Posted on 05/07/2008 5:37:30 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Much hay has been made over the purported anti-American and anti-Israeli statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's church.
But Judith Strasser thinks the presidential candidate is the victim of a smear-by-association campaign, as is Wright's former congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ in south Chicago. That's why Strasser is heading down to Chicago this Sunday along with other members of Shaarei Shamayim, Madison's Jewish Reconstructionist congregation, to attend 11 a.m. services at Trinity.
"I conceived of the trip to support a congregation that has been caught in the limelight by events beyond its control," says Strasser, who retired a few years ago as a senior producer and interviewer for the syndicated Wisconsin Public Radio show "To the Best of Our Knowledge." "Members of Trinity UCC are being smeared in the same manner as Obama -- but they have even less control of the situation than he does."
Wright has been at the center of controversy for months, with Obama distancing himself more and more along the way. Critics have dredged up a sermon Wright gave shortly after 9/11, in which he implied that the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon were tied to U.S. support of "state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans." He concluded by saying "America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Most recently Wright weighed in on AIDS, saying: "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied."
A magazine published by Wright's church, called Trumpet Newsmagazine, has also generated heat for awarding the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award last year to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a man the publication said "truly epitomized greatness."
When asked about the magazine's praise for Farrakhan, whose well-known anti-Semitic comments have drawn widespread condemnation, Strasser says she is not in a position to comment on Farrakhan or Wright. But, she adds: "As a Jew, I obviously don't support anti-Semitism."
She says her trip to Chicago is meant to "show interfaith and interracial solidarity with the congregation," not support for Wright, Farakkhan or Obama.
Strasser says she is distressed by what she sees as the "McCarthyite tactics" of those who try to unfairly associate Obama and members of Wright's church with unpopular statements made by Wright and Farrakhan.
"How many members of any congregation agree 100 percent with everything their minister, priest or rabbi says? Do we, for example, assume that all practicing Catholics are anti-abortion, anti-birth control and anti-death penalty, because that's the Pope's position? Do we assume that all Jews are ardent supporters of everything Israel does, because some rabbis are unapologetic Zionists? Why should we assume that the members of Trinity are anti-Semitic, anti-Israel or, for that matter, unpatriotic, because of something Rev. Wright may or may not believe?"
This will be Strasser's second trip to Trinity. Last month, she attended Sunday services at the urging of her son, an ardent Obama supporter.
"Even as we were walking five blocks from where we'd parked to the church it was clear everybody was going that direction and we were really greeted very warmly," she recalls. "And when we got to services we were embraced."
But the upcoming group trip has not been an easy sell. As Strasser reports on her blog (www.inlieuofspeech.blogspot.com), only 16 of 29 seats on the bus had been filled as of Monday.
Despite some physical setbacks of her own, however, Strasser remains determined to make the trip. Diagnosed in 2005 with stomach cancer, it has spread to her lungs and she now has considerable trouble breathing and talking. Blogging on Monday, she wrote that her doctor discontinued one of her three chemotherapy drugs because of increasing numbness in her feet and hands.
Strasser has personal reasons for pushing on. A published poet and author, she is now working on a book about a college friend who, along with his wife and two children, was murdered in 1985. She says the family was murdered by "a right-wing nut" who assumed her friend was Jewish (his last name was Goldmark) and a communist.
He was neither.
"It may seem a stretch to think that smearing members of Trinity as anti-Semitic or unpatriotic will result in murderous acts, but I'm quite sure no one expected the Goldmark case to lead to four murders either," she says. "Crazy people exist, and guilt by association feeds their paranoia. Add racism into the mix, and you have a potentially very dangerous situation."
Jewish Reconstructionist is a gateway exit from Judaesim and a torah life. Their kids will cease being jewish or their kids.
I’m a boring old Lutheran, and even I know that much. This woman is whacked, but she’s spent her life in Wisconsin Public Radio, so it figures. ;)
As Limbaugh says, “words mean things”.
The only thing smearing the church are the people who make up its membership and pastoral staff.
You can't smear a sewage lagoon.
