Wednesday April 30, 2008, 8:13 pm
Today, Senator Barack Obama felt compelled to disassociate himself from his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Not only from the snippets of Rev. Wright's sermons - largely taken out of context by vile humans like Sean Hannity at FOX News, in order to smear Senator Obama - but also from his speech at the National Press Club yesterday, as well as from anything Rev. Wright might say in the future. It appears to be an irreparable breach.

Brainless partisans, such as those who further abuse their already limited intellectual faculties by watching O'Reilly and Hannity on FOX, will hear much about the tactics behind Obama's move, as well as repetition ad nauseam about how poorly Obama's ties to Rev. Wright reflect on his own "judgment."

Yet, properly understood, the breach has nothing to do with Senator Obama's judgment. It represents only a belated recognition by him that the objectives of a politician cannot possibly be the objectives of a pastor. Even the brain-dead should understand that a politician who seeks to unify the country in order to solve its problems, as does Senator Obama, cannot possibly say "God Damn America" for its sins of slavery and Jim Crow or ask why "America's sin of racism has never even been confessed, much less repented for."

Although it was inelegantly phrased, Rev. Wright got it right when he observed that, while Senator Obama must satisfy and be accountable to the electorate, a pastor must be accountable to God. Fortunately Rev. Wright does not live in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Soviet Union of the early 1970s. Otherwise he would have found himself banished from the country, not just the political campaign, for the moral thunderbolts he hurled at the state.

In December 1973, the first part of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago was published in the West. As is well known, Solzhenitsyn had taken it upon himself to expose the brutal Soviet police empire of torture, prisons, and forced-labor camps. According to George Kennan, The Gulag Archipelago "surely" was written to "restore the integrity of the Russian conscience; to compel the Soviet regime to come to terms, at long last, with its own history; to compel it to face that history frankly."

Unfortunately, the Soviet leaders of the early 1970s couldn't withstand the truth. So they stripped Solzhenitsyn of his citizenship and banished him from the Soviet Union. Only after the assumption of power by Mikhail Gorbachev -- an Obama-like precursor possessing both wisdom and vision -- did Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn have his citizenship restored.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama is running for president in a country that still lacks the courage to "come to terms, at long last, with its own history" of slavery. Recognizing that "politics" is the art of the possible, Senator Obama has articulated forward-looking policies that would benefit African Americans in the course of benefiting Americans in general.

Although they appear preferable to the offerings of Senator Clinton, and much better than the muddle offered by Senator McCain, they also require that Senator Obama banish from his campaign the backward-looking pastor who hurls moral thunderbolts that nobody but Obama's political enemies like to hear

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 8:38 pm

I actually did 2 shares on this:

Have You Left No Sense Of Decency?
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/727273

- and -

Inspiration versus Degradation
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/724667

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:06 pm
Inspiration Versus Degradation
By Erica Jong for the Huffington Post

Sometimes our degraded press prefers the prediction to the event itself. I'm talking about Jeremiah Wright's interview with Bill Moyers. It aired last Friday night and to my mind was one of Bill's best interviews. Rev. Wright was talking to someone in his own metier. Moyers is also ordained, is a great speaker and cares deeply about social justice. So it was an equal interviewing an equal -- so seldom the case on television.

Bill Moyers nevertheless pushed Wright hard, raised all the questions Wright's out-of-context sound bites have aroused and played lengthy excerpts from his sermons. I was inspired. This is a pastor I'd listen to on a Sunday instead of namby-pamby Tim Russert or the various screaming clubs on network TV.

Wright seems utterly sincere to me. He strikes me as having a true spiritual calling. When he says, "America's chickens have come home to roost," I can't fault his logic. Haven't we been squandering hard earned taxpayer money on overseas adventures while we starve poor children? Haven't we been supporting dictators while prating of democracy? Haven't we been enriching profiteers at the expense of health care and education? You betcha.

