have the right to believe and we have the right to question that belief. For if my religion is to question everything than it is my right to speak freely. To be offended by speech is to be offended by the right to speak in the first place. To be offended by thought is to be offended by those who dare to question.
Posted By: Huachuca @ 03/29/2008 2:34:54 PM

Comment: Persistant racism and Unequality!?! You blacks get put in the front of the line for EVERY program in this country yet still think everyone owes you. You have your "Black history month" Blak Expo, ect. But try to have a White History Month. Blacks would SCREAM racism. But then again, blacks are "entilted" to that like everything else, right?
Posted By: emmarcee @ 03/28/2008 1:02:35 PM

Comment: is there any bigger blatant hood-winking than his new statement that he "woulda left if Wright continued". I was starting to get disppointed with Hillary (for her pathetic apolgies .. Come on guys.. come on , I would n't ). The entire church culture is based on the same principle Rev.Wright exalted many times and Obama has been with them for 20 years. This is beyond anything. How is this guy above regulat politics? Just like some blogger noted- how can he survive in Chicago politics without having backing of loads of shady characters? America the naive. Shame on you.
Posted By: john boy @ 03/28/2008 10:04:12 AM

Comment: Rezko must own Newsweek and MSNBC. THere is no way that Newsweek would cover so much of Obama if there wasn't some tie to Obama.
What news station allows the Obama write his own articles to be published. Newsweek allowed Obama to write the story about Barry becoming Barack. This is sick.
- Posted By: emmarcee @ 03/28/2008 13:04:56
  
  Comment: o yes, Newsweek is at it again. Don't you see that? They want Mccaine to be the president. We are just onlookers. The big multinationals have colonized the middle america (forget about middle east and asia) and we don't even know that.
Posted By: Soujourn08 @ 03/27/2008 8:04:00 PM

Comment: If Rev. Wright said, "U.S. policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington," then USA Today implied the same soon after 9/11 reporting on why "they" might hate US so much. The media has yet to frame the conflicts in Europe with Islamic Bosnians or the troubles Russia has with Islamic Chechens the same way it does with the Middle East. There are European Muslims - White Muslims, just as there are African Jews. How many dark Jews do we see on T.V.?

Is it anti-Semitic for Black people to take compassionate perspective from their slave pasts and decide Israel should be protected while Palestine is being created? How can the world have Palestinians and no Palestine? That doesn't sound safe for Israel. Black folks think about what happened after the Native Americans welcomed Europeans with open arms. US Jews might want to think about that too and encourage their brethren in Israel to "do the right thing" and recognize Palestine. Note: Native Americans weren't Muslim - just some more people of color. Shalom.
Posted By: Soujourn08 @ 03/27/2008 8:03:24 PM

Comment: Rev. Wright did not say "God Damn White People!???

Why would hundreds of parishioners listen to Wright say the U.S. government invented AIDS to destroy ???people of color??? without running for the door?

According to Infoplease.com, "For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis...Informed that they were being treated for ???bad blood,??? their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis???which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. 'As I see it,' one of the doctors involved explained, 'we have no further interest in these patients until they die.'???
Posted By: Soujourn08 @ 03/27/2008 8:01:49 PM

Comment: Rev. Wright did not say "God Damn White People!???

Why would hundreds of parishioners listen to Wright say the U.S. government invented AIDS to destroy ???people of color??? without running for the door?

According to Infoplease.com, "For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis...Informed that they were being treated for ???bad blood,??? their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis???which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. 'As I see it,' one of the doctors involved explained, 'we have no further interest in these patients until they die.'???
Posted By: Just James @ 03/25/2008 1:54:50 PM

Comment: I believe that ALL media outlets are trying to cover their backsides. Everyone in the theological realm knows that sermons have four parts.

1 - Introduce the text (from the bible verbatum) to the congregation.

2 - Apply the text to common day problems amongst the congregation.

3 - Amplify the rhetoric and motivate the congration to give THE WORD of GOD "legs" to go out into the community to make a difference.

4 - Open the doors of the church to new members.

I am not going to argue God with anyone on this blog. God is a God of love and he loves ALL of the inhabitants of Earth. Yes, this means the same terrorists we are bombing, If you only the third part of ANY pastors sermon and loop it over and OVER and OVER, it would be very easy to fool someone into believing that this was the foundation of their ministry.

For anyone that says, "Why didn't he stand up and leave that church?" Let me ask you a few questions.

1) How often do you go to Church ?

2) Do you understand that you must respect that pastor's church and you do not just stand up in the middle of a sermon to make a statement.?

3) Have you even listened to the entire sermon of Rev Wright? If your answer is NO, then please stop saying the following statement. G** damn America. Replace the following....

"Not God Bless America. God Damn America! That???s in the Bible. For killing innocent people. God Damn America for treating us citizens as less than human. God Damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is Supreme.???