Ok, fine. So what percentage does Obama agree with? 90% 75%? 66%? 50%? Can we assume that since it's a Black Liberation Theology church and he chose to be a member knowing that, Mr. Wonderful at the very least agrees with that? What a steaming pile of....
The classic red herring dodge.
When someone openly spouts hatred from the pulpit, that is far different from saying the same thing in back-room events or party conversation. Then there's the frequency of hatred to address.
This church openly advocated hatred against others. Therefore, it is not Christian. It's more in line with another religion of peace....
Heck YES, we do! Those that do not follow the church's teachings are considered apostate (that may be too strong a word), and are enjoined from communion. That many transgress and take communion anyway is damnation to their own souls.
It's too bad that the author has no clue what moral standards are about!
Will this be the Cindy Sheehan of Obama’s ‘08 campaign?
I have never understood the Jewish vote going Democratic.
Mark Steyn once wrote that if you mixed a cup of feces with three quarts of the finest ice cream, the mixture would taste more like the former than the latter.
Nevertheless, these people are dining on the food served by Reverend Wright every week....some for 20 years. At some point a reasonable person would wonder why they were eating such crap.
Has anyone suggested to the Westboro Baptist Church that they might all go up to Trinity and publicly stump for their brothers and sisters?
Methinks Ms Strasser is about to find out that the South Side of Chicago is a wee bit different than PublicRadioLand in Wisconsin.
“I have never understood the Jewish vote going Democratic.”
Me neither. Can someone else explain it?
Guilt by association with Farakhan really isn't needed ~ Rev. Wright does fine all by himself in hating Jews, and quite openly too.
Two left-wingers off to support another left-winger. The only surprise is that they use religion as their rationale.
The church was smeared by Rev. Wright, and the stain sank in when no one seemed to notice what he was spewing.
Oh really. Yet, they all sat there like the mind numbed robots and listened to that trash Sunday after Sunday and never questioned a word the disaster pastor delivered against the USA.
Lib-translation: "Hey...I want some of that limelight!"
So, Obama and the congregation had absolutely no choice to attend Wright’s sermons? They were dragged kicking and screaming at gun point to listen? They were forced to applaud and shout Amen to his racist, anti-American, hatemongering screeds?
The segue from Wright/Obama/Trinity to the Pope/Catholics was a quantum leap in logic. She compares being anti-abortion, etc with being anti-American and anti-semetic. She is trying to cleanse Wright and his congregants by grasping at all straws available.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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Politically misguided, but an interesting poet, or is it poetess, pc is so hard to do.
Self loathing and suicidal Jews -— obviously members of the “Lost Tribe of Israel” -—— the STUPID Tribe.
BTW the Goldmarks (husband, wife, two young sons) were murdered by a "right wing nut", a Christian Identity follower, so it's odd she doesn't recognize that there are dangerous left wing nuts as well. Wonder if she agrees with me that the Goldmark case presents a strong arguement for a quick and consistant death penalty? I suspect not. Would she defend the Christian Identity movement, perhaps visit a service or meeting, on the theory that they're not all violent? I doubt that too.
Well said. I hate how she’s using their deaths to make a buck, too.
Don’t know that she’s the one to write the book, but the right one could make a decent crime novel/ movie out of it. A violent hate based murder of the family, conviction, death sentence, conviction overturned due to an ineffective lawyer. Truman Capote would have done a great job with it. The victims brother is a local (WA) left wing politician, ran for Congress I think, I’m sure that has nothing to do with her interest in the case, which leftists frequently raise as an example of the danger of crazy right wingers.
Strasser says she is distressed by what she sees as the "McCarthyite tactics" ... snip ... She says the family was murdered by "a right-wing nut" who assumed her friend was Jewish (his last name was Goldmark) and a communist.He was neither.
Oh yeah, I wouldn't bet the rent on that. And as to Strasser I WOULD bet the rent she IS a stinking commie. The "McCarthyite tactics" canard is always a dead giveaway.
I stopped right there. Anybody that stupid couldn't have had much of interest to say.
She is obviously too dumb to know that the enator has been proven entirely correct, and continuing to repeat that McCarthyite crap is the height of stupidity.
“Truman Capote would have done a great job with it.”
Agreed.
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