All Posts Tagged With: "Christian"

In an attempt to show Europe and the world that he has the gravitas, dynamism and commitment to be a world leader and capture the Presidency of the United States, Senator Obama took his campaign to Berlin.

There he delivered an unprecedented speech before a record crowd of more than 200,000, his previous record being 75,000 at a rally in western Oregon during the primary campaign.

He spoke eloquently, aristocratically and audaciously. He touched on every issue of concern, to a wide array of the populace. He spoke about nuclear proliferation, famine, poverty, global warming, the apartheid in South Africa, terrorism, irradiating AIDS, genocide in Darfur and a plethora of other issues. All to the chant of the throng, “yes, we can,” Obama’s mantra. He brought the crowd to a frenzy when he said, “the walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.” The largest clamor came when he said, “and despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.”

The biggest lull came when he brought the crowd to a somber silence with this statement. “This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.” This demonstrates Europe’s resolve to me. A true lack of consideration to confront world evil. An unwillingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with another to make the world a better place and to protect not only their own, but others.

But the preponderant issue for me appears to be the same for many others, as noted in a myriad of periodicals around the world. Obama’s speech was short on specifics and long on rhetoric. Although two statements he made humbled me and gave me pause: “I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

“At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.” And, “But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

“These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on the world.”

What is one to think? After extensive research of Senator Obama’s record and accomplishments during his tenure, all the ducking and dodging about various controversial issues that have arisen henceforth, and not to mention the lack of specifics apropos issues he espouses, I believe this speech is nothing more than what he has been doing his entire campaign, demagoguery. After all, he is the quintessential demagogue isn’t he?

Let’s talk about what’s setting me off this fine Sunday: Evangelical Christian ministers who yearn for their fifteen minutes of fame and are hell bent on getting it. While we’re at it, let’s talk about the politicians who exploit the power of the pulpit in their quest for the prize, and I’m speaking specifically of Barack Obama and John McCain.

The latest un-Christian rant comes from the Reverend Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, who just happened to make a guest speaking appearance at the Trinity United Church of Christ (also known as Barack Obama’s church). Strutting his stuff in front of a congregation that calls itself “unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian,” he proceeded to rip into Hillary Clinton’s ‘whiteness’ without provocation, pandering to his audience and not caring about his contribution to the ever-widening divide between whites and blacks in America. It doesn’t matter. It got him on YouTube and into the search engines. While it’s unusual to see a Roman Catholic Priest advancing a political agenda from the pulpit, there’s a long line of Evangelical Christian ministers who have displayed some very un-Christian attitudes this political season.

Until the visit by Pfleger, Barack Obama had remained a member of the church in spite of the fact that he distanced himself from the racially charged remarks of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his pastor. It was Wright who invited Pfleger to speak and, apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After the Pfleger incident, Obama resigned his family’s twenty-year membership in Trinity United Church of Christ. Why now? It has to make you wonder why Obama didn’t make the break a long time ago if it was a real issue of conscience for him. Are the views of Wright and Pfleger those Obama holds in private, but disdains as part of his public persona?

Obama is not the only candidate with religious issues. The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, has sought the endorsements of two Evangelical Christian ministers who sound more like terrorists than preachers. In McCain’s case, it was simply a question of politics – the need to win the Christian vote. He accepted and defended nearly to the death the endorsement of the Reverend John Hagee, pastor of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, whose un-Christian beliefs include that Hurricane Katrina happened because the New Orleans Gay Pride Parade was scheduled for the day Katrina came ashore. Hagee has also stated that the United States and Israel must carry out a pre-emptive strike on Iran to fulfill God’s plan, which is a “biblically-prophesized end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ.”

McCain refused to denounce Hagee and remained loyally in his camp for quite some time. It wasn’t until McCain heard an audiotape where Hagee preached to his faithful that “Hitler and the Nazis were sent by God, to chase the Jews back to the land of Israel” that he broke with Hagee. Apparently it was okay for Hagee to insult gays and lesbians, second-class citizens. However, McCain had to draw the line when Hagee insulted he Jews.

McCain was also forced to distance himself from the endorsement of another extreme cleric, the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio, who calls for eradicating Islam. Parsley also has some choice words for ‘activist judges,’ those who support the separation between church and state, homosexuals, the “abortion industry,” and the entertainment industry.

That these clerics have the temerity to suggest that their attitudes are reflective of God’s is disturbing. Their sentiments are not those of any God I’ve ever been exposed to, and I’ve explored several religions in my lifetime prior to becoming a Buddhist. Equally disturbing is the way political candidates surreptitiously court these clerics in order to gain votes. My father used to say that politics makes strange bedfellows. It also make some dangerous ones. There is absolutely no place for religion in government. As much as our belief system centers on freedom of religion, for some citizens it is rooted in freedom from religion. In spite of the fact that some of our forefathers were spiritual men, our system of government was designed to avoid such an unholy alliance.