The Wright Questions For Obama

[Controlled Chaos]

 

The Wright Questions For Obama

By Michael Medved

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

 

Barack Obama continues to face controversy over his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright because his comments about the provocative pastor have been contradictory, evasive, misleading and unsatisfying. The issue will begin to dissipate only when the Senator gives better answers to better questions.

 

Here are some of the Wright (and right) questions for Obama to address:

 

1. You’ve recently suggested that Pastor Wright has already acknowledged that he spoke inappropriately from the pulpit, and this acknowledgment allowed you to continue as a member of his church. On ABC’s “The View” (March 28, 2008) you commented: “Had the Reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people, and were inappropriate, and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church.” Since Wright’s made no public statements of apology or regret concerning his controversial sermons and articles, does your comment indicate that he’s apologized privately to you? Would you urge him to make a public apology or correction or clarification? If not, is it because you believe his misstatements weren’t serious enough to demand it?

 

2. You’ve repeatedly spoken of Wright’s “outrageous” or “offensive” remarks, but never specified which specific comments you had in mind. Where, precisely, did Wright go wrong?

 

3. Do you agree with Pastor Wright (and with many other leaders in the African-American community) that black people suffer disproportionately from drugs and AIDS because of a government conspiracy? If not the government, who is responsible for the vastly higher rates of HIV and serious drug abuse in the black community? Does it help empower the Black community to blame the government for self-destructive choices and behavior?

 

4. For at least ten years during your membership at Trinity United Church of Christ, official church policy emphasized a “Black Value System.” The Church website declared: “These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered.” As the child of a bi-racial couple, and a candidate who promises to unify the country, did you ever feel uncomfortable by the insistent and prominent emphasis on “Black Values” and “Black Ethics” – rather than values and ethics that were American, universal, or even Christian? How would you characterize “black ethics” as different from the ethics that your white neighbors follow? What aspect of “black values” did you receive in your entirely white upbringing – raised by your WASP mother and grandparents? Would you feel at all uncomfortable if a potential running mate affiliated with a church that pledged undying loyalty to “white values”?

 

5. In the teaching of Reverend Wright and his adult education classes, as well as the Sunday school of his church, there’s a major emphasis on the Black identity of Jesus Christ. The stained glass windows at the church identify Jesus with the dark skin tone of sub-Saharan Africa. To your church, the racial identity of Jesus matters a great deal. Does it matter to you? Do you personally believe that Jesus was black?

 

6. If you don’t think he was black, have you done anything to correct the misimpression your little girls would have received in church?

 

7. If you think it’s true that Jesus was black, then you obviously believe that most Jews of First Century Judea also looked like today’s Africans. If that’s true, do you agree with Minister Farrakhan that Twenty-First Century Jews and Israelis are imposters and interlopers with no ancestral connection to the Holy Land, and that black Africans represent the true Israelites and Chosen People? Do you believe that your many Jewish supporters would feel comfortable with this religious vision?

 

8. You have commented elsewhere that you consider Hamas a terrorist organization (as does our government) and wouldn’t negotiate with these Islamic thugs and killers. In this context, are you comfortable with Reverend Wright featuring a pro-Hamas manifesto on “The Pastor’s Page” of the church newsletter (July 22,2007)? This anti-Israel diatribe was written by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook, an indicted terrorist conspirator currently believed to be a fugitive in Syria. Do you agree with Reverend Wright’s positive labeling of Marzook’s column as “A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle”? Do you also agree with Dr. Wright’s practice in the church bulletin (July 8, 2007) of using quotation marks to identify “the ‘state’ of Israel”?

 

9. Given your recognition that some of the statements and positions of Reverend Wright count as “offensive” and “outrageous,” aren’t you surprised that none of your fellow church members alerted you to those explosive declarations until recently? If you heard nothing about discomfort and indignation over Wright’s extremist views doesn’t it suggest that the entire church – not just its former pastor – is actually on the political and religious fringe?

