i recently had occasion to realize that the civil rights movement is the longest running thread through my life. this post comes from that perspective.
first of all, it's stupid to ignore what wright wrought. ignoring it is not going to make it go away. but the wright controversy is not an isolated argument. it's something that democrats are going to have to deal with if they want the party to have a future.
barack has to deal with four issues that come out of the wright stuff. first of all, there is a significant element within the democratic party that i personally consider anti-religious. it's not just a skepticism of religion, but outright hostility from at least some good democrats. there is no doubt that these kinds of democrats will be disturbed by rev. wright and his words -- not only because they sound unpatriotic, but they are also profoundly alien.
that's the simple problem that barack has to deal with as a bible-believing christian. part of his (democratic) base requires assurance that, as a bible-believing christian, he's not going to abandon american constitutional principles or the commitment to equality that democrats value.
"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night."
-Tony Campolo
In one sense, there is no getting past the language so doing it was his primary way of getting past it.
In a larger sense, it's a great defeat for actually discussing race. Of all people, David Gergen gave a fairly good rundown on this last night on CNN.
I don't take kindly to partisan attacks, least of all partisan attacks on people's faith (or even their atheism should that be their choice in our free society). I've written a number of times about crass, hypocritical smears coming from the ill-informed editor of the conservative blog Illinois Review, Fran Eaton, a long-time and well-documented Obama hater and former Alan Keyes campaigner.
Ms. Eaton is hardly alone in her partisan, anti-Christian zeal.
I havewrittenseveraltimesbefore, as have others (here and here by ArchPundit plus here by Pastor Dan), about the anti-Christianism emanating from conservative Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton when it comes to her perverse discussions of the church where her apparent nemesis Sen. Barack Obama worships, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Trinity United is hardly different from any other Christian church around the world. It is community-focused and reflects its congregation, to be sure, but that is no different than any other house of worship. In fact, in recent weeks, there was a great outpouring of sympathy throughout Chicagoland for Trinity United as their energetic and joy-filled choir director was found murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Ms. Eaton herself is both a self-proclaimed "Christian" (which is odd given how staunchly she opposes this one church) and is also rabidly anti-Obama. She was an Alan Keyes campaigner in 2004 when he packed his Maryland bags and ran for Senate against Obama here in Illinois. She also opposed then-State Sen. Obama for many years before his US Senate run on issue after issue in Springfield.
