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Obama receives excessive criticism from ‘Christians’ |
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
According to the word on the street, Barack Obama is a now officially a heretical, un-American, profane God-hater with an ethical conscience the size of a teaspoon.
I also heard he controls the moon and founded the emo movement!
Okay, but seriously, ever since Obama’s preacher, the controversial Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., G-d’d America three times in his now-infamous sermon weeks ago, Obama has been under closer scrutiny than ever for his religious practices.
I
can’t help but cringe at the irony that some of the most judgmental,
hateful, racist Southern Baptists I know have been the loudest hell
raisers about this issue.
Keep your pants on; I’m not condemning all Southern Baptists.
However, the “Preacher on the Mount” Gary Birdsong told me I was going
to Hell because I was wearing pants once, so if you’re a girl, go
change now.
I hope everyone has had the pleasure of meeting Birdsong during one of
his yearly sojourns on Appalachian State University’s Sanford Mall in
which he tries to convert everyone by with the best fire and brimstone
act I’ve ever seen.
 Gary Birdsong preaches to a crowd on Sanford Mall last fall. Photo by Derek DeSha
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Back on the national scale, people who were already convinced Obama
hadn’t “really” converted from Islam years ago have been savoring every
minute of this hullabaloo.
I’m not here to argue his case per se.
I mean, if you want to bother getting your facts straight and learn
that he was largely secular until he converted twenty years ago, what
with non-practicing Christian grandparents, a “nominally Muslim”
stepfather and both Muslim and Christian African relatives, go ahead.
But don’t let me stand in the way of your ignorance.
Yes, he converted at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
And yes, he has known Wright to be “a dynamic pastor who preached
Afrocentric theology, dabbled in radical politics and delivered
music-and-profanity-spiked sermons.”
However, Obama has been seen distancing himself from the preacher in his run for the White House.
He cancelled Wright’s delivery of the invocation address in February
when he officially entered the presidential race and has publicly
denounced his racism and “scorching remarks about American government.”
Could this be a largely political move?
Well, sure. If I held unity and peace as two of my biggest mantras, I
wouldn’t want to associate myself with a nut job like Wright either.
The guy thinks the American government intentionally injected black people with the AIDS virus and planned September 11.
And those nosy CNN people probably don’t help much either, do they, Barack?
“Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly
condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy,”
Obama said in a statement. “I categorically denounce any statement that
disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I
also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our
public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit.
In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at
issue.”
Wright’s sermon has been called a “hate speech” by many media outlets, and rightfully so.
He’s against the current government and is racist against white people. Pretending otherwise is just plain wrong.
But this is absolutely no different than the same bilge employed by
some of the strictest “Christians” I know, who think interracial dating
is morally wrong. It’s no different than the Westboro Baptist Church
hate group (also known as the “God Hates Fags” group) that recently
tried to picket the funerals of Eve Carson and Lauren Burk.
Isn’t there something in everyone’s Bible, no matter what finicky
denomination you are, that calls for love and forgiveness, not hate and
condemnation?
If Obama was a Southern Baptist and his preacher made an equally
inflammatory statement, I wonder if America would have cared this much.
He renounced the man’s statements and all his prior actions indicate
he’s not a racist yahoo like his preacher; my goose bumps still haven’t
faded after hearing his ensuing “A More Perfect Union” speech.
Let’s move on already.
In the meantime, let’s lock the Rev. Wright and Gary Birdsong in a room
together and see who comes out standing. Maybe they’ll cancel each
other’s hate out.
Jillian Swords, a junior journalism major from Waxhaw, is a news reporter.
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