Obama Resigns From Trinity Church, 20-Years Too Late

Politico.com is reporting that the Obama campaign is going to spin the resignation from Trinity thus: Barack did this to protect the church from the relentless media coverage it has been receiving, coverage which may be impeding the church from doing its "good works."

I've written before about the cynicism evinced by Obama in wrapping around the Cross, much as the far-right reactionary candidates of the past have exclusively done. With the arguable exception of Jimmy Carter, Barack is the first progressive Democrat candidate to adopt one of the vilest and most divisive tactics employed by the Right.

I have argued that deployment of religiosity by Obama was a grievous and gratuitous strategic error that would (and already has) come back to haunt him.

His 20-year-too-late resignation from the church is preposterous on its face. Is he expecting the public to swallow the idea that only since the media shined its lights on Trinity has it been a sanctuary for anti-white sentiment? That, in his 20-years of alleged Trinity church going he never heard similar race-baiting comments coming from the pulpit?

He used the church membership as another line on his political resume; after all, how can anyone be elected president if he/she cannot plausibly assert membership in one church or another? Unfortunately for the candidate, he choose the wrong church and now, in the famous words of Rev. Wright himself, "the chickens are coming home to roost."

The Obama campaign is confronted with its first significant political dilemma. Either the candidate is an obvious hypocrite and was a church member in name only and didn't know or care anything about the church's ideology; or, he was deeply involved in church matters and at least implicitly condoned this church's ideological bent. Not a pretty choice.

He played the god-card when he had no need to do so; now he has to live with the consequences of that decision.

[Note: I take no joy in writing this; his achievements thus far have been monumental, as is his courage.]

Obama and the Cross, Part II

Barack Obama, the current incarnation of progressive, inclusive politics has made a conscience strategic decision to drape himself around the religious symbol of the cross in order to get elected president of a country whose Constitution specifically and unambiguously prohibits the federal government of that country from establishing a State Religion.

Looking for as many votes as he can garner, Obama has chosen to define himself, and wear that definition on his sleeve, as a christian. Coincidentally enough, the majority of United States citizens identify themselves as christians as well.

For three decades or so it has been the reactionary forces of the right-wing of the Republican Party that have added the cloak of christianity as a second layer of clothing to the cloak of the Flag in their political machinations. These have been tactics deplored by progressives, liberals, Democrats in general.

Al Gore didn't resort to co-opting this cynical--and very dangerous--tactic, but he lost the election; John Kerry avoided emulating the tactic: he lost the election too.
Barack, as intelligent and cynical a candidate we've seen in generations, perhaps rivaling Nixon himself in those categories, wasn't going to lose because voters thought him "unholy," lacking faith.

So his campaign flyers show him standing almost as if at a church pulpit with a seemingly glowing white cross behind him. "I am the candidate of Jesus," is the unspoken message. Even Reagan and Bush 2 were not as flagrant in their hypocrisy as this picture, surely worth a thousand words to its intended victims.

Some Obama stalwarts argue that this tactic was prompted and made necessary by the rumors being spread that Barack was some sort of closet Muslim. And the only way to counter those scurrilous rumors was by heavy-handedly proclaim his allegiance to christ.

That argument only says that it is more important that Obama win the election than that one of the pillars of the nation's Constitution be defended, win or lose. Barack has chosen the path of, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." And thereby he has lost his soul, and joined the ranks of Nixon, Reagan, Bush 2, HRC and the rest of the overly ambitious who run for the office of President of the United States.

[Note: Though these views may reflect a deep naivete on the writer's part, they much more reflect disappointment in a man who really had a chance to be a revolutionarily different candidate in an age dominated by the crassness of PR flacks and their ilk.]

Obama's Photo-Op with a Cross: Despicable!

Where are all the so-called liberals and progressives hiding when Mr. Integrity, Barack Obama, plays the God-Card in Kentucky with the campaign flyer with the Candidate posed in FRONT OF A CROSS!!! is being distributed officially by his campaign.

Now that he's decided to join the Reagan-Bush-Falwell-Hagee-Robertson clique by injecting religion into the campaign--and a specific religion at that (christianity)--Obama becomes just another pol.

And he's also opened the door for the Media to trot out good ole Rev. Wright to do a jig whenever they, the Media, think it may pop their ratings a bit---not to mention the opening this gives the Republicans.

Barack's chosen to live by the cross, and now his candidacy is threatened to be crucified thereon.

Obama: The Albatross Must Be Cut Loose

Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks
Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
-Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Barack's got a big ,ole, fat one hanging around his neck these days, and it's one that may have the wherewithal to choke the life out of the Senator's up-to-now seemingly invincible march to the Democrat Party nomination and onward to the White House.

There's much speculation as to why Obama joined Rev. Wright's church in the first place. My belief, given the candidate's enormous intelligence and far-sightedness, is that Barack realized early on that any pol with hopes of being elected president one day needs to be able to at least pay (insincere) lip service to being a member of some organized religious institution, preferably one on his home turf.

He did some recon work in the hood, saw Wright's church close by, saw members dutifully reporting for duty and Sundays and, voila!, he had a church affiliation. Its membership was largely if not exclusively African-American; it was in close ontic proximity to his own residence so he wouldn't have to schlep too far on the occasional visits he knew he was obliged to make.

But Barack didn't seem to pay attention to the fact the the preacher of the church tended to rather inflammatory sermons whose ontological proximity to Obama's thoughts were as far removed as was the church building close.

Surmising that he didn't attend services on any kind of regular basis, and that when he was actually there, the last thing on his mind was listening to some ranting showman in costume on stage.

Now he's paying the price for his politically motivated hypocrisy.

HRC and McCain have hung the good Reverend around Obama's neck like a wreath of glimmering gold. And the good man of god that he certainly is, Wright is milking every second of his 15 minutes of fame, the damage to his church member be--like America--damned!

What the hell can Barack do to de-couple himself from this relic of a bygone era in American race relations? (BTW, this is also a question Johnny Mac is going to have to ponder regarding de-coupling him from Bush.)

Obama has already began the process by roundly denouncing some of Wright's more outrageous, ignorant utterance, using incrementally stronger and stronger language as the fiasco plays out. But the second problem that he's got to address is: Why has it taken the public broadcast of the Wright tapes to spur Barack's denunciations? Where were these opinions the last 20 years? That's a major league curveball question. But that's the test of a major league hitter...tons of guys can hit the fastball, but the guys who make it to the majors gotta be able to hit the curveball too.

None of the very few options Obama has on question 2 are very attractive. He can simply be honest, implicitly admit a bit of hypocrisy is showing, and say he hardly went to the church and that when he did it was merely to be among the neighborhood folk whom he represented...it was more a social than a deep religious event for him. Wright's sermons were epiphenomal to social aspects of church attendance that Barack enjoyed.

He can plunge the knife into the nattily attired Reverend even deeper by saying something like, "Jeremiah needed to rile up the congregation a little, get 'em shouting and yelling and in the mood to contribute...it goes with the territory, along with serious counseling work and spiritual education. There aren't many similarities, but pastoring and politicking do cross paths at times...."

But, obviously, Barack, since he is soooo elite, much be constantly on guard of saying something that will further reinforce that opinion of him with the masses, both white and non-white.

Finally, Obama can try to kill two birds with one stone (pardon the [albatross] pun,) by linking Rev. Wright and John McCain as "good" men from another time, another era. "Their values were formed when the country was in turmoil, be it the Vietnam War, the Cold War with the USSR, or the civil rights movement. They grew up in a time when African-Americans couldn't drink from the same public water fountains as white people; and a time when soldiers were being spat upon on the street of the United States. Men like Wright and McCain need our understanding, not more of our hate...."

The problem facing Obama is not going to die a natural death from lack of attention. It needs proactive eradication, and soon.

The Unforeseen Consequences of Being a Church Member

Question: Has Obama played the "religion/spiritual/god card during his campaign, as George W. Bush and Reagan did?

I don't know the answer.

If he did, and continues on that path, he deserves all the criticism being hurled at him from various quarters. You suck up to the "believers" and then it is discovered that your "spiritual mentor" is a race-baiting ignoramus, you pay the consequences.

If, however, Obama has not made his religiosity part of his campaign, the remarks of the guy who runs the church he happens to attend are essentially irrelevant to Barack's qualifications to be POTUS.

This writer surmises that Obama long ago figured out that if he were ever to become a presidential candidate, he would at least have to be able to say he attended church regularly. He needed one with close proximity to his home turf, so it would not be a major project to schlep over there on Sundays. Wright's place was close by--another assumption this writer makes--so Barack dropped in and, presto!, he could legitimately claim to be a regular churchgoer.

The tactic, if indeed that is what it was, has somewhat backfired on him; but he's smart enough to survive it.