When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.
Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.
Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.
Consider a few passages from my father's immensely influential America-bashing book A Christian Manifesto. It sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books. Nevertheless it sold more than a million copies.
Here's Dad writing in his chapter on civil disobedience:
If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the US government]... then at a certain point force is justifiable.
In the United States the materialistic, humanistic world view is being taught exclusively in most state schools... There is an obvious parallel between this and the situation in Russia [the USSR]. And we really must not be blind to the fact that indeed in the public schools in the United States all religious influence is as forcibly forbidden as in the Soviet Union....
Then this:
There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate... A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion... It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God's law it abrogates it's authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation...
Was any conservative political leader associated with Dad running for cover? Far from it. Dad was a frequent guest of the Kemps, had lunch with the Fords, stayed in the White House as their guest, he met with Reagan, helped Dr. C. Everett Koop become Surgeon General. (I went on the 700 Club several times to generate support for Koop).
Dad became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator. When Dad died in 1984 everyone from Reagan to Kemp to Billy Graham lamented his passing publicly as the loss of a great American. Not one Republican leader was ever asked to denounce my dad or distanced himself from Dad's statements.
Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America white conservative Americans and top political leaders, called our words "godly" and "prophetic" and a "call to repentance."
We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.
My dad's books denouncing America and comparing the USA to Hitler are still best sellers in the "respectable" evangelical community and he's still hailed as a prophet by many Republican leaders. When Mike Huckabee was recently asked by Katie Couric to name one book he'd take with him to a desert island, besides the Bible, he named Dad's Whatever Happened to the Human Race? a book where Dad also compared America to Hitler's Germany.
The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to "bear arms" as "insurance" to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as "fallen away from God" at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.
Today we have a marriage of convenience between the right wing fundamentalists who hate Obama, and the "progressive" Clintons who are playing the race card through their own smear machine. As Jane Smiley writes in the Huffington Post "[The Clinton's] are, indeed, now part of the 'vast right wing conspiracy.' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/im-already-against-the-n_b_90628.html
Both the far right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clintons are using the "scandal" of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency. Funny thing is, the racist Clinton/Far Right smear machine proves that Obama's minister had a valid point. There is plenty to yell about these days.
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
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
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I am glad that Obama sit under Rev Wright for 20 years because that is where he found Jesus at that Church He could have went somewhere else and but he stayed. I seen the Sermon and he was only quoteing what someone else said. But if anyone say that their Pastor has not made a Racial remark about some race in Church or out of Church than you are telling a lie and the truth is not in you. I am pretty sure that Obama could had left the Church but he could had gone some where else a little worst. And we would be on here talking about something different.
That is where God put him. Not Man.
Obama is a strong Black man. You have throw everything at him but the Kitchen sink. And that is what
those Sermon has taught him. Now it is time for a CHANGE.
So sweep around your own back door, before you sweep around Obama. He did not preach that Sermon. He was not even there. And and another thing that Sermon is not new.
Confusing God & Government (God Damn America)
http://ode
The day of Jerusalem’
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Because his preacher is no worse than yours.
Sorry that something must have turned you off from what your father preached. His writing was often quoted decades ago. I dont know your father's personal views, but the public belief of the evangelica
I dont know if your analogy about the Rev. Wright's statements is quite applicable here.
I wish for healing in your life.
Obama said he could no more denounce Wright in spite of his inflammato
Are you denouncing your father's preaching, or him?
though I cannot agree with your view, I respect your courage for speaking up.
I am drawn to wish you well and God's peace.
Temple
America the beautiful MY FOOT!!!!!!
Another judgment issue: if Obama was so anti-war why did he support, endorse, campaign and fundraise for Joe Lieberman instead of the democratic candidate chosen by the democratic voters of Connecticu
Why didn't he take actions in the Senate to do everything possible to STOP the WAR?
Obama is not a savior. And he's not consistent
There are reasons people are skeptical -- and it doesn't make us racist. It makes us rational and willing to see facts instead of emotion. And to see contradict
Just like the media hyped Bush and his war, they continue to be lazy, biased, incompeten
I don't plan to endorse or condone that crap now anymore than I did then. Remember that classic definition of insanity about repeating the same thing over and over and over?
This entire start to the 21st century is like a very bad combinatio
Officially crazy, nutso, insane. Pardon me if I don't want to join that psychosis.
Lieberman FOUNDED THE DLC!
The naturally enough Obama supported his mentor in the primary. Obama did barely support Lamont for the general election, Obama sent 5000$ and a lukewarm endorsemen
Hillary has been a Chairperso
HRC = DLC = Lieberman = Corporatis
Check out this DLC Lieberman love fest: You love Lieberman, right? You know, the guy who wrote the authorizat
http://www
wright is as crazy as any rightwing crazy, i don't care where the crazy comes from, it deserves to be held up, and be accounted for by those who wish to associate with them AND hold public office.
obama compromise
courageous would be attending a multi-cult
obama appears spirituall
i can't believe he let this guy baptize his kids.
Ms. Clinton says that "a" speech discussing race should have been made -- well, well, well -- Ms. Clinton WHY DIDN'T YOU MAKE IT!!?
BO argues that Reverend Wright is like family, he couldn’t disown him like he couldn’t’ disown the black community. If BO can truly make that argument acceptable to America then he has justificat
The major problem with this argument is this preacher is not his family. He CHOSE Reverend Wright. He CHOSE to look past the angry, hurtful rhetoric. He CHOSE to let their relationsh
I have had made new friends over the years and am currently 31. When I meet someone new and he makes a racist comment I call him on it. When I meet someone older or a client I may not, however I do recognize it and take note. I may even become friendly with the older person but I keep a safe distance. If there was a situation like BO is in I WOULD NOT hesitate to drop them. I wouldn't let a relationsh
BO I say this to you:
You were there. You saw the signs. You let them pass. You have a major character flaw. I will happily show you how to deal with people and how to create proper relationsh
I wonder if Oprah turned away from this preacher in the 80s as a result of his anger? Did she see the paradox that we all see now with wanting to be loving/acc
BO came from a totally different world than Wright. He associated with him so he could understand better the plights the AA have suffered in America so he could deal with them and not hide from them.
The "racist Clinton Smear Machine"..