Barack Obama's spiritual mentor retires from pastorate.

[jitterbug13]

I agree with y'all (can't help it, I'm from the South!). I was watching coverage of this on Anderson Cooper Friday night. While Roland Martin and another guy was saying it was common for African American pastors to mix social issues with religion, another guy was saying the church wasn't the place to be for what he said. I wish the media would give more attention to the pastor who called Obama a pimp and his mother white trash and the OK state senator who dissed gays, even though her son is gay.

But I admit, when I first her the comments from Rev. Wright, I thought "those them bruhs for you".

[SmoothAv8r]

This whole thing is nothing more than propoganda. Since they can't get a clean shot at Barack, they then start to go after those who are close to him and then sensationalize anything they can.

I don't know all what Rev. Wright said, but of the statements I heard in regard to the theft of Palestine done under the tutelage of Harry Truman and Winston Churchill, the bombing and killing of more than 100k people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the CIA flooding black communities with Crack Cocaine in the 80's, all of that is true. What saddens me even more is that Barack is now on TV "denouncing" what Rev. Wright has said and I know that Barack knows in his heart that many, if not all of his statements are facts...it's so sad, but Barack has to play politics if he wants to win this thing and I understand that that's what's going on.

I hope Barack can continue his momentum. I don't think Billary can beat McCain and I also know that if Barack is facing him in the fall, all of this will surely come up which might keep a lot of people from supporting him (even if they don't support McCain).

The struggle and saga of the black man continues...

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by SmoothAv8r

The struggle and saga of Black people continues...

Fixed that for ya. Remember Ferraro implied that if he had been a Black woman he would not be where he is, too.

[SummerChild]

Smooth,

It sounds like we got two different impressions of what was being communicated.

When I listened to his speech, I didn't get the impression that he was denouncing those things that you listed that are true (CIA flooding the community, etc.), in fact, I got the impression that he did a good job of bringing to the forefront that many of the things that Rev. Wright discussed were true and that xyz was the cause of such. I thought that what he denounced was Rev. Wright's vantage point that AA are stuck and somewhat helpless to do anything about our plight in this country b/c the deck is so stacked against us. Maybe I didn't understand it all but that seemed to me to be what he was saying. I was ok with him denouncing some of his statements b/c he has a right to say that he disagrees with his pastor (as we all do). I felt good that he made clear that he was not denouncing him as a person or as a pastor, just some of the statements that he made - just like he did the same with his white grandmother for some of the statements that she made.

Pastors are just normal men (and women) and they could be wrong - or they could be right and we just have a difference of opinion. I really don't think there is anything wrong with publically disagreeing with another person ... even if they have the title "Rev." If he disagreed, I don't really see that he had any other real option but to say so unless he wanted to give the impression that he agreed, which is what his silence would have said. B/c race is such an important issue in this country, I was personally glad that he took an opportunity to talk about it... no matter which side he came out on the topic. I really wish that Hillary and John McCain would have speeches addressing it too. As we know, it is a very important conversation to start with regard to *domestic* politics. It is affecting socio-economics and many other areas of our domestic life here in the U.S. - no matter to what race one belongs. I felt like someone finally addressed the giant elephant that has been in the room in the U.S. for centuries. His speech started off about Rev. Wright's comments but really, in my opinion, the speech was really him taking a very good opportunity to start a discussion on race - which, at least it appears to me, was really the majority of the speech in terms of time and content.

SC

Originally Posted by SmoothAv8r

This whole thing is nothing more than propoganda. Since they can't get a clean shot at Barack, they then start to go after those who are close to him and then sensationalize anything they can.

I don't know all what Rev. Wright said, but of the statements I heard in regard to the theft of Palestine done under the tutelage of Harry Truman and Winston Churchill, the bombing and killing of more than 100k people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the CIA flooding black communities with Crack Cocaine in the 80's, all of that is true. What saddens me even more is that Barack is now on TV "denouncing" what Rev. Wright has said and I know that Barack knows in his heart that many, if not all of his statements are facts...it's so sad, but Barack has to play politics if he wants to win this thing and I understand that that's what's going on.

I hope Barack can continue his momentum. I don't think Billary can beat McCain and I also know that if Barack is facing him in the fall, all of this will surely come up which might keep a lot of people from supporting him (even if they don't support McCain).

The struggle and saga of the black man continues...

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by jitterbug13

But I admit, when I first her the comments from Rev. Wright, I thought "those them bruhs for you".

Many non-"bruh" pastors have said the same thing. The Black church has always been the center of AA politics, which is why so many of our "leaders" are clergy men. This really has nothing to do with the man's fraternal affiliation.