A week ago I told my audience in Rome that in the last several years, I've been ashamed to be an American. A cheer went up from the amphitheater. It was such a relief, audience members later told me, to hear an American speak the truth for a change.

The Italians may have voted for Silvio Berlusconi, but they don't think George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been good for America or the planet. Like most Americans, they would love to see them gone. So would Italians. Italians love American and feel pain when we slide away from the great ideals our Constitution and Bill of Rights have given the world.

Italians feel they have a stake in America. It's interesting to hear how thrilled they are by New York. When I say "sono New Yorkese" (I'm a New Yorker), they are delighted. And they also love LA and Chicago and Miami. Many Italians commute between New York and Rome, LA and Milan, Miami and Florence. They can't vote in the US but you'd never know that by how interested they are in American politics. They love our great 18th century traditions -- sometimes more than we.

So where's the discussion of Jeremiah Wright's real calling? You can't find it. Our idiotic press prefers to play orphaned excerpts and force Barack Obama to apologize for words he never spoke. What is this apology stuff? Everyone has to apologize for their pastors, their doctors, their mothers, their fathers, their churches, their social affiliations. Why? Apologies are cheap. Inspiration is hard to find.

Just because a man is inspired by his pastor doesn't mean he agrees with every word his pastor says. Duh. Even a moron knows that. But inspiration remains important. And you will never be inspired by running stuff out of context and playing gotcha.

Our press has become a sea of triviality, meanness and irrelevant chatter.

God knows inspiration is always welcome. Moyers and Wright gave us that on Friday night.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:11 pm
Jon Stewart challenges Newt Gingrich on Wright double standard

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on the Daily Show Tuesday and was grilled by Jon Stewart about the media double standard when it comes to left-wing and right-wing religious figures, and the free pass given to McCain.

Stewart: “John McCain approached Hagee for his endorsement…Falwell and Robertson said 9/11 was because we secularized our culture, yet they’re still allowed to play the game. Don’t you find that surprising?”

PERRspectives looks at the double standard in the media between Hagee and Wright.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:15 pm
Have You Left No Sense Of Decency?
By Bob Cesca
The Huffington Post

If the corporate media had been as diligent about watchdogging President Bush as they have been about watchdogging Reverend Wright, it's very likely we wouldn't have invaded Iraq.

If the corporate media had spent as much time exposing the obvious flaws and grotesque inequalities of Reaganomics throughout the last 30 years as they've spent on Wright, we wouldn't necessarily be staring into the maw of another depression.

If the corporate media were as diligent about debunking the lies surrounding Iran's so-called nuclear program as they've been about Wright, there wouldn't be such a sense of inevitability in terms of attacking -- or entirely obliterating -- Iran.

So what is the very serious corporate media, the only industry that is explicitly protected by the Constitution, doing to remedy their failures of the recent past? Rather than watchdogging the Bush administration and Senator McCain on Iraq, Iran, the economy and all the rest of it -- areas in which Senator McCain is laughably wrong and dangerously inconsistent -- what are we seeing instead?

All three major cable news networks are wasting valuable air time on Senator Obama's former pastor. Why? Is the story newsworthy? Sure. Is wall-to-wall Wright coverage more important than Iraq or gas prices or the climate crisis? No way. But Reverend Wright is a scary, shouting black man and scary shouting black men equal ratings-sweet-ratings.

We expect to see this sort of race-baiting behavior from Fox News Channel, but CNN and MSNBC have, once again, similarly crossed the tabloid threshold into the very same nefarious Roger Ailes realm by beating this nothing story to death.

MSNBC, for example, continues to invite Pat Buchanan onto their air -- a known race-baiter and author of a recent article in which he claims that, despite 300 years of slavery, America has been the best nation ever for black people (food stamps, for example). The article, by the way, totally ignores the reality that, had it not been for slavery and Jim Crow laws, Africans could very easily have immigrated to America as free people and enjoyed the benefits of our constitutional liberties; but the article also lords welfare and food stamps over the heads of African Americans -- as if Buchanan ever once supported such measures in the first place.

