With those questions in mind we finish up with one last ghost from BO's past. Here is some information about Rev. Wright:
Reverend Wright:
FACTS:
- Rev. Wright subscribes to the ideals of Black Liberation Theology. Black Liberation Theology was founded by African-Americans as a way to counter radical black Muslim influences on the black community. Rev. Wright frequently cites works by James Cone and Dwight Hopkins. Cone and Hopkins are considered by many to be the leading theologians of this belief system. Note that both Cone and Hopkins were far left of center and critics of their works call the Black Liberation Theology a mixture of Christianity and Marxism. Turning Jesus into a leftist rebel, making racist statements against whites and Asians, and describing blacks as helpless victims.
- Quotes from works that Black Liberation Theology is based on:
Cone states that it should be the goal of black men to "aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.".
Cone states that to arrive at such destruction it requires black hate and white guilt. That blacks need to tell the story of their oppression so forcefully and precisely that whites "tremble, curse, and go mad, because they will be drenched with the filth of their evil."
Black Theology and Black Power, Pages 139-140 states that Jews are not the only chosen people "To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!"
Black Theology and Black Power, Pages 14-16 "It is important to make a further distinction here among black hatred, black racism, and Black Power. Black hatred is the black man's strong aversion to white society. No black man living in white America can escape it...But the charge of black racism cannot be reconciled with the facts. While it is true that blacks do hate whites, black hatred is not racism. Racism, according to Webster, is 'the assumption that psychocultural traits and capacities are determined by biological race and that races differ decisively from one another, which is usually coupled with a belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race and its rights to dominance over others.' Where are the examples among blacks in which they sought to assert their right to dominance over others because of a belief in black superiority?...Black Power is an affirmation of the humanity of blacks in spite of white racism. It says that only blacks really know the extent of white oppression, and thus only blacks are prepared to risk all to be free."
Cone makes the argument: Black Theology and Black Power, Page 139 "We cannot solve ethical questions of the twentieth century by looking at what Jesus did in the first. Our choices are not the same as his. Being Christians does not mean following 'in his steps." and on Page 140 "Therefore, simply to say that Jesus did not use violence is no evidence relevant to the condition of black people as they decide on what to do about white oppression."
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 143 "The Christian does not decide between violence and nonviolence, evil and good. He decides between the less and the greater evil."
Cone believes: "People should love each other' sounds like Riis Park at sundown. It has very little meaning to the world at large." Black Theology and Black Power, Page 135
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 24 "All white men are responsible for white oppression. It is much too easy to say, "Racism is not my fault," or "I am not responsible for the country's inhumanity to the black man...But insofar as white do-gooders tolerate and sponsor racism in their educational institutions, their political, economic and social structures, their churches, and in every other aspect of American life, they are directly responsible for racism...Racism is possible because whites are indifferent to suffering and patient with cruelty. Karl Jaspers' description of metaphysical guilt is pertinent here. 'There exists among men, because they are men, a solidarity through which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world, and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant."
Black Theology and Black Power, Pages 39-41 "For the gospel proclaims that God is with us now, actively fighting the forces which would make man captive. And it is the task of theology and the Church to know where God is at work so that we can join him in this fight against evil. In America we know where the evil is. We know that men are shot and lynched. We know that men are crammed into ghettos...There is a constant battle between Christ and Satan, and it is going on now. If we make this message contemporaneous with our own life situation, what does Christ's defeat of Satan mean for us?...The demonic forces of racism are real for the black man. Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man "the devil." The white structure of this American society, personified in every racist, must be at least part of what the New Testament meant by the demonic forces."
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 73 "Racism is a complete denial of the Incarnation and thus of Christianity...If there is any contemporary meaning of the Antichrist (or "the principalities and powers"), the white church seems to be a manifestation of it. It was the white "Christian" church which took the lead in establishing slavery as an institution and segregation as a pattern in society by sanctioning all-white congregations."
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 143 "Whether the American system is beyond redemption we will have to wait and see. But we can be certain that black patience has run out, and unless white America responds positively to the theory and activity of Black Power, then a bloody, protracted civil war is inevitable."
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 136 "The revolution which Black Theology advocates … [means] confronting white racists and saying: 'If it's a fight you want, I am prepared to oblige you.' This is what the black revolution means."
