Wednesday, January 9, 2008
News / Chicagoland The sickness unto election day: Fear of a black church, or a church, or something
Posted by Whet Moser on Wed, Jan 9, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Christopher Hitchens: straight class.
Sen. Obama is a congregant of a church in Chicago called Trinity United Church of Christ. I recommend that you take a brisk tour of its Web site.
Let's, then.
Run by the sort of character that the press often guardedly describes as "flamboyant"
Dunno about "often." The only reference I could find to Rev. Wright as "flamboyant" was here, though I haven't run it through Lexis/Nexis. I couldn't find anything in the Tribune or Sun-Times archives.
a man calling himself the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
I think the reason he calls himself "the Rev. Dr." is that he has a doctorate from United Theological Seminary, not to mention master's degrees from Howard and the University of Chicago. Presumably he also bothered to get ordained. I'll also assume that his father is "Jeremiah A. Wright Sr.," but anything's possible, I guess.
this bizarre outfit describes itself as "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and speaks of "a chosen people" whose nature we are allowed to assume is "Afrocentric." Trinity United sells creationist books
The only "creationist" book I could find among the hundreds in TUCC's online bookstore is the children's book God Created. "Brisk tour" my ass.
and its home page includes a graphic link to a thing called Goodsearch—the name is surmounted with a halo in its logo—which announces cheerily that "Every time you search or shop online! Our Church earns money."
If you really hate the church that much, you can also use Goodsearch to give money to the Humane Society of Greater Akron, Capri Elementary School, or one of 51,463 other charities.
nobody who wants to be taken seriously can possibly be associated with such a substandard and shade-oriented place.
I don't think anybody who wants to be taken seriously could possibly be that sloppy, but I guess Hitchens and I believe in different things.
For a non-douchebaggy take on TUCC, check out the opinion of an actual expert, the University of Chicago's Martin Marty. It's also worth noting, I think, that TUCC is admirably tolerant--Donald Young, the church's late choir director who was shot and killed late last year, was openly gay (not something that I recall reading in the Tribune or Sun-Times articles, oddly enough).
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I think you might something here. I'm no fan of Christopher Hitchens, but he did just write a book called "God is Not Great". I think he's criticizing religion and people who are religious nuts more than Obama, the same type of criticism people like Romney and Huckabee did to people who DON'T believe in God (or don't accept Jesus as Savior, for that matter - they go even further). Compared to the religious attacks on non-believers, this is quite lame.
That first line should have contained a "have forgotten". Between "might" and "something". D'oh!
My problem with Hitchens here (who I find insufferable and boring as a political writer but lucid and engaging as a literary critic) is not his general antipathy towards religion, but the fact that he seems to be confusing that with a specific criticism of TUCC. All churches might be bizarre and shade-oriented to Hitchens, but his attempt to paint TUCC (a large, comparatively tolerant church run by an extremely well-educated and experienced pastor) as unusually weird or bad compared to others just doesn't ring true to me. There may be some legitimate reasons to beef with Wright, who has said some provocative things that don't seem like things I'd agree with (though I've only seen them out of context). I don't think Hitchens found any of them, though, so he (badly) stretched the ones he did.
Who cares where Obama worships, or how weird one writer that thinks religion is weird thinks it is? Can Obama run the country? Why must we attack and scrutinize the private lives of politicians? Why was Kennedy being Catholic such a big deal? Or Bill Clinton's blow job? Let us trust our leaders to lead, and not pass judgment on everything they do. We can save that for Brittney. Oh, and I like that word, Whet. Douchebaggy. Nice. Douching is not good for a woman, but it is toxic, as our some opinions, so it works.
Religion is interwine into your daily lives. Who you are is based on what you have been taught which is heavily influenced by your faith, your beliefs, community, and family. You are trying to tell me if you attend church every day amd believe in God and have a deep faith in your faith that you are not going to be influenced by that community....who you are outside the office does reflect what kind of president you are going to be...
Obama is nothing but words - hat hype up people - message is high on feeling but no real plan - changing from one guy who had a little more experience then then Obama is not a change...Obama talks are great but have no real substance or plan sounds familar ... Bush was filled with a lot of hype and looked at the results .. Obama is not ready to lead ... when he started the race his statements clearly reflect his inexperience --- I had enough of in Bush...
Jeremiah Wright, Sr. was a pastor in Philadelphia and a major affiliate of the Lutheran seminary there (I think they have a center named after him). I don't know whether the "calls himself" snidery is reflective of hostility to religious people or to black folks, but either way it's just awful. And as for "substandard and shade-oriented place," it's a phrase that could easily be applied to most of the organs that publish Hitch.
Larry Sinclair had filed an affidavit regarding the murder of Donald Young. http://larrysinclair0926.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/fax-cover-to-chicago-police-department/
i find it sad the reward offered for information leading to an arrest is a mere $1,000. am i out of touch? has the amount been increased? Donald was the beloved choir director at the Trinity United Church of Christ....the same church that has issued a $10 million line of credit on the new home of their retired Reverend Jeremiah Wright. my heart goes out to Donald's family and friends.
Mr Youngs' murder still unsolved. Rev. Wright referred to Mr Young as to being like a son to him. Press Club speech and several interviews following the slaying of a son and not a word mentioning his son?
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