Yet Buchanan gets thawed out of his cryo-freeze chamber every time there's some race-baiting to be done. Of the thousands of Republicans at their disposal as a means of balancing out the brilliant Rachel and the equally brilliant Keith, MSNBC chooses the one Republican who's known as much for his racism as he is for his high pitch voice. This leads me to believe that MSNBC is knowingly stoking the racial fires of the Wright story, simply because they continue to invite Buchanan to speak for the angry white men who think they're God's gift to black people (food stamps, for example).

The reality is that only one of the candidates is being attacked for their connections when, in fact, all three candidates have controversial and embarrassing relationships. The difference, as near as I can tell, is that only one candidate has an angry, shouting black connection. And -- bonus! -- there's videotape of this angry, shouting black man suggesting that America is partly to blame for the attacks of September 11!

Wait, wait. That claim sounds familiar. Who else besides, you know, the 9/11 Commission has claimed that American foreign policy in the Middle East was partly to blame for the September 11 attacks? In other words, who else has basically said -- and repeatedly so -- that America's "chickens have come home to roost"?

That'd be Republican Congressman Ron Paul. So let's see here... Which Republicans must, by their own standards, be held accountable for their relationship with such an obvious America-hater? Who ought to be forced to repeatedly renounce and reject Congressman Paul?

"I think it's all up for grabs, and I don't think that anyone's emerging. I think these people who are racing to declare anyone the true frontrunner at this point -- I just don't see it. Although I am partial to Ron Paul..." --Laura Ingraham

"That's music to my ears, Laura." --Tucker Carlson responding to Ingraham's praise

"I like him personally, I know him personally... I will say that he is also the one candidate that everybody knows who fought against big government. He voted against unsure Medicare, the prescription drugs, and No Child Left Behind. He's consistent, he's courageous." --Pat Buchanan

"Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country." --Ronald Reagan

"[Ron Paul] is the only candidate out there that's talking like a lot of us talked in 94. And that's what a lot of Americans want but no one will say anything anymore...I bet he's gonna shock a lot of people in New Hampshire." --Joe Scarborough

"He's a very engaging person... I'd like to see him as president."

"I think I'm fondest of Ron Paul... He's the only person I agree with on foreign policy."

"Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) continues to amaze on many levels, and he had finally started to register on the polls. In last Tuesday's Midwestern ice storm, almost every Iowa event was cancelled. The exception was a Paul rally, which drew hundreds. His crowds are regularly huge and enthusiastic. He chalked up another record fundraising day on Sunday's anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, with more than $6 million in online donations in a single day." --Bob Novak

"The most honest man in Congress." --Senator John McCain

With the exception of President Reagan of course, I expect all of these Republicans politicians and pundits will step forward and declare their intentions to sever all ties to Congressman Paul, and to subsequently retract all praise for the Congressman.

How about it, Joe Scarborough? Does Ron Paul really talk like you used to talk? And would you, Pat Buchanan, define blaming America for September 11 as "courageous." And do you still support Ron Paul, Tucker? If Ron Paul is the most honest man in Congress, Senator McCain, does that mean he's telling the truth about September 11?

Naturally, the difference here is that Congressman Paul is a white Republican, and Reverend Wright is crazy shouting black pastor. Many (too many) white Americans fear angry black people, even though, given the historical record, we all ought to fear old, white, powerful Republicans a little more than we do right now.

What about other white Republicans who have said equally crazy things? Pastor Hagee, who has endorsed Senator McCain, just recently claimed that God "damned" New Orleans. Add that statement to the anti-Semitic statements and the anti-Catholic statements and you've got yourself a controversy. But are the cable networks cutting to live coverage of Pastor Hagee for two hours at a stretch? Are ABC and Fox News going to question Senator McCain about his relationship with Hagee -- the same questions over and over again, backed with the same footage over and over again? Of course not.