 

10. When did you first become aware of the radical and anti-American views of your pastor? If you knew nothing about them, then why did you cancel plans for Wright to participate in your announcement of candidacy more than a year ago – in January, 2007?

 

11. On “The View” you suggested that people have received the wrong idea about Pastor Wright. “What you have seen is a snippet of a man,” you said. “Imagine if somebody compiled the five stupidest things you ever said and put them in a 30 second loop that was played every day for two weeks.” Obviously, Pastor Wright doesn’t agree that the now notorious sound bites are among the “five stupidest things he ever said” – otherwise, he wouldn’t have proudly sold DVD’s of such comments, and he would have promptly apologized for them. Have you explored your obvious divergence in viewpoint with Pastor Wright – explaining why you consider his remarks “stupid” and inquiring why he won’t acknowledge them as such?

 

12. You have said repeatedly that you are a “devout Christian,” and pray every day. How has your faith evolved – particularly regarding the Black Liberation Theology endorsed by Trinity – since you joined the church two decades ago? As President, would you continue to worship at Afro-Centric churches which promote this theology, and would you invite your pastor to participate in the Inauguration and other state occasions?

 

Questions like those listed above could help Obama come to terms with the core of the controversy he continues to face. The dispute involves far more than a few random, out-of-context by an eccentric clergyman. It centers, rather, on questions of world-view, of philosophy, of core values. The American people have a right to wonder whether the world-view and “black ethics” of a flamboyantly radical church reflect the personal philosophy of a potential president.

 

If not, then the long-term association of that candidate with the church in question raises profoundly disturbing questions about his authenticity and character.

 

 

 

Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host, is author of 10 non-fiction books, including The Shadow Presidents and Right Turns.

 

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Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve9347]

I'm so over this freaking thing.

 

W's folks did business with the Bin Ladens and the Husseins, and still got re-elected. Let's worry about things that REALLY MATTER.

[NorthSideSox72]

This is the one and only fair warning post. Feel free to discuss this topic, if you'd like. But if it gets snarky, its getting closed pretty quick.

 

[lostfan]

Yay, more commentary from conservative bloggers on Jeremiah Wright, I was waiting with baited breath for it.

 

Why are 5-6-7 even questions?

Edited April 2, 2008 by lostfan

[Texsox]

Bottom line *for me* and of course your mileage may vary.

 

If you lined up all the friends, relatives, pastors, co-workers, donors, campaign volunteers, attorneys, clients, hanger ons, baby sitters, people who call themselves friends, meter readers, landscapers, hairdressers, and check out clerk at their favorite grocery store, every candidate is going to have some scumbags on the list. And each candidates supporters will explain, and truly believe, that their candidates scumbags are prettier then the other candidates scumbags. If you have time, and want to wail about the other guys scum bags, type away.

[GoSox05]

I honestly can't believe people are still bringing this up. It's mind blowing. With all the thing's that are important in this next election, all we can talk about is this. It's a joke. In fact it's bulls***.

 

Yet no one who bring's it up will say what they want done about it. Should Obama be kicked out of the party. Maybe arrested?

 

 

It's a witchhunt.

[jackie hayes]

It's Medved, what do you expect?

 

I'm surprised he didn't have

 

13. Mr Osama, why do you hate America and everything it stands for?

[bmags]

Why are you an angry black Muslim *cough*terrorist*cough*...excuse me...?

 

So we all know you were named after Saddam Hussein, your parents idols, and um, well lets see, what's your favorite color? black or red?

[Controlled Chaos]

I honestly can't believe people are still bringing this up. It's mind blowing. With all the thing's that are important in this next election, all we can talk about is this. It's a joke. In fact it's bulls***.

 

Yet no one who bring's it up will say what they want done about it. Should Obama be kicked out of the party. Maybe arrested?

