So, You Want a Theocracy Now?

Lots of people don't like Rev. Jeremiah Wright today. The blogosphere is full of fear and resentment -- Wright is going to bring Obama down. Wright is going to remind white people that black people remember slavery, discrimination, and racism. Wright is going to remind white people that maybe God is not all that happy with them and the way they've treated black people. Wright is going to remind white people how difficult it has been for black people to survive in America. I don't know what's going to happen to Obama now, but for me, Wright's problem is not that he remembers and reminds us of the black American experience, it is that he brings God into the political marketplace.

Wright's expressed reason for speaking out (and possibly wrecking Obama's presidential bid) is that he feels he must defend the Black church from criticism. Right here is the trouble with churches -- they don't like to be criticized, and they don't think they should be criticized. If you criticize them, they tell you you are being disrespectful and sacreligious. It is not that the Pastor disagrees with you, it is that God disagrees with you and therefore you must be punished. Somehow, people are always more offended when they are told that God Himself is not on their side.

Isn't it interesting that there are so many churches in America who all more or less disagree with one another? Hagee hates and fears Catholics. Falwell hoped to see the end of public schools. Robertson declared that "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians." Wright may be more correct about the history of Americans and black people in America than any of these pastors, but he is more like them than he is unlike them in that he sees attacks on him as attacks on the Black church, and he feels obliged to defend it. If Obama is required to repudiate Wright, then why isn't McCain required to repudiate Hagee? Well, only for this reason -- Hagee controls more votes. The fact of the matter is, all of the candidates have to pander to constituents who will not admit that in the last 70 years -- to say the least -- US policy has done a great deal of harm around the world and that that harm has aroused hatred and vengefulness toward the US. A candidate who won't admit or doesn't know that is the one who can get elected, but a president who can't admit or doesn't know that will continue to course of American destruction that Bush and Cheney have sent us down. Bush didn't know "why they hate us". Cheney did know, but didn't care.

The crossroads we find ourselves at was an inevitable one. I always knew some preacher would get some president or some presidential aspirant into big trouble. I naively hoped that it would be a rightwinger and his hate-spewing Robertson/Falwell power mongering hypocrite. I should have known it would someone who actually knows something about American history. But Obama wouldn't have this problem if Americans didn't have the idea that their president has to be a man of faith. If Americans thought that the president just had to be an intelligent and knowledgeable person, a competent policy wonk and an inspiring public speaker, Obama would be home free. But as an atheist, or an agnostic, or even someone who kept his beliefs to himself, Obama would have never had a chance. He could be ten times as smart and well-prepared as George W. Bush, but he would never get the votes. So, what Obama has been honest about his religious journey in a way that NO OTHER CANDIDATE HAS, and now even Bob Herbert wants him to abase himself for it. I'm sure Clinton's and McCain's pastors are going to come under similar scrutiny (Ha!). They should, because maybe if they did, the American people (and the press) would wake up from this madness of making politics about religion.

Update: As a result of Obama's smartly-phrased repudiation of Rev. Wright, I call upon John McCain to repudiate, in similar terms and at similar length, his relationship with Rev. Hagee, and for Hillary Clinton to openly discuss and repudiate her relationship to her Capitol Hill prayer fellowship led by Doug Coe. Among other things, According to Mother Jones, "The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan." God's plan, according to them, seems to be "'spiritual war' on behalf of Christ". I, as a patriotic American, am at least as offended and frightened by anything Doug Coe and Sam Brownback are planning as I am by anything Rev. Wright is planning. Obama has repudiated Wright as forthrightly and gracefully as possible. Now I want the same from the others. The press must hold Clinton and McCain to the same standard as Obama. Hagee and Coe must go.

Comments

[Geauterre]

Jane, the idea of a separation of church and state is certainly admirable. Unfortunately, a quick study of our history reveals it to be no more than 1700's lip service. Think pluralistic republic. That concept expresses what we have, not what we wish we had.

[moses]

For God's sake, Huffpo, give this post TOP BILLING.

[Abroad]

I am not sure Americans are that much interested in a president's faith, nor am I convinced Americans are as truthfully faithful as the media claims. IMHO, it is the candidate's fault if they spontaneously come up with the topic as Obama did at the beginning of his campaign.

JFK had the right attitude, defending the point that religion is a private matter and that the President's job is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and hence religious freedom. (Including of course the right not to believe.)

Had the candidates stuck to this rather than bore us to sobs with their relationship with Him we wouldn't be in this mess.

Imagine that if every time they were asked a "god" question they gave systematically the same answer "President of the USA is by definition a secular position, and I will defend your right to believe or not believe as I will have sworn at my inauguration. Next question?"

They might lose a few votes in the bible belt, but they could just as well win support from those, believers as well as unbelievers, who are sick and tired of politicians "preaching".

[irishgawdess]

Gee, does this mean that Obama’s *not* a Muslim? Think it will convince anyone? Somehow , I doubt it.

[newshawk14]

As one who has always has admired Aldous Huxely's phrase from his book, "Eyeless in Gaza",
where he described God as the Great Gaseous Invertebrate, I think I'll simply stay above the fray.

