Redstate

Posted at 8:59am on May 1, 2008 The Theology of Barack Obama

By Ben Domenech

RS's own Dan Spencer (California Yankee), who now blogs over at the Examiner, was kind enough to host a piece I wrote on what the Rev. Wright debacle tells us about the theology of Barack Obama. An excerpt:

Barack Obama is the evangelist of the betterment of man. His religion is one of an almost overriding humanism, to the exclusion of the divine: hope is his signet, change his golden cross. He brings salvation to the masses via the empowerment of government, government under his leadership. His followers are not the Southern pro-American Carter voters, and they may carry iPhones instead of the hoes of the agrarian south, but the message is striking for its similarities. Where Carter constantly used Protestant religious terminology to describe the healing that needed to take place in the wake of Watergate, Obama's solution for the Iraq war and the other sins (as he sees them) of the George W. Bush administration is to say: trust in me – untested, inexperienced, poll-driven me – as you trust in yourself.

Yet there are small differences as well, and those are key to understanding the Senator. The language Obama uses may still be that of prayer, but it is prayer not directed toward a creator, but to his audience itself. Faith turns inward, and becomes an infinite loop. So Carter's "We can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems" becomes "Yes we can." And so the old sung tones of "Wait upon the Lord" morphs into "We are the ones we've been waiting for." From Obama's perspective, as opposed to Carter's, it is only the bitter, the nervous, the threatened, or the uneducated who cling to religion.

We know how this ended the first time: the infamous malaise speech of 1979. As the eloquent Steve Hayward put it in his biography of President Carter, the man ran for office promising "a government as good as the people" ultimately ended his term in office by saying that the people were no good. If they took such bets in Vegas, one could get a fine margin on picking the month of his term where President Obama would announce the same realization.

Read it all over at Right Side Politics.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Obamafiles | religion | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:44pm on Apr. 30, 2008 REDSTATE ROUNDTABLE #8: Obama, Rev. Wright, and the Voters

The Contributors Take On The Hot Topic Of The Day

By Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin: Three questions about Obama and Rev. Wright:

1. Did they coordinate this week's events to give Obama an excuse to make a clean break?

2. Has the Wright controversy, on its own or combined with Bittergate, Bill Ayers, Mrs. Obama, the flag pin flap, etc., inflicted an injury to Obama's campaign that will sooner or later be fatal even if more doesn't come out?

3. Is Obama going to suffer a net loss (which I would define as Hillary winning Indiana by at least as much as Obama wins NC) on May 6?

Discussion below the fold...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Redstate Roundtable | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (31)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:05pm on Apr. 29, 2008 No "Sister Souljah" Moment for Barack Obama

The embattled candidate goes back to the same well with supporters, then tries to present a different face to the general public

By Jeff Emanuel

The sudden return of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's pastor and spiritual mentor for over two decades, to the media spotlight this past week has sparked anew the debate over the true extent and effectiveness of Mr. Obama's actions to deal with the growing thorn in the side of his campaign that his former friend has become.

Wright's interview last week with Bill Moyers, in which he undercut the entire rationale for the Obama candidacy by referring to Mr. Obama's statements and actions on the campaign trail as simply being "what politicians do," caused the harsh spotlight of several weeks ago to be re-shone on Rev. Wright and his relationship with Mr. Obama, whose judgment, beliefs, and willingness to stand up for what he claims to believe in.

The intensity of that spotlight increased exponentially with Wright's addresses to the National Press Club and to the NAACP, in which he -- among other outrageous statements -- equated the U.S. flag with the flag of al Qaeda, berated "white America" for its failure to confess the sin of racism, reiterated his claim that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus to eradicate the African-American community (a charge about which CNN actually contacted the Center for Disease Control on Monday for an on-the-record comment), and declared -- complete with mocking vocal imitations -- that the black and white races differ genomically, with each being programmed to primarily use a different side of their brain.

The damage done to the Obama campaign is still being calculated, obviously, and new theories are popping up across the spectrum about why Wright chose now to re-enter the spotlight, and whether Mr. Obama's actions to date to deal with this issue, including a press conference this afternoon, will be effective.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Politics as usual | Rev. Jeremiah Wright | Sister Souljah — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:06pm on Apr. 28, 2008 The second time, as farce.