In addition to Hagee's awful remarks about New Orleans, the networks, by-in-large, skimmed past the news that this month has been the deadliest month in Iraq since September 2007. The networks continue to ignore the root causes of the current recession and Senator McCain's promise to continue the Reaganomics of the current administration. The networks all but ignored Senator Clinton's promise to "obliterate" Iran with nuclear weapons, even though hundreds of thousands of Iranian people, who held pro-American vigils after September 11, favor government reforms and disapprove of Ahmadinejad.

So I have to ask the appropriate network executives the familiar yet appropriate question: Have you no sense of decency at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

The constant, around-the-clock coverage has become a race-baiting spectacle far beyond the realms of journalistic decency, honor and integrity, especially given the slag heap through which most Americans are marching right now -- a march which truly deserves wall-to-wall news coverage. And if the cable news networks can't help but to prioritize their headlines with the same twisted fury as far-right talk show hosts or racist Republican strategists like Floyd BrownAlex Castellanos, it's clear that the answer to that famous question is a resounding "nope." or

UPDATE: Will Senator Clinton be asked to repudiate Governor Easley's use of an anti-gay epithet? After all, Senator Clinton thought it was funny.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:25 pm

I hope people are watching the truth of Michael Moore on CNN, airing right now, 9pm PDT

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:29 pm

Just say no . . .

Quit watching Faux News.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 9:35 pm

This is yet another "diversion." (A 21st century acceptable version of racism.)

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 10:35 pm
Speaking as a white man, I have absolutely
NO problem with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The
man "spoke truth to power", which is why
he has been so vilified by Faux News and
others.
He took a bit of heat for saying that
Hillary Clinton had no idea what it is
like to grow up as an African-American
child in poverty.
Well, Duh! Neither do I!
But, he's taken the worst of this for
his now famous "Goddamn America!" statement.
I confess to having said the same thing on
many occaisions.....Goddamn America, indeed!
I prefer to say "God Forgive America", but
many has been the time I have said "Goddamn
America", especially in these last 7 years.
I refer only to the government when I say that,
and I certainly do not refer to the people of
America, nor to the land or the regions. The
statement, when it comes from me, is purely
political.
Thank you kindly for a great post, Boots!
noted.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 10:53 pm
Blue and Carol, I do believe I could hug you. Everybody in my part of town are putting down Wright for what they should be saying, but either don't have it all together or don't have the guts to speak out. I revere my hereitage as much as anyone, but I don't have to condesend to the majority just because they are larger in number, especially in the South.

Yet unfortunately most of those I've mentioned are not condescending, they just don't know. And too they don't want to know for then they would be responsible.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 11:10 pm
Thanks Tim, you always have some thought provoking remarks. Many Americans don't know of the atrocities America has wrought upon so many now third world courtries. The U.S. goes in with Capitalism...takes the resoures of all they have: oil, tobacco, coffee, gold or whatever, then leave the indeginous people to fend for themselves. But after we have taken all their means of support they have no way to survive. Then the U.S. says they are primitive heathens that don't know how to live. Why crap....they had been surviving since time immemorial. And on top of that they hadn't destroyed the environment which our civilized nation with its nuclear bombs has not done.

Wednesday April 30, 2008, 11:13 pm
The United States of America, Inc.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 12:16 am
Strange is how I'd never heard of this man before this.
How many times have pastors & (priests) condemned gay people?
Some even preach hate. I don't watch faux news, so I ask those who do, are they bothering to talk about this?

McCain Endorsement Angers Catholic League President | The Trail | washingtonpost.com
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/28/mccain_endorsement_angers_cath.html

McCain Endorsement Angers Catholic League President
Updated 6 p.m.
By Michael D. Shear
HOUSTON -- The president of the Catholic League today blasted Sen. John McCain for accepting the endorsement of Texas evangelicalist John Hagee, calling the controversial pastor a bigot who has "waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church."

Hagee, who is known for his crusading support of Israel, backed McCain's presidential bid Wednesday, standing next to the senator at a hotel in San Antonio and calling McCain "a man of principle."

But Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement today that Hagee has written extensively in negative ways about the Catholic Church, "calling it 'The Great Whore,' an 'apostate church,' the 'anti-Christ,' and a 'false cult system.'"

"Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee," Donohue said.

Catholics United, a national online group, also blasted McCain over the endorsement. "By receiving the endorsement of an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church, McCain once again demonstrates that he is willing to sell out his principles for a chance to win the Presidency," said Chris Korzen, Executive Director of Catholics United in a statement. "We hope Senator McCain will take the principled position of publicly and unequivocally distancing himself from Pastor Hagee's anti-Catholic comments. Intolerance and bigotry do not belong in American politics."

The McCain campaign had no immediate comment on the statements.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 12:40 am
Yea Tim, with 737 military bases around the world and two million troops. Then also we have enough nuclear weapons to vaporize the universe many time over. Yet we spend more money on the military then all the other countries of the world combined as you are most aware.

Now the world community is taking up donations to support the starving people of Iraq while we are bombing them on a daily basis. Now ain't that a sight. And Afganistan one of the poorest countries in the world and the U.S. is taking dead aim on them. When we claim victory in Iraq and Afganistan we can sit back and say look what whe have done. We have conquered those terrorist nations.

Most never stop to think that we destroyed Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991. And the Russians destroyed Afganistan longer than I can remember. Well anyway the U.S. can say look how we conquered those heathers. But why don't we attack Saudi Arabia or China...which China will most likely be the next world super power. Which we the U.S. owes enough money that if they forclosed we had best learn to speak Chine or Arabic.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 1:11 am
"God DAMN the Rich! God DAMN the Well-fed! God DAMN the "Clever"! God DAMN the "Respectable"!"
Who said that? Jeremiah Wright?
No, not an angry Black man, but an angry Jewish man {tho some say he WAS Black!}: Jesus Christ said it, Luke 6:24 - 26.
This is a VERNACULAR TRANSLATION INTO CURRENT SPEECH that I was astonished to read {in connection with the ado over Rev. Wright}, of what we are more accustomed to hearing in the stately tones of the "Official" King James version:
"But WOE UNTO YOU THAT ARE RICH! for ye have received your consolation, etc. etc."
Luke 6:24 - 26. Look it up.

God DAMN the Rich! and, WOE UNTO YOU, AMERICA!!!!

Thursday May 1, 2008, 2:21 am
Thanks Boots and EVERYONE for seeing the light. I actually thought I would NEVER see the day a man was judged because of his Preacher? What happened America??

*** We need a Revolution --


We need a revolutionary way the people deal with our government.
We need a revolutionary way that our government represents the people.

The government is owned and controlled by the monetary elite who used the interest money they earned on the debt of America and purchased our news and information system and purchased our government representation.

It is time to spread the word of an American Revolution and storm the government buildings and demand that our government personnel work for the people of the United States of America and throw out the members of the Council of Foreign Relations.

The problem is that the people who receive their news and information from our schools and the news media system do not know a damn thing about what is going on. Most of the public do not know how to get information off the internet.

We need to print brochures of the problems of the United States of America and take them to our friends and neighbors, Leave them on store counters, Put them on windshields in parking lots, go door to door in the communities and give them to residents or leave them on the doors.
If we can organize and do this we can affect a campaign for new leadership
The Revolution starts July 12, 2008, be there if you care or if you dare, Click here If you do nothing, you have no right to complain in my opinion, too many of us have already been doing nothing and look where we are. I really do not support Ron Paul BUT he is starting to look better, anybody willing to start the revolution is a person we need!

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:03 am
GLAD TO SEE IM NOT ALONE FOLKS..