[knighthowl]

Thank you for nothing.

[newshawk14]

You exhibit neither a sense of humor or intelligence.

[WIpatriot]

Let us pray you become touched by the noodley appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[dlswriter]

Jesus! How ironic. My candidate is going down because he went to the church of a Marine preacher. Of all the evils religion is responsible for, I sure didn't see this one coming.

[thatvisionthing]

Not after Silver Star winner John Kerry was swiftboated and AWOL Bush was installed as Commander in Chief just in time to mislead us into war? Really?

[feelfree]

Jane Smiley writes as if the criticism of Wright was thoughtful and intellectual in the blogosphere and MSM. Most of what I read is irrational fear, ignorance, and/or dismay. First it appears the good white media did not understand his preaching style.They thought he was angry, blacks knew he was enthusiastic about his topic. They did not know that it is fairly known in the black community that there are blacks who believe HIV was created by the U.S. government to kill blacks people. It was not news to me that there are blacks who believe it. It kinda has a ring of truth when the infection rate is higher among blacks and of all 7 continents only Africa has an HIV epidemic. The media acts as if Wright is the only black person on the Earth that believes this. There are blacks who appreciate the efforts of Louis Farrakhan. The Nation of Islam has done commendable work in the black community especially with black males.

And I don't know why Hagee and Wright are being written about in the same space. One is nothing like the other. Hagee is free to speak his mind no matter how hateful because he is white. He will never be called the names that Wright has been called and he will never receive the level of criticism that Wright has received. Hagee has the privilege of being white in America, Wright does not.

[knighthowl]

Did you ever think Africa has an HIV epidemic because it started there?

[TRex86]

All continents have an HIV epidemic. The mode of spread is somewhat different. It jumped from Africa to Europe to the USA via gay sex in the late 70's but remained heterosexual in Africa due certain practices of female prostitutes using vaginal emollients. Since the initial wave of gay HIV in most modern countries it is driven by IV drug abuse. Our idiotic policies on drugs will make it impossible to eradicate in the USA.
Africa remains a case of abject poverty with most countries' per capita GDP at about $200, making any sort of systematic eradication impossible. Of course, the USA is too pre-occupied with the exaggerated threat of terrorism to attend to real threats to human life like HIV. Diverting a fraction of our military budget to research would probably get a cure for this tricky RNA retrovirus, but in the "minds" of our ruling racists, homophobes and xenophobes--why waste money on that?

[bbdmartin]

JANE, YOU MISSED THE WHOLE THING! DIDN'T YOU SEE THAT THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE "BLACK CHURCH AND BLACK AMERICA"! JANE, I AM BLACK! WHILE I ADMIRE YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE SHAMEFUL CRIMES THAT MY ELDERS AND ANCESTORS HAD TO ENDURE, REV. WRIGHT WAS USING THAT ISSUE TO HIDE BEHIND HIS REAL MOTIVES. YEAH, HIS SPEECHES TALKED A GOOD GAME.."DIFFERENT DOES NOT MEAN DEFICIENT" AND "EMBRACING DIFFERENCES TOWARDS RECONCILIATION"...BUT WHEN HE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY DURING THE "Q&A" SECTION OF THE NATL. PRESS CLUB, TO REALLY AND IN A GENUINE WAY, EXEMPLIFY HOW HIS MESSAGES COULD BE IMPLEMENTED; HE CHOSE TO BELITTLE, MOCK, SCOLD, AND AS WE SAY IN THE "BLACK" COMMUNITY...SHOW OUT! THEN HE UNDERMINED THE MESSAGES AND NULLIFIED IT ALL. HE WANTED TO SHOW HIS MASSIVE INTELLECT BUT GOT CAUGHT SHOWING HIS EGO. HE WANTED IT TO BE CLEAR THAT SEN. OBAMA WAS ON HIS "LIST" AND "ACTED A FOOL" (THAT'S ALSO WHAT WE SAY) SO, AGAIN JANE, TAKE IT FROM SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS....THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE "BLACK CHURCH" AND EVERYTHING TO DO ABOUT REV. WRIGHT AND SENDING A MESSAGE TO SENATOR OBAMA.

[Rog49Thomas]

Disagree.

This is all about race.

Brother Obama is like Sister Oprah - the sort of black that most whites could see inviting over to a party. (Look how tolerant I am I have a black "friend").

So, the task of the Republican slime machine is to make Brother Obama into one of those "angry brothers" that the soccer moms et al will fear. Williie Horton for this election.

Paging Reverend Wright and Reverend Farrakhan.

Why do I say this?

Look closely at the media.

Is there any hue and cry over the crazy positions taken by McCrazy's spiritual leaders?

Frankly (and I may be biased), I think Wright's comments "pale" (no pun intended) in comparison with Hagee's and others.

[friedeggonpavement]

Amen. If separation of church and state was evolved and well, we also wouldn’t have to watch GOP ads compare religion “is the opiate of the people” to “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or…”.

