Obama is a Muslim Because of How Much Influence Jeremiah Wright Has Over Him; -- Say What?

As friend of a friend and political activist Jeff Spurr emailed me today:

"The Clinton crew have shown an alarming inclination to derive the wrong message from the Rovian playbook of 2000 & 2004. They learned that smear and distortion and the constant repetition of untruths or misleading characterizatons until they sound like the real thing is what a successful campaign is about. This is awful... given that Hillary et al. acting as if Obama is from the opposite party... and nothing matters but taking him out."

You may or may not support Obama as I do, but unless you are Geraldine Ferraro maybe you'll want to make up your mind based on facts. So please check out the following links. One will take you to an article by Ari Berman on the lies being spread about Obama by both the religious right (Jewish and Christian) and the Clintons. As Berman notes, "What floods into one's inbox these days bears little or no relation to Obama's record... Even if the false claims about Obama originally emanated from the neoconservative right, the Clinton campaign has eagerly pushed them." The other link takes you to a wonderful -- dare I say unique -- 39 min. lecture by Obama. It's about his actual Christian faith, and his actual views about the separation of church and state and the proper relationship of faith, good works and politics. If you really want to know what Obama believes please watch. The Obama talk struck me as a word from a new founding father of a saner, better America. His lecture is a rare and lucid moral document about everything America should and could be with the right leadership. As someone who grew up in the home of a religious right-wing leader, was active on the theocratic right myself, dropped out, changed my ways and was looking for an expression of a better way to combine faith and politics, the Obama talk came to me like a thunderbolt of enlightenment. It's simply the best talk I've ever heard from a political leader, theologian or philosopher on the subject of the delicate tightrope balance between religion and political action in a free yet often religious society. It is important.

"Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"

Comments

[nomobull]

i would advise them to stop before it reaches the level of water hoses and dogs. and they turn from her in droves

[TheOtherMaven]

Mr. Schaeffer: you're using logic. Logic has nothing to do with it, unfortunately.

[rovezaleeker]

Obama is a Muslim and so is Hillary because Rodham rhymes with Saddam and so is Dick Durbin because Durbin rhymes with turban and John McCain is a member of the IRA because his name sounds Irish. God damn it, I know I'm right. What is wrong with you people? How could it be any more plain? I mean really. I'm voting for the person I'd rather have a beer with anyway. Tinfoil is not just for cooking turkeys. It makes wonderful hats.

[Marshetti]

Your editorial is as misguided(ing) as it is blind and obtuse. Who knows what Obama is in his heart? I don't, and surprise, neither do you. I don't think he's a Muslim, but I now know he has spent twenty years listening to Rev. Jeramiah Wright's messages of hate. It does help me to understand how Michele Obama--with a degree from one of the finest universities in the world, married to a man who has attained a seat in the Senate and is running for the position as the most powerful man in the world, living in a million dollar home--can say "It's the first time in my adult life I've been proud of my country." Oh, but we can't really say anything about that, can we? Oh, or how about Michelle Obama saying she'd like to scratch Bill Clinton's eyes out.

Anyone with any intelligence whatsoever who doesn't see the relevance of Barach Obama attending a church for twenty years, led by a man he himself describes as a spiritual advisor, who married him and baptized his children, and who preaches a doctrine of hatred, revenge and division is a fool.

[TheOtherMaven]

Context, context, context. Rev. Wright appears to be, or to have become in his later years, one of those people who not only (to borrow from an old off-color Catholic joke) call a spade a fr!ggin' shovel, they pick up the shovel and proceed to smack the clueless around with it. This leads to a few of them getting a clue, and a lot of them (and even more outsiders) thinking he's cuckoo for cocoa puffs (or worse).

There is absolutely no evidence to indicate that Barack Obama learned any of that sort of behavior, and significant evidence that Rev. Wright actually failed (miserably!) at one of a mentor's most important duties: to learn from his student.

[tanyainsacramento]

PEOPLE NEED TO STOP READING/WATCHIN CNN TO GET THEIR "FACTS"...THEY ALSO NEED TO STOP LOOKING AT SUPPORTERS AND HOLDING THE CANDIDATES ACCOUNTABLE (EX:damon & affleck, white, ferraro, simmons, etc) WHEN A POLITICAL CANDIDATE SAYS HOW HE/SHE FEELS AND WHAT HE/SHE PLANS TO DO...THEN SHOWS YOU HOW THEY HANDLE BUSINESS...THEN THAT IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DETERMINE YOUR OPINION...TOO MANY FOLLOWERS AND NOT ENOUGH LEADERS...YOU SEE PASTOR WHITE SHARE HIS OPINIONS AND THEN ALL THE SUDDEN PEOPLE ACT AS IF OBAMA SAID IT...SAME WITH FERRARO..I SEE SO MANY ARTICLES POSTED ABOUT PEOPLE THAT ARENT CANDIDATES..AND THEN COMMENTS WITH PEOPLE DOWNING THE CANDIDATE BASED ON THE ARTICLE ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE..ITS ELEMENTRY!!!

ALSO, IF YOUR A CHURCH GOER THEN YOU UNDERSTAND, YOUR PASTOR IS HIS OWN PERSON..HE CAN INSPIRE YOU IN ONE SERMON AND THEN MAKE YOU GO "EHHH" IN THE NEXT...KINDA LIKE A PARENT..THEY HAVE THEIR OPINIONS, THEY RAISE YOU AND INFLUENCE YOU, BUT THEN YOU BECOME AN ADULT AND MAKE YOUR OWN DESCISIONS...AND MOST OF THE TIME YOUR DESCISIONS ARE MOLDED BY YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND WHAT YOUR PARENTS HAVE TAUGHT YOU...AND SOMETIMES THAT SWAYS IT IN THEIR DIRECTION AND SOMETIMES IT SWAYS IT IN THE OPPSITE DIRECTION...WITH A MORE BROADER VIEW AND A BETTER OUTLOOK..ALL THIS HOOP-LAH WITH OBAMA'S PASTOR IS BS...HE MIGHT BE THE REASON WHY OBAMA IS SOOO GOOD AT UNIFYING PEOPLE..BECAUSE HE HAS THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE FROM ALL WALKS, TO INFLUENCE HIS OPINIONS AND DESCISIONS...

[tanyainsacramento]

thank you

[LeftRight]

As they said in the article, If Moses was the democratic candidate, he'd be facing this kind of attack. Hell, if JESUS was the democratic candidate, they'd be complaining that he's a Jew!!

[Nommo]

And Dr. King was a communist. Does it ever end?