If you are going to quote someone please do them the respect of using their full statements and not just what you wanted them to say. Remember, this is not about Sen Clinton or Sen Obama, this is about God.

You may criticize me now and call me what you may.

And that I will say, "May God continue to bless you and your family."
- Posted By: emmarcee @ 03/28/2008 13:07:05
  
  Comment: that means .. you get a catharsis when you use numbered points in a blog.
- Posted By: metzlerd @ 03/25/2008 17:28:39
  
  Comment: So in essence what you are saying is, "One nation under God." Not above or in place of God. Hmmmmm...
  
  Why does Fox News have such a problem with that?
Posted By: eddiewhere @ 03/25/2008 5:08:25 AM

Comment: I HOPE THE CHINESE HONOUR THE TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE AT THIS YEARS OLYMPICS. AND ALL THEIR BROTHERS ROTTING IN JAIL FOR NO REASONS.

COPYRIGHTED EDDIEWHERE.
NO CHINESE IS GOING TOO STEAL MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

THE WORLD HAD A GREAT opportunity to stand up to CHINA during The Tiananmen Square MASSACARE of 1989, but did nothing. THERE IS NO COUNTRy ON THIS planet THAT CAN SAVE TIBET. THE opportunity has been lost. IF THE WORLD WAS SERIOUS ABOUT TIBET THEy would have cut CHINA OFF. HOWEVER NO NATION can ignore the two billion citizens of CHINA. By the time we stand up to CHINA AND RUSSIA IT WILL BE TOO LATE.

THESE TWO NATIONS ARE the GREATEST THREAT TO AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURTIy . CHINA AND RUSSIA are our MILITARy , TECHNOLOGICAL and economic adversaries.
WHILE WE ARE DISTRACTED IN THE MIDDLE EAST. RUSSIA AND CHINA HAVE GOTTEN AWAy WITH "MURDER". TIBET is a perfect example of this analogy.
WE HAVE NOT STOOD Up to CHINA AND RUSSIA AND NOW IT is TOO LATE. WE CAN ONLy LEcTURE CHINA WE CANNOT GO BEyond that unless we are willing to start a WORLD WAR.

RUSSIA AND CHINA vs UNTIED STATES. I am glad someone has recognized that these two BULLIES HAVE GROWN extremely powerful while we have been distracted fighting a bunch wimps with no shoes in IRAQ.
RUSSIA and CHINA HAVE SUCCESSFULLy penetrated all of our political and economic institutions

I HOPE THE CHINESE HONOUR THE TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE AND ALL THEIR BROTHERS ROTTING IN JAIL FOR NO REASONS.

COPYRIGHTED EDDIEWHERE.© 2008
NO CHINESE IS GOING TOO STEAL MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Posted By: honkyjesus @ 03/23/2008 1:35:58 PM

Comment: fam, I agree.

Between Newsweek and Keith "Obamaniac" Olbermann the media bias keeps on trucking.

The article states something about "30 seconds of clips" - more like 30 years of hatred and racism.

Just speaking as one of Obama's typical white people here, but if hatred if black liberation theology... that goes against Christ.

Sincerely,

Typical White Person
- Posted By: metzlerd @ 03/25/2008 17:21:39
  
  Comment: You are not the typical white person! That offends me.
  Fact is you don't know what you are talking about. You haven't listened to all of his sermons or you'd realize that the 30 seconds that are being replayed are less than 0.1% of his sermons. Since you plainly don't care to know what you're talking about, I resent your attempts to lump yourself in with intelligent people. :-)
  
  In all seriousness, you should do a little research before you start sounding off. What is being played is 30 seconds of whatever you want to call it. Not 30 years. To be qualified to judge 30 years of sermons you'd have to listen to more than the 30 seconds that Fox news was able to come up with.
  - Posted By: emmarcee @ 03/28/2008 13:11:48
    
    Comment: Listen , the most disgusting part is that Newsweek is at it again after a few weeks of holding back the fire. How can a News magazine run a campaign for one partiuclar candidate like this - covering up all his flaws. I would like to see if this continues till November.
Posted By: faminchin @ 03/23/2008 6:20:39 AM

Comment: Is there any doubt that Newsweek and the people that work there want to see Mr. Obama elected president? I'd say after reviewing this week's edition, there is only one thing you guys could do to best this week..........take a cover shot of all the employees, with the headline..."Vote For Obama". Looking at Newsweek makes that Saturday Night Live skit look like reality instead of humor! Seriously, there are more support Obama stories on this site than all the other news going on around the world all put together. What a JOKE!
- Posted By: emmarcee @ 03/28/2008 13:12:49
  
  Comment: I will be watching SNl again this weekend. They may have something for us.. (including Hillary's sniper fire)