Knowing how Obama has rissen in politics, anything he says or does can’t be trusted. Somehow, all these posturings by him (Fox)and Wright are some sort of scheme to desensitize us and justify their actions, again.

Great plan to achieve equality for your people by oppressing other groups of people all of which have been oppressed.

Wright is a fossil. And black people should reject him as I am sure most do since they understand what a dangerous counterproductive crackpot he is.

Voters are going to tire of this pretty quick. Most people, of all colors, are pretty focused right now on paying for food, gas, and housing. I think people will start to see that all Obama wants to do is talk talk talk.

I am a progressive black woman (how sad is it that I feel compelled to always preface my posts with that–this is what Rev. Right has done to us).

You’re so very right about that. The candidate that was supposed to transcend race, has done the opposite, I’m afraid.

I was of the belief that Wright is doing this to fix up his image for Obama’s benefit, to make him more appealing to white voters in the upcoming states. Alexrod did arrange for that pro bono PR firm that specializes in damage-control, to work with Trinity and Wright. Could it be that the initial idea was to give Wright a less controversial image, but Wright just couldn’t resist.. well.. being himself? And Axelrod’s manipulations went terribly wrong?

Perhaps it dawned on him that it was BS to have to disavow everything he’s stood for (wrong as it may be) all these years, just to get Obama elected. Maybe his pride kicked in and decided he wasn’t willing to throw away everything he’s done just to make Obama look saintly. How many films have we all seen where someone is trying to pass off a problematic relative, friend, boyfriend, to their family — and it all unravels spectacularly?

It’s fascinating to watch… I’m curious to see what happens in the next few days with all of this. Maybe WRight isn’t willing to get under that bus for Obama.

First off, I don’t completely buy the racist divider accusation. While some of what he says may result in racially divisive feelings in some listeners, I think he sees himself instead as lighting a fire under butts to motivate action. So then, what’s he really doing? Is he walking the talk?

http://www.tucc.org/ministries.htm lists well over 50 active ministries. While some like “Usher Board”, sound exaggerated in terms of ministry, it does look in general like there’s a lot going on that many churches would be proud of. Make no mistake, all churches exaggerate their numbers to the denomination. Every year they have a charge conference (kind of like a job performance review) where they have to justify the effectiveness of their ministry. The district will expect and forgive a certain amount of over-statement, in the name of enthusiasism, but they still look at the real numbers to see what real effective ministry there is. In this case, many much bigger churches would be happy with half as much.

So why does Wright talk the way he does? Let’s get real. He’s an A-type personality who knows full well that he’s not going to motivate a congregation who’s asleep.

Why all the public speeches all of a sudden? He’s retiring, and looking at his history, and is not willing to let his legacy be a casualty of the ‘08 POTUS campaign.

Is he racist? I’m sure like everyone else he has bias; and also like everyone else, some amount of it is beyond reality. If he looks around and sees a lot of people a lot like himself getting the short straw a lot of the time, why wouldn’t he have some bias? That doesn’t make him the new Hitler for Jesus. Anyone playing defense on a team for three quarters and still behind in the score, might get a desire to play offense in the fourth.

Is he my idea of the ideal pastor? If he was, I’m sure I could have easily found someone similar. Somehow, calling on God to damn America or anyone else, just doesn’t sound like an effective Christian way to call people to ministry. It’s really hard to imagine Jesus calling on God to damn the Romans, Pharasees or even his own executioners. He asked instead to forgive them, as they knew not what they were doing. I’ve been to a number of churches, and on the thankfully few occassions where there were calls for damnation, my first visit became my last.

Is he an Obama tool? While he does support Obama, this is one A-type personality minister who’s not about to be a tool for anyone. You could even say that Obama is actually an anemic imitation, who desparately wants to be as effective in a real way as Wright has actually done through action. It’s interesting how when Obama talks about Wright, he backtracks, makes excuses and otherwise distances himself for political convenience. Meanwhile, Wright faces it head-on, and doesn’t back down over his convictions. Kind of a no-quarter approach isn’t it?