It's a witchhunt.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't believe it should be swept under the rug like you do. I'm sorry this is blowing your mind...and that you think it's a joke or that you think it's bulls***.

 

A good start on what I would want done is for Obama to answer some of those questions.

[lostfan]

Questions like #4 and #12 really get on my nerves. Why ask? What in the hell do you think black values are? What, some kind of radical, racist separatist rhetoric? Hey how bout somebody ask me why we used to sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" after the national anthem in high school?

 

Actually I think the author does think that which is why he'd ask a question like #10.

[Texsox]

I'm sorry, but I don't believe it should be swept under the rug like you do. I'm sorry this is blowing your mind...and that you think it's a joke or that you think it's bulls***.

 

A good start on what I would want done is for Obama to answer some of those questions.

 

So that you will vote for him? Most of the people that give an credence to those questions, have already formed their answers, and it will not make a difference what he says.

[lostfan]

So that you will vote for him? Most of the people that give an credence to those questions, have already formed their answers, and it will not make a difference what he says.

$$$

[Controlled Chaos]

So that you will vote for him? Most of the people that give an credence to those questions, have already formed their answers, and it will not make a difference what he says.

No I won't vote for him, but I think there are a ton of people decided and undecided who would like to hear the answers to those questions.

[Texsox]

No I won't vote for him, but I think there are a ton of people decided and undecided who would like to hear the answers to those questions.

 

If they take those questions seriously, they won't decide in his favor, so don't lose any sleep over it.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Name the Patriot....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ope...3,0,92000.story

 

In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.

 

While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.

 

This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.

[Texsox]

Name the Patriot....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ope...3,0,92000.story

 

To be fair, that just shows a couple things

 

that people change.

who the military allows to serve.

[BearSox]

Questions like #4 and #12 really get on my nerves. Why ask? What in the hell do you think black values are? What, some kind of radical, racist separatist rhetoric? Hey how bout somebody ask me why we used to sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" after the national anthem in high school?

 

Actually I think the author does think that which is why he'd ask a question like #10.

All 14 of those questions are valid. I see nothing wrong with them. No one knows anything really about Obama. It'd be nice if he actually got some hardball questions instead of the usual crap he gets on shows like the view.

[Texsox]

All 14 of those questions are valid. I see nothing wrong with them. No one knows anything really about Obama. It'd be nice if he actually got some hardball questions instead of the usual crap he gets on shows like the view.

 

As valid as asking the other candidates if they stopped beating their kids

[Nokona]

All 14 of those questions are valid. I see nothing wrong with them. No one knows anything really about Obama. It'd be nice if he actually got some hardball questions instead of the usual crap he gets on shows like the view.

 

You do realize you asked for hardball questions from The View right?

[Texsox]

The issue with these types of questions, is the reader has already answered them. If Obama was to answer them, for those that are glamoring the most for answers, there are only two types of answers possible. The answers they have already decided on, or lies.

 

So unless his answers matched exactly what the audience already believes (which is to say the worse possible) they will dismiss what he has to say as lies.

[lostfan]

All 14 of those questions are valid. I see nothing wrong with them. No one knows anything really about Obama. It'd be nice if he actually got some hardball questions instead of the usual crap he gets on shows like the view.

They are valid if you have a certain (narrow) point of view and you've already made up your mind, as Tex said.

 

Let me put it this way... ask these questions at a white supremacist rally and you will get a standing ovation, ask these questions at a meeting with black separatists and you'll get your ass kicked. Half the questions are complete nonsense. Who cares if a pastor at a black church has pictures of Jesus with dark skin? I bet he has a black Santa Claus under his tree at Christmas too, is that important?

 

Bottom line, these are not serious questions for someone to ask if they want to start a serious dialogue about race that is different from what we've been doing. If someone can't at least make a half-assed effort to understand people that are different from them and are only interested in assigning blame, I see no reason their opinion should be responded to, acknowledged, or even respected.

