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The problem is Obama’s initial attraction to his pastor

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/34580/full/34580/the-problem-is-obama-s-initial-attraction-to-his-pastor/ The problem is Obama’s initial attraction to his pastor Friday, March 21, 2008 | by edwin black In the end it was not the lies about his religion, but the truth about his religion that may have irrevocably splattered the image of Barack Obama. Democratic presidential frontrunner Obama survived a malicious viral email campaign lying that he was a Muslim. But can Obama’s populist candidacy survive the revelations about his 20-year relationship with spiritual adviser Jeremiah A. Wright, the “black separatist” Christian pastor? The two men were tight — very tight. It was Wright’s charismatic, in-your-face African American activism that first brought Obama into the Trinity Church as a practicing Christian and regular attendee. While away at Harvard studying law, Obama morally tutored himself with tapes of Wright’s fiery lectures. Wright was a moving force in Obama’s family as well. Wright married Obama and his wife, and baptized their two children. The pastor’s provocative sermon “The Audacity of Hope” gave Obama the title for his bestselling book. Obama even huddled with his pastor for spiritual guidance just before announcing his presidential bid. Wright was given a prominent advisory role in the campaign, which he has abdicated in the wake of media attention. The pastor is precisely the mentor and close personal adviser Obama has long declared him to be. It seems too late for Obama to distance himself or condemn the recently broadcast bigotry of Wright, even though he’s done his best this week to do so. The real question is how a man described by many as a leading anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-white agitator became one of Obama’s mentors? Exactly what is the objectionable conduct of Wright? To begin, Wright is a close confidant and supporter of Louis Farrakhan. The leader of the Nation of Islam has called Jews “bloodsuckers” who practice a “gutter religion.” In 1984, Wright accompanied Farrakhan on his controversial visit to see Libyan strongman Muammar Ghaddafi. The Farrakhan-Wright connection is no distant matter of the turbulent ‘80s. As recently as December 2007, the church’s publication, Trumpet Newsmagazine, bestowed upon Farrakhan its highest honor, the lifetime achievement award. Wright, who heads the church publication, described Farrakhan in the magazine as a 20th- and 21st-century “giant.” As recently as March 16, the church listed Farrakhan on its prayer list in the weekend handout at church services. In the Farrakhan mold, Wright is a firebrand anti-American, anti-white, anti-Zionist preacher. His pulpit statements, by now widely broadcast on cable TV and across the Internet, have asked followers to chant not “God bless America” but “God damn America,” to condemn Israel and Zionism for “state terrorism,” to denounce Washington for creating AIDS as a weapon against black people and to recognize that America is controlled by “rich white people.” Despite his extremism, Wright is a giant in the black community. Wright built the Trinity Church from an 87-member congregation in 1972 with a $30,000 annual budget to a black megachurch said to boast as many as 10,000 members operating on a more than $9 million annual budget. In 1993, Ebony magazine listed Wright among its top 15 pastors. In March 2007, Wright was honored by a resolution of the Illinois House of Representatives. The wide black acceptance of Wright’s damning hate rhetoric points up a complete racial disconnect with white America that still lies just below the surface of everyday conversation. The angry world of Pastor Wright is the embittered experience that most Americans either don’t know or would rather forget. That bitter legacy includes slavery until the Civil War and Jim Crow after, segregation and social torment in the 20th century, thousands of lynchings in almost every state of the union from Minnesota to Mississippi continuing into the post-WWII era and a voting rights law that did not pass until 1965. Yet, the black church is vastly more than a caldron of inspiration via rage. It is also a place of exhilaration for a better way, a new way. Obama says he represents that new way; he is the apostle of change and a torch of the new politics. Yet, revelations about his relationship with Wright represent his tie not to the new century but to the decades-old politics of bitterness, rage and hate. In a political defense that now ranks with Bill Clinton’s assertion that he “never inhaled” and “never had sex with that woman,” Obama claims he was never in the pews when Wright expressed his hateful sermons. But more than a year ago, in March 2007, Obama suddenly uninvited Wright to offer the invocation at a major campaign event. Wright stated, “Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack ... One of his members had talked him into uninviting me.” Wright pointedly chose the Yiddish term to refer to Friday night. Wright added, “When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.” For Obama, it seems like a “lose-lose” situation. Either he has repeatedly lied to the nation about his knowledge of Wright’s bigotry, or for 20 years he was ignorant of his own mentor’s views being broadcast worldwide every Sunday. The Jewish community has long self-censored on Obama’s hate links. The Anti-Defamation League even recently issued a press release that said it was satisfied Obama had disavowed Wright’s race hatred and anti-Zionist fervor. But now, in a recent interview, ADL national director Abraham Foxman says his view is different. “More is now known,” Foxman said. “It is not a casual, one-way relationship with Pastor Wright.” Foxman has joined the growing chorus of disbelief about Obama’s ignorance. “It is very difficult to believe that throughout these years, Obama has been unaware of the conspiracy, bigotry and anti-Zionist views.” Edwin Black is the editor of the Cutting Edge News (<a href="http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com">http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com</a>), where a longer version of this piece can be found. <a href="/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/34841/format/html/displaystory.html">Wright or wrong</a>

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