1ST - Time Magazine, 4/28/08

Letter to editor:

by Martin D. Carcieri, San Francisco

“I’m sorry to see that Joe Klein has joined those who have misquoted Michelle Obama. In the film clip I saw of her making the statement in question, she did not say, as so many have suggested, ‘For the first time in my life, I am proud of my country.’ Rather, she said, ‘For the first time in my life, I am really proud of my country.’ The word really makes a huge difference and renders her statement perfectly defensible. It makes clear that she has been proud of her country all along, but now that a black man (who just happens to be her husband) has a serious chance to be President, she is really proud. I share her pride on this account.”

One of the first articles in this same Time Magazine by Karen Tumulty uses the same quote of Michelle, and she has the correct words, including the word “really!”

I guess if you support Barack you hear and see one thing, and if you don’t support him, you hear and see something else. “We see what we want to see, and we hear what we want to hear!” * *From the animated movie, “The Point.”

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:10 am

2ND - Which I wish could make main stream media:



John Buchanan: “On Jeremiah Wright”

A statement made during morning worship

at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago

on Sunday, March 30, 2008

I want to take a moment and think together about the continuing controversy surrounding Trinity United Church of Christ, its former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, a friend of mine; and its new pastor, Otis Moss III, also a friend and a new board member of the Christian Century.

Trinity Church has been in the news every day for the past two weeks because one of its members is Senator Barack Obama. Jeremiah Wright was pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side for thirty-six years. During his ministry, the congregation grew to 8,000 members, the largest in the United Church of Christ. More importantly, the church, under Wright’s leadership, reached out to the community with mission programs, education, social services, AIDS education and treatment, and health care. Trinity Church shares with us a worldview and commitment to mission in the world. When you drive north on Stony Island Avenue, from the South Side toward downtown, you pass by a large community health center sponsored by Trinity United Church of Christ. One way to evaluate and measure a ministry is by the mission it generates and the organization that supports and enables it. Among Chicago churches and Chicago clergy of all denominations, Jeremiah Wright’s ministry is widely admired as a model of what a public church can and ought to be and he, himself, is widely respected.

I wish he had made his point without saying “God damn America” but not for a moment do I wish he had been less prophetic. In fact, the great biblical prophets did and said outrageous, controversial things, which consistently got them in trouble and occasionally in jail. One thinks of Jeremiah, for instance, or Amos and the Amaziah affair. I wish Jeremiah Wright had not said “The chickens are coming home to roost” about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, even though he was referring to a speech made by Edward Peck, former Ambassador to Iraq and President Reagan’s Terrorism Task Force Deputy Director. Wright was paraphrasing Ambassador Peck who went on to list America’s domestic and foreign policy decisions that had put the nation in peril. I wish he hadn’t suggested that the government were responsible for AIDS. But then again, the government never infected numbers of my race with a deadly syphilis virus as an experiment not so very long ago.

Senator Obama’s critics wonder how the senator could have remained in Wright’s congregation and under his leadership for twenty years. The answer is that Wright didn’t say “God damn America” every Sunday. In fact, Wright’s sermons were biblically based, relevant, literate, and eloquent, week after week. When the preachers of the land decide whose sermons and lectures or preaching they want to hear, Jeremiah Wright’s are near the top of the list.

I’m distressed that the Chicago Tribune continues to regard Jeremiah Wright’s sermons as front-page news and led us yesterday to, of all things, a report on his retirement home.

I’m distressed by white people, out of a very different religious, cultural, racial, theological/ecclesiastical experience, presuming to judge African-American faith practices and religious expression and preaching.

Most of all I deplore CNN’s and other networks’ decisions to play a few seconds out of thirty-six years of preaching, several sentences-long sound bites over and over again. It’s no wonder people who don’t know a thing about Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright come to wrong conclusions. I’m not the only preacher in the land who knows how vulnerable any one of us is should ill-chosen words lifted out of a sermon be played and replayed, over and over again as Wright’s were.

So let’s all settle down and put the whole matter of Jeremiah Wright and Trinity Church and Barack Obama’s membership into the context of the 365-days-a-year life of an extraordinary and faithful Christian congregation.