Edited April 5, 2008 by lostfan

[StrangeSox]

All 14 of those questions are valid. I see nothing wrong with them. No one knows anything really about Obama. It'd be nice if he actually got some hardball questions instead of the usual crap he gets on shows like the view.

 

Just take a look at the logic train of this question:

7. If you think it’s true that Jesus was black, then you obviously believe that most Jews of First Century Judea also looked like today’s Africans. If that’s true, do you agree with Minister Farrakhan that Twenty-First Century Jews and Israelis are imposters and interlopers with no ancestral connection to the Holy Land, and that black Africans represent the true Israelites and Chosen People? Do you believe that your many Jewish supporters would feel comfortable with this religious vision?

 

"Mr. Obama, your church preaches that Jesus was black. It is fair to assume that you believe this. If you believe that Jesus was black, why do you and Minister Farrakhan hate Jews, and will your hatred of Jews affect their voting?"

 

Yeah. Totally valid and fair.

Edited April 5, 2008 by StrangeSox

[Controlled Chaos]

Excellent article

 

Obama and King

By JUAN WILLIAMS

April 4, 2008

 

Martin Luther King Jr. died at age 39; today, the 40th anniversary of his death, is the first time he has been gone longer than he lived.

 

Figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have tried to claim his place on the American stage. But at most they have achieved fame and wealth. What separated King from any would-be successor was his moral authority. He towered above the high walls of racial suspicion by speaking truth to all sides.

 

Now comes Barack Obama, a black man and a plausible national leader, who appeals across racial lines. But to his black and white supporters, Mr. Obama increasingly represents different things.

 

The initial base of support for Mr. Obama's presidential campaign came from young whites – who saw in him the ability to take the nation to a place where, to quote from King's "I Have A Dream" speech, "we shall be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."

 

Black voters rallied to Mr. Obama after whites in Iowa and New Hampshire showed they were willing to vote for him. Mr. Obama spoke directly to charges that he was not "black enough," that he was not a child of the civil rights movement because he grew up in Hawaii and has an Ivy League education, that he is too young, it is not his time, and even that his campaign is too risky because white racists might kill him.

 

Mr. Obama, his wife Michelle and supporters such as Oprah Winfrey make the case to black voters that he is the fruit of the struggles of King and others. They argue that this generation of black Americans does not have to wait for their turn to reach for the ultimate political power of the presidency.

 

Mr. Obama has carried a message of pride and self-sufficiency to black voters nationwide, who have rewarded him with support reaching 80% and higher. His candidacy has become, as the headline on Ebony magazine put it, a matter of having a black man as president "In Our Lifetime."

 

Among his white supporters, race is coincidental, not central, to his political identity. Mr. Obama is to them the candidate who personifies the promise of equal opportunity for all. But as black support has become central to his victories, this idealistic view has been increasingly at war with the portrayal, crafted by the senator to win black support, of him as the black candidate. The terrible tension between these racially distinct views now surrounds and threatens his campaign.

 

So far, Mr. Obama has been content to let black people have their vision of him while white people hold to a separate, segregated reality. He is a politician and, unlike King, his goal is winning votes, not changing hearts. Still, it is a key break from the King tradition to sell different messages to different audiences based on race, and to fail to challenge racial divisions in the nation.

 

Mr. Obama's major speech on race last month was forced from him only after a political crisis erupted: It became widely known that he'd sat for 20 years in the pews of a church where Rev. Jeremiah Wright lashed out at white people. The minister cursed America as worthy of damnation, made lewd suggestions about the nature of President Clinton's relationship with black voters, and embraced the paranoid idea that the white government was spreading AIDS among black people.

 

Here is where the racial tension at the heart of Mr. Obama's campaign flared into view. He either shared these beliefs or, lacking good judgment, decided it politically expedient for an ambitious young black politician trying to prove his solidarity with all things black, to be associated with these rants. His judgment and leadership on the critical issue of race is in question.

