March 14, 2008
Lets be honest; racial
and religious prejudice
are still rampant in our
country. The founding
fathers were (in general)
white, privileged, deists
who owned slaves. Yes,
they talked about
freedom, but their
perception of freedom was
limited. We had to take
things one step at a
time.
Thomas Jefferson created
his own version of the
Bible that cut out the miracles
and anything related to
Christ's divinity. Oh,
and it didn't include the
Old Testament. And yet
we apparently find it
necessary that a
Commander in Chief be a
professing Christian from
a mainline denomination.
I'm not saying I don't
want a Christian
president, but that we
also shouldn't require
that a president be
Christian.
Why is it that the
possibility of Obama
being a Muslim is so
terrifying to us. Oh
right, terrorists. Oh my
God, he's black and a
Muslim?!?! Saying that
we shouldn't vote for a
Muslim because they might
be a terrorist is like
saying we shouldn't vote
for an Evangelical
because they might be an
abortion-clinic-bombing-
gay-person-murdering-
woman-oppressing-
Conservative. And by the
way, he's not a Muslim.
He is a professing member
of the UCC. I go to
seminary with a lot of
UCC people, and I've
never heard them show any
terrorist (or
anti-Semitic) sentiments.
In fact, the UCC members
in my acquaintance are
some of the most racially
and socially inclusive
people I know.
Speaking of questionable
religious affiliation,
why is it that few people
question the weird
constellation that makes
up George W. Bush's
religious practice? He
styles himself as a
"born-again evangelical"
and aligns himself with
leaders from the
Religious Right, but he's
a member of the United
Methodist Church. That
is, by the way, the same
denomination as the
Clintons, who were
apparently pretty active
and well-liked at Foundry
UMC. Now, Bush has
pretty much ignored or
disagreed with most of
the social positions of
the UMC and even refused
to meet with his own
Bishops in the lead up to
the Iraq war. He instead
relies on the advice of
those like
Tim LaHaye, whose books revolve
around the idea that the
current events in the
Middle East are the
beginnings of the End
Times. W chose Southern
Methodist University as
the site of his
presidential library and
the staff don't want it.
And then there's John
McCain, who once called
Jerry Falwell and Pat
Robertson "agents of
intolerance," because
they have done things
like
blame the 9/11 Attacks on gays,
feminists and lesbians.
And lets not forget about
the SpongeBob/TinkyWinky
conspiracy. But now
McCain has to suck up to
those very people in
order to secure support
from his party. That's
messed up.
As for Obama's
pastor, I don't pretend to know
what the larger context
of his "God Damn America"
sermon was, but neither
do most of you. I think
it will be important to
understand what exactly
it is he was advocating,
for a variety of reasons.
Honestly, if I was an
African-American who had
lived through the civil
rights movement and saw
how far we still were
from real racial
equality, I might be
frustrated enough to say
those words too. Of
course that probably
wouldn't be helpful, and
we do need to be very
careful which words we
choose. Still, it makes
me sad that in the land
of freedom of speech,
critique of our country
would make us
"unpatriotic."