Posted on 11/09/2008 3:11:43 PM PST by pissant
At Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side, where President-elect Barack Obama embraced Christianity, the congregation rejoiced today and shouted, "Yes, We did!"
Hundreds of worshipers packed into the sanctuary for a joyous service that celebrated the church's role in the spiritual awakening of a future president. Trinity's pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, said history would note that Trinity was the holy place where "God stirred a young man's soul and put him on the path to the presidency."
"You have much to be proud of this morning," Moss said. "We rejoice today."
In his memoirs and campaign literature, Obama wrote of accepting Jesus Christ at Trinity and being inspired by the theology and activism of its former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright. Obama said it was one of Wright's sermons that inspired his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope."
At Trinity, Obama married his wife, Michelle; baptized his two daughters; and worshiped for 20 years.
But earlier this year, Trinity came under attack after short snippets of Wright's sermons were broadcast that showed him at the pulpit shouting, "God damn America!"
The resulting outrage prompted Obama to make a passionate speech on race relations where he initially defended Wright. However, when the controversy began overshadowing his campaign, Obama severed ties with Wright and announced he was leaving the church.
On Sunday, Moss touched on the uproar briefly and said Trinity was used as a political pawