Obama Addresses His Own Agent Of Intolerance
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, Race, Religion
I think he explains about as much in the following exchange about his difference of opinions on Jeremiah Wright as McCain did with Hagee. However, I still think he needs to hold a press conference where he addresses questions about this SINGLE topic. That would go a long way to putting this to bed once and for all.
Here’s the Q&A from Pittsburgh Tribune:
Q: I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s all over the wire today, a statement that your pastor made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing “God Bless America,” black people should sing a song essentially saying “God Damn America.”A: I haven’t seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.
Q: What about this particular statement?
A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it’s important to judge me on what I’ve said in the past and what I believe.
One thing’s for sure. If he doesn’t address Wright’s comments any further, the Dems have absolutely no ground complaining about anything that Hagee has said. That’s off the table. And it would be unfortunate because we need to get to a place where there’s more understanding among these religious figures and less brimstone cast around. Figures like Hagee and Wright need to be marginalized as much as possible, regardless of whatever inspiration they may have given a candidate at any given time in their lives.
And while it’s true that neither McCain nor Obama are responsible for everything that these people say, it certainly would be heartening to hear stronger rebukes and see clearer lines drawn when it comes to these agents of intolerance.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, Race, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Barrack Obama along with his America hating wife and their America hating, racist preacher who HATE America and white people are NOT what America needs! VOTE FOR HILLARY!! Before it is too late. THIS is an OUTRAGE.
Obama’s Mentor –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAYe7MT5BxM
March 14th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
It’s interesting that this story comes on the cusp of the recent poll indicating that 13% of those polled believe Obama is Moslem. I wonder why it comes out now when this same story broke nearly a year ago and fizzled out as “lame”. Do you think someone is controlling the news flow………..:)
March 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I can’t wait for Keith Olbermann to do a “special comment” calling on Obama to further distance himself from the Jeremiah Wright statements. When do you guys think we can expect that?
I gotta say – I think this story and the Ferraro story were way way overblown. It is probably an indicator of what we can expect during this long stretch from now until PA decides this. There just is not going to be that much news between now and then – so more and more minutiae like this will take the headlines.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barack-obama/on-my-faith-and-my-church_b_91623.html
Obama just denounced and rejected
March 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Thank you Avinash. Time to do an update to this post.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Obama should have ran away from Rev. Jeremiah Wright years ago…too little too lame.
March 14th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Not everyone can say they support any (political) thing their Pastor says so why would ANYONE hold Obama to a different standard WRIGHT or wrong?
http://OsiSpeaks.com
March 15th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
[...] as I’ve said in comments to Justin’s post, I think the hyperbolic rhetoric in the coverage of both Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermons [...]