Not that the first time was, strictly speaking, a *tragedy*.

By Moe Lane

They say two wrongs don't make it right /
But it damn sure makes it even.

- Rap artist Sister Souljah, whose famous line "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" that had been made about the same time prompted the following response from Bill Clinton: "If you took the words ‘white’ and ‘black’ and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech."

Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles.

- Reverend Jeremiah Wright, on being asked if he wanted to, say, walk back a bit on his commentary of 9/11 and roosting chickens.

Two points to this: first, I am now officially unimpressed with Rev. Wright's grasp of the message found in the New Testament. Given that I'm not trained in such things and he reportedly is, that in itself is an noteworthy feat. Second, the Obama campaign has just been given a potential free Get Out Of Trouble card.

Will they take it? And if they do, will it actually work? There is a certain flavor of "set-up for a sound bite by rank amateurs" to all of this, but that may just be poor, old paranoid me.

Moe Lane

Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles | Rev. Jeremiah Wright | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:35pm on Apr. 25, 2008 Rev. Wright: Barack "does what politicians do"

By Jeff Emanuel

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Sen. BarackObama's spiritual mentor and pastor for over twenty years, source of the "HopeChangeHopeChange" mantra that has become the messianic core of his empty campaign, and giver of the Obama couple's nuptial vows, recently gave an interview to Bill Moyers about the recent dustup caused by the revelation to the general public that Wright has frequently used his pulpit to preach a racist, hateful, and intolerant brand of so-called "Christianity" to the members of his megachurch, including the surprisingly-not-so-post-racial Obama clan.

In the sit-down, one of the less-coherent segments of which was treated by RedState's absentee earlier today, the Reverend Wright made a very interesting comment about his former flock-member's Philadelphia speech on race and religion, made in the head of the Wright-gate media frenzy.

More below the fold, including video, and an accurate analysis from a most surprising source.

Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles | Politics as usual | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:26am on Apr. 25, 2008 Odd that he seems to loathe Tiger Woods so.

We'll skip over the blatant misogyny for the moment*.

By Moe Lane

Ed Morrissey gives us some context on Reverend Wright, which is only surprising in that the reverend seems to be especially worked up about, of all things, the success of a sports star:

For every one Tiger Woods, who needs to get beat, at the Masters, with his cap, blazin’ hips playing on a course that discriminates against women. God has his way of bringing you up short when you get to big for your cap, blazin britches. For every one Tiger Woods, we got 10,000 black kids who will never see a golf course.

Mind you, Mr. Woods actually tries to do something about that. Which may, in fact, be the problem here: or at least, the way that he's going about doing it. Flipping through the foundation pages, I saw quite a bit about making a positive change and nothing at all about blaming other people for one's problems. Go figure, huh?

Ed references the First Rule of Holes in his tease-quote. Senator Obama's supporters should start hoping that someone in his campaign has the audacity to read Hot Air.

Posted in 2008 | Obmafiles | Pass the Popcorn | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:04pm on Mar. 19, 2008 Another Black Pastor's Fiery Sermon - S.M. Lockridge

By bluegrassredstate

With all the talk of Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, and now the pro-Clinton black Harlem pastor James David Manning, I am reminded of this sermon delivered by a black pastor at a predominantly black church.

He's the only one able to supply all of our needs simultaneously . . . He's the Leader of the legislators. He's the Overseer of the overcomers. He's the Governor of Governors. He's the Prince of Princes. He's the King of Kings . . . We around here talking about black power, and white power, and green power! But it's God's power!

If Obama had been listening to sermons like this for the last 20 years, he may be in a position to earn my vote.

This is "My King" by S.M. Lockridge, and it makes sense. Live free, and listen up. Just click the play button.

Posted in Archived | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:00am on Mar. 18, 2008 Previewing Obama's Speech

If You Can't Say Something Nice, Don't Say Anything At All

By Mark I

Sen. Barack Obama is about to deliver a major speech in response to the controversy surrounding the recent revelations of the teachings of his church's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. While the press, which has largely ignored the entire controversy, is destined to praise whatever Obama says and declare the matter settled, it is worth a look at what Obama could possibly say that would accomplish that end.

UPDATE: Drudge has the text of the speech posted. Snipets below.

Read on...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democratic Primary | Liberals | religion | Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Comments (137)/ Email this page » / Read More »