 

While speaking to black people, King never condescended to offer Rev. Wright-style diatribes or conspiracy theories. He did not paint black people as victims. To the contrary, he spoke about black people as American patriots who believed in the democratic ideals of the country, in nonviolence and the Judeo-Christian ethic, even as they overcame slavery, discrimination and disadvantage. King challenged white America to do the same, to live up to their ideals and create racial unity. He challenged white Christians, asking them how they could treat their fellow black Christians as anything but brothers in Christ.

 

When King spoke about the racist past, he gloried in black people beating the odds to win equal rights by arming "ourselves with dignity and self-respect." He expressed regret that some black leaders reveled in grievance, malice and self-indulgent anger in place of a focus on strong families, education and love of God. Even in the days before Congress passed civil rights laws, King spoke to black Americans about the pride that comes from "assuming primary responsibility" for achieving "first class citizenship."

 

Last March in Selma, Ala., Mr. Obama appeared on the verge of breaking away from the merchants of black grievance and victimization. At a commemoration of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights, he spoke in a King-like voice. He focused on traditions of black sacrifice, idealism and the need for taking personal responsibility for building strong black families and communities. He said black people should never "deny that its gotten better," even as the movement goes on to improve schools and provide good health care for all Americans. He then challenged black America, by saying that "government alone can't solve all those problems . . . it is not enough just to ask what the government can do for us -- it's important for us to ask what we can do for ourselves."

 

Mr. Obama added that better education for black students begins with black parents visiting their children's teachers, as well as turning off the television so children can focus on homework. He expressed alarm over the lack of appreciation for education in the black community: "I don't know who taught them that reading and writing and conjugating your verbs were something white. We've got to get over that mentality." King, he added later, believed that black America has to first "transform ourselves in order to transform the world."

 

But as his campaign made headway with black voters, Mr. Obama no longer spoke about the responsibility and the power of black America to appeal to the conscience and highest ideals of the nation. He no longer asks black people to let go of the grievance culture to transcend racial arguments and transform the world.

 

He has stopped all mention of government's inability to create strong black families, while the black community accepts a 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate. Half of black and Hispanic children drop out of high school, but he no longer touches on the need for parents to convey a love of learning to their children. There is no mention in his speeches of the history of expensive but ineffective government programs that encourage dependency. He fails to point out the failures of too many poverty programs, given the 25% poverty rate in black America.

 

And he chooses not to confront the poisonous "thug life" culture in rap music that glorifies drug use and crime.

 

Instead the senator, in a full political pander, is busy excusing Rev. Wright's racial attacks as the right of the Rev.-Wright generation of black Americans to define the nation's future by their past. He stretches compassion to the breaking point by equating his white grandmother's private concerns about black men on the street with Rev. Wright's public stirring of racial division.

 

And he wasted time in his Philadelphia speech on race by saying he can't "disown" Rev. Wright any more than he could "disown the black community." No one has asked him to disown Rev. Wright. Only in a later appearance on "The View" television show did he say that he would have left the church if Rev. Wright had not retired and not acknowledged his offensive language.

 

As the nation tries to recall the meaning of Martin Luther King today, Mr. Obama's campaign has become a mirror reflecting where we are on race 40 years after the assassination. Mr. Obama's success has moved forward the story of American race relations; King would have been thrilled with his political triumphs.

 

But when Barack Obama, arguably the best of this generation of black or white leaders, finds it easy to sit in Rev. Wright's pews and nod along with wacky and bitterly divisive racial rhetoric, it does call his judgment into question. And it reveals a continuing crisis in racial leadership.

 

What would Jesus do? There is no question he would have left that church.

 

[BigSqwert]

What would Jesus do?

Oh I dunno.....forgive?

[jackie hayes]

Oh I dunno.....forgive?

No, sir. Jesus would have written umpteen columns for TownHall and the WSJ and posted every single redundant one in a new thread. That's what Brian Boitano'd do.