Barack Obama's Judgment

Over the past week, there has been plenty said about the United Trinity Church and in particular, Reverend Jeremiah Wright who is Senator Barack Obama’s minister in the Trinity Church. There are so many levels to this story it’s nearly impossible to break them all down and those are just the ones we’re all familiar with.

Barack Obama began attending Trinity Church nearly twenty years ago. Reverend Wright was the minister chosen by the Obama’s to marry them. He baptized their children. Why did Obama choose this church?

It’s speculated that he chose the church due to the size of the church, the networking that could be done through the members of the church and the future those people who attended the church could provide him.

I think back through my own church selections over the years, and it’s so completely different from what seems to be Obama’s reasons. My parents raised me as a Methodist. When I was very young, we attended church that was a block from where I lived. I don’t remember my parents joining to try improve their jobs. What I remember is that they chose based on how they were raised, and wanting to provide a moral compass for themselves and their children. Learning about God, and the lessons that are taught in the bible.

When I was older, I met someone that asked me to attend their church. In this church, they taught from the bible, again, life’s lessons on how to lead your life, treat other people and last but certainly not least, to prepare for life after death through belief in God. I became a Baptist from that experience. When I married, I had the same concerns as my parents for my own children and we attended a Baptist church in the town we lived. Again, life’s instruction through God.

I’ve attended Methodist, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventists, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches. While I didn’t agree with the teachings with some because they didn’t teach from the bible, or their rituals seemed outlandish to me, I didn’t go back, but never did I choose a church based on how the people there would affect my career or make me more popular in my community.

The primary theme in any church attended was God. Not politics, not social activities, and not politics. Comments might be made about politics, but they were made in the context of what the Bible taught and on the issue that was in the news if it was a big enough story. Patriotism is prevalent in church because this country was originally inhabited by people looking for religious freedom and the country was based on a belief in a supreme being. That’s as far as it went. We were thankful for a country that allowed us to worship in the way that we choose.

Sermons were never based on political parties. Never was another race of people put down due to the color of their skin. All men were created equal. Women were to support their men, men were to support their women and families. Not once in my 51 years did any pastor of mine in any church, even the ones that I didn’t agree with, ever say that God should Damn America.

Not once did a preacher ever say that we were held under the thumb of the rich white man, or corporate America. We weren’t told to oppress the black man. We instead were told to love others. We weren’t told that we were better than black people. We were taught that we were all brothers and sisters. Yes, even in the 60’s during the civil rights marches. We heard love thy neighbor. Treat others as you’d want to be treated. Don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder. Honor your mother and father and above all have no other God’s before the one God. We were taught to pray for God’s will and for each other and for others.

These don’t seem to be the teachings of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He seems more intent on blaming the white man, and this country for any poor treatment or perceived poor treatment of members of “his” race.

Barack Obama first said when asked, that he hadn’t heard this type of sermon from the Reverend Wright. In his speech, however, he said he had heard it and disagreed with it. So which is true? Why would Barack Obama remain in the church if he disagreed with it and thought it divisive? His continuance under the tutelage of Rev. Wright makes me wonder if Obama is running for President of the United States for all of this country’s people or if he’s running for one segment of the country.

Obama is asking the people of this country to consider him based on his judgment. That being the case, I can’t trust the judgment of a man that would choose to sit and listen to this type of speak from the pulpit and subject his children to this type of speak from the pulpit. I can’t trust a man that says he won’t throw overboard the pastor that led him to God. Yet he also let us know that his grandmother was afraid of black men passing her on the street, and used racial or racist terms that made him cringe. He can throw over his grandmother but not his pastor?

He won’t give up on the Reverend that married him but he’s willing to hint that Geraldine Ferraro is a racist. He won’t give up on the Reverend who preaches divisiveness, that baptized his children but he’s anxious to have Bill Clinton’s words in South Carolina igniting race as a topic, chastised.

It appears that Obama is right that we consider him based on his judgment. However, that judgment has proven to be flawed through all of this. His judgment has propelled us back into the sixties. The days of the riots. The days where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. When Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated. How long before we start hearing about the drinking fountains for whites only? How long before we’re thrown back to lunch counter sit ins? How long before we’re bounced back to lynching’s?

Barack Obama is not ready to be President of the United States. He’s still dealing with the injustices put on the black people of this nation. He hasn’t moved on to making it better, he’s still wallowing in the past. His choice to stay in a church that likes to pit the races against each other shows his poor judgment.

At one time, the rich white men did hold back the black people of this country. However, those rich white men also worked to free the slaves from the very beginning. When laws were passed making black people 3/5 of a voter it wasn’t to say that the black man was less than a white man. This is a myth. The fact is that our founding fathers passed that law to help the black man and to lead to an end to slavery. The southern colonies wouldn’t join in making one nation without slavery. With the slaves mainly in the south, counting them for representation would ensure that the south would have higher representation. By listing a black man as only 3/5 of a vote they cut down the representation and made it possible for the slave debate to continue and eventually bring it to an end. This isn’t even taught in schools, so you can be certain that it’s not taught in churches.

Barack Obama’s speech was not a great speech. It was instead, an indication of his poor judgment which is exactly the reason he’s asking for the vote of the American people.

Obama seems to have two things to draw from. Obama said that he was raised by a white grandmother. Most children are influenced by those that raise them. Should we be concerned that Obama has admitted that his grandmother was a bigot?

He’s admitted he can’t just dismiss Rev. Wright because he’s like family, brought him to God, married him, baptized his children. Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been exposed as a bigot.

What seems to be the two most important people in his life; the one that raised him and the one that ministered to him, both are bigots. One we’ve seen on the news for a week and the other he’s told us about. The first, he didn’t choose. His grandmother raising him was not his choice. She was responsible for molding him into what he became, while being bigotted against black people. What he became was a man that chose a church led by a man that preached bigotry against the white man and blamed his own country for the attacks on this country on September 11, 2001.

Senator Barack Obama’s judgment should be considered when deciding to vote for him or against him just as it should be considered when deciding whether to vote for Hillary Clinton and it should also be considered when deciding to vote for John McCain. That judgment displayed by Barack Obama leads me to believe that Barack Obama is not the right man to lead this country in the future. Knowing what we know now, the people of Illinois should be wondering why they voted for him to enter the United States Senate.

Brett