Black Theology and Black Power, Page 16 "Black Power seeks not understanding but conflict; addresses blacks and not whites; seeks to develop black support, but not white good will."
A Black Theology of Liberation, pages 63-64 "The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism...The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity."
A Black Theology of Liberation, p. 70 "Black theology cannot accept a view of God which does not represent God as being for oppressed blacks and thus against white oppressors. Living in a world of white oppressors, blacks have no time for a neutral God. The brutalities are too great and the pain too severe, and this means we must know where God is and what God is doing in the revolution. There is no use for a God who loves white oppressors the same as oppressed blacks. We have had too much of white love, the love that tells blacks to turn the other cheek and go the second mile. What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power, which is the power of blacks to destroy their oppressors, here and now, by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject God's love."
- Quotes from Rev. Wright:
"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." Meaning it is Rev. Wrights assertion that the US government created the HIV virus to preform genocide against people of color.
"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America — that's in the Bible — for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she tries to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.."
"The government lied about Pearl Harbor too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack."
Discussing the 9/11 attacks he said: "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... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.". Meaning we deserved what we got.
Now lets look at some facts about Obama's relationship to Rev. Wright:
FACTS:
- Obama met Wright in the late 1980's
- Rev. Wright married Barrack and Michelle.
- Rev. Wright baptized Barrak's children.
- Obama's 2006 memoir "The Audacity of Hope" title was inspired by one of Rev. Wrights sermons.
- According to Obama's own speech titled "A More Perfect Union" he described Rev. Wright as both a role model and a spiritual mentor.
- In 2007 Rev. Wright was appointed to Barrack Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee. This was a group of over 170 national black religious leaders who supported Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination.
Regardless of what you want to assume about Barrack's relationship with Rev. Wright, how often he actually attended the church, or what he may have thought about the sermons one must consider for themselves what they would have done in Barracks position. Would you have sat there and quietly listened while someone ranted bigotry, racisms, and anti-Americanism? I hope not and I would expect you to hold Barrack to that same standard. Why didn't he denounce Rev. Wright even once for 20 years until it became an issue during the campaign? I don't want to believe Barrak feels the same way about white people as Rev. Wright, Cone and Hopkins do. I choose to believe that maybe he lacked the courage to argue with a man he thought of as a mentor. But, then you also have to ask, how much influence on my life have people had I consider role models and or spiritual mentors? How much influence have the teachings of Rev. Wright, Cone, and Hopkins had on Obama's life?
Conclusion:
We can't say for sure that Obama is a racist nor unpatriotic and I do not mean to label him as such. We can assume that Rev. Wright is a bigot, racist and unpatriotic based on his comments both on and off the pulpit. We can draw clear conclusions that the Black Liberation Theology has a racist slant which is hardly Christian. The idea of the Black Liberation Theology completely washes over the historical importance that Christianity had on the abolishment of slavery in the USA. We know that Obama did not denounce a man he himself called a role model until it became necessary to maintain his political career. These points are difficult to argue against. Therefore few possible conclusions can be drawn. Either Obama lacked the courage and conviction to rise up against racism and bigotry or he agreed with it. So if he lacks the courage or conviction to stand up to one such as Rev. Wright how can we expect him to stand up for us as our President? If he agrees with the sermons then what path will he lead our country down? How many times have you sat silent while someone spewed hate, bigotry and racism? As a minimum maybe you can say, well I never denounced a hate monger but I chose not to further associate with them. All Obama would have had to do is walk away from Wright, his teachings and his church. He didn't. Maybe it was because he saw it as a means to further his career? A reverend of a church in a mostly black community with approximately 10,000 parishioners might have had something to do with it. Or maybe it was because he agrees with those ideals of Wright. How many of you call racists mentors and role models? No one I want as a friend does. No one I want as a President should.
This is the final associate from Obama's past we'll be discussing here. Of course there are other's we could bring up but I think the three I've posted about (Raila Odinga, Bill Ayers, and Rev. Wright) are the prime 3 which are "officially" in his past. They supposedly have no direct contact with him today. So now lets look at people which he is still currently in contact with. The next few posts will focus on his association since becoming President. I'd like to specifically look at the people he has chosen to elevate into positions of power in government. As we go forward please ask yourselves this: If these people are Communists, Marxists, racists, and in general radicals and extremists why then would Obama hire these people and/or associate with them if he didn't appreciate and value their point of view?