[mlaiuppa]

Get real. Do you really think McCain or Clinton are going to say anything about *their* extreme religious connections with the right-wing media constantly hammering on Wright? Hagee has never received the coverage Wright has and pretty much no one knows about Coe and the prayer group. And the media isn't going to clue the public in on any of it. Wright is way too easy.

So a little reality check. The right-wing media has already decided the contest is going to be between McCain and Clinton and they will do anything it takes to make that happen. You haven't seen anything yet. There was no Obama love-fest. They were just building him up so they could really score when they took him down.

[MinerSam]

I do agree with your last point and you have not seen anything yet. It is the Republican controlled Media that built up Dean and then knocked him down obsessively for 10 days over nothing. Gore, why he was "too wooden" to be President. And Kerry (Why all they did was give the Swiftboat Liars tens of billions in free air time.

But I repeat, you aint seen nothin yet regarding Obama. I can think of 3 things that will make the Swifboaters look like kindergarden, and they have nothing to do with religion.

What kind of extremist religious connection does Clinton have? Anything to do with the fact that Bill Clinton moved his office to the middle of Harlem when he left the White House?

Or is it the fact that Obama's lead campaign guy, Axelrod, made it so any critisim of Obama would be called racist?

[not one of the sheep]

We have to get on Moyers, Rather, Olbermann, and those types for being mouth pieces for the Republican controlled Media. Say What?

[dadw5boys]

SO YOU MISSED THE RIGHT WING MEDIA HAMMERING ON HILLARY?????

[LinusBern]

Obama became a 5th column Muslim member of a radical black christian church, Latte-drinking Elitist (who refuses coffee for orange juice) and a Marxist who thinks religion is the opiate of the masses. It doesn't matter that almost all of these accusations is incompatible with the others, the people who make them don't believe any of them are true they just figure to throw the whole toolbox at the candidate and something will stick. In this same period, we find the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Richard Mellon Scaife suddenly standing up for Clinton. And if the day comes that Clinton takes the lead again she'll be hit with a shit bath and Obama will be the Golden One again.

And while this is going on McCain gets to skate from one stupid blunder to the next while the press cheers him on.

[DatelessNerd]

As long as America's Nash McCabes insist that their Presidents believe the universe was created 5000 years ago by a tall, gray-bearded, caucasian superbeing in a robe--we're screwed.

It's time to put the big brains in charge.

[awcbuddy8]

Yes, somebody with maral upbringing is quite possibly the worst thing...ever. Don't we really want a president who feels that he is really master and he answers to nobody. At least Bush has God. But I should not worry, if ever a president finds himself in a moral quandary, they can use google to find out how they should fell...because hey, MAN KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS EVERYTHING!

[RussSanchez]

Thats right awkbud, nobody can possibly be a moral and just person without being a Xtian.

[MizLiz]

Bush has God? Really? If he does, it must be the God who looks after rich people.

Come on, you know all that phony blather about God and faith is just saying what silly people want to hear from their president. I don't know why, I'd rather have the president announce 10,000 new jobs paying family wages, and for that he could worship an old meerkat if he wanted to.

[LinusBern]

I don't think Bush so much answers to god as uses god as his alibi. It doesn't matter what facts or reality are, Bush knows better because god is guiding him. I'd rather go with rational thought than accept the word of a politician that god is guiding his actions.

[nolabels]

Excellent post! You nailed it!
As a card-carrying nonbeliever I say thank you for putting into words what I have been complaining to my friends about for some time. I am sure many American politicians don't believe in the fairy in the sky but they have to say that they do. Why? Believing in the absurd bestows some special leadership abilities upon a person? Nope... I want brains - not crazy.
As a huge Obama supporter I say thank you for asking for fairness. If the name Hagee is uttered, people scratch their heads. The hate that that man teaches is deplorable and inexcusable but nobody holds McCain accountable for accepting his endorsement. Hillary's group is no better but again, she gets a free ride.
The only thing I would add is that Obama is getting attacked on this front because there is no other front for which they can launch an attack. They have tried everything else and he has sailed through unscathed. His detractors know what the last resort is - appeal to the public's love affair with the supernatural. Undermine someone's religion and you win.
I fear for this country. Let's please remember that prosperity comes from intellect not hocus pocus.

[julianne]

After all the theocratic- traitor-theiving-monarchist- fundamentalist-genocidal-trash, Reverend Wright from Chicago gets Senator Obama crucified by the press. Surreal. The press in the U.S. is now a real disease, an affliction on us and and world. Personally, I believe that tens of millions of people believe what Reverend Wright stated, overall, is more true than not, unless you think they pulled the Patriot Act out of a drawer after 9/11 or Ruby shot Osward because he was in love with Jackie 'O' or all those exposions and severed beams in the Twin Towers were promulgated by "fuel". The problem with Reverend Wright is he got all hyped-up and arrogant, a fault which many of us can certainly identify. And no one can "persuade" a virulent, repressed, angry, fearlful hillbilly anything, let alone a Reverend Wright. Let's hope that all the death and dismemberment, torture, war profiterring, economic destruction, poverty, and fear will, somehow, make up for Reverend Wright's overzealousness before the election.