Katharine Moon, a professor of political science at Wellesley, a Korean American, in a March 25, 2008 Chicago Tribune editorial remembered the church in which she was nurtured:

Churches, synagogues, mosques, prayer meetings are...communities of mutual help, support, and practical guidance. As social scientists know, they are instrumental to building and maintaining social capital. For new immigrants, as well as racial and ethnic minorities, they serve a particular purpose. Often, the immigrant or ethnic church is the one public place where a common language, food, and humor particular to one’s cultural heritage can be shared....It is through the congregation that we ask for help – to look after our children or elderly parents....Often it is the people in the worship hall who...help us paint our houses and visit us in hospitals....A house of worship is much more than a pastor.

Sensible, valuable words about pastors and congregations of which happens to count among its members a candidate for president and his family.

And I ask you to join me in reaching out in friendship to our brothers and sisters at Trinity United Church of Christ and to pray for them, their former pastor, and their new Pastor:

_______________________________________________________________________

Lord of the church in all its magnificent expression, the body of Christ in all the world, we pray for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters of the Trinity United Church of Christ, with whom we share a passion for justice and for mission and reconciliation across all the barriers that divide.

Continue to bless them by your own Spirit.

We pray for their newly retired pastor, their pastor for thirty-six years, Jeremiah Wright. We thank you for his strong and faithful ministry, his outspoken advocacy for justice, his passion for your kingdom. Bless him and keep him in these difficult days.

And we pray for Trinity’s new pastor, Otis Moss III. Bless and keep him and his family. Give him the gifts he needs to serve you and his people with love and commitment, patience and good humor.

And bless us O God, as we seek to be your faithful church here in this place.

Startle us again with the news of a risen Lord, of hope and love, not defeated by death, but alive and vigorous among us.

Amen.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:15 am


snippet from above...

eremiah Wright was pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side for thirty-six years. During his ministry, the congregation grew to 8,000 members, the largest in the United Church of Christ. More importantly, the church, under Wright’s leadership, reached out to the community with mission programs, education, social services, AIDS education and treatment, and health care. Trinity Church shares with us a worldview and commitment to mission in the world. When you drive north on Stony Island Avenue, from the South Side toward downtown, you pass by a large community health center sponsored by Trinity United Church of Christ. One way to evaluate and measure a ministry is by the mission it generates and the organization that supports and enables it. Among Chicago churches and Chicago clergy of all denominations, Jeremiah Wright’s ministry is widely admired as a model of what a public church can and ought to be and he, himself, is widely respected.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:23 am

Great clip Blue B.
TY Robt.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:42 am
Read and noted!Thanks!

Thursday May 1, 2008, 6:53 am

OMGosh Tim. Very true of myself as well.

Why?
For a couple of starter;
Health Care, the schools are children a dumbed down from the earliest grades, and public awareness of their politicians and their governments.

I live in Germany & England for 4 years with complete Dental, Eye, R.A. , even maternity health care. All doctors were extremely skilled, compassionate, and did far less guessing for diagnosis and treatment. They are wealthy by European standards,. but not MILLIONAIRES with enormous mortgages as Dr's in the U.S.A.
My favorite RA doctor in Bavaria studied his last few years in NY at Mt. Siani. The certificate is on his wall.
Then returned to practice in his own country where he is not made into a God.

Having lived w/ a Dodger during the Vietnam War, and through Kent State massacre and being outcast for studying health care under Alternative Medicine in the 70's when Chiropractors were quacks, I never realized the American Brainwashing until I returned from living abroad.

I always remained optimistic, hopeful, and patient through that trying decade called the '70s.

But returning in the 90's to America with my children placed briefly in this school system, and returning back to this money making machine called health care, My spirit really has been crushed for America.

All this rude awakening before Bush no. 2, whose true MISSION ACCOMPLISHED was to make it clear 'Sheep' can be directed mindlessly.

Oh I could go on, but probably should take a writing class first.

Thursday May 1, 2008, 8:06 am
Great article. Noted with thanks Boots.