Senator Barack Obama has been severely burned by the recently released videos (it appears that Hillary has been a busy bee lately) of his self described spiritual mentor and role model showing an ugly side that is offensive and downright repugnant to most thinking people.

Obama is nervous, backpedaling and apparently running as far away from Pastor Jeremiah ‘Old Uncle, The US of KKKA’ Wright as he can get at the moment.

On My Faith and My Church

“The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.” - Barack Obama

Ah yes, the “ignorant boob” defense.

So Obama is attempting to tell us that the pastor who preached to him, married him, counseled him, baptized his children, and served as his personal mentor and spiritual adviser suddenly blindsided him right before his presidential bid with socialist, divisive, black liberation theology and hateful anti-American rhetoric that apparently had never ever been uttered in Obama’s presence before (let along discussed in his general vicinity by even one fellow member of the congregation) in the last twenty three years? Am I supposed to believe this? Anyone? Good grief. Are we to believe that the good pastor was suddenly seized some sort of late mid-life crisis that forced him over the edge or perhaps he had an epiphany that projected him into the realm of hatred, vicious diviseness and bitterness?

Do those in the Obama camp really believe the rest of us are that stupid?

I managed to get my father to agree to an short impromptu ‘interview’ for this column. He has been a pastor for forty years and during that time has served in several different denominations in several different churches. In the course of that time he has been in a position of spiritual authority over, and provided spiritual guidance to, thousands of people. He has a fairly broad, balanced and deep understanding of Biblical theology, people’s nature, and Christianity as a whole and has dedicated his life to being a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I asked him whether or not in his forty years of pastoring if he has ever seen or heard of anyone sitting under a pastor for twenty years without having a good idea of what that pastor stands for and believes both ideologically and theologically. I also asked him whether someone would even agree to be under the spiritual authority of a pastor for that long of period of time while disagreeing vehemently with him on such significant issues as the ones Obama supposedly disagrees with his pastor about.

The answer to both questions was a definitive “No”. I also asked him if he had ever been called ‘like an old Uncle’ for his beliefs from a member of his congregation and that also elicited a smile and a ‘No’ as well.

After a lot of private discussion he refused to offer any public condemnation of Jeremiah Wright mainly because he had not listened to the comments himself and would reserve public judgment until he could make a truly balanced and informed decision with all the facts plainly laid out. (He is a wise man.)

My father did pass on a couple of thoughts for our readers to ponder on the more general issue of identity politics, liberation theology and race based religion. First of all was that the dream and vision of Martin Luther King Jr. certainly doesn’t mesh with the black liberation/identity theology being preached by Obama’s pastor.

The second was the scripture verse:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.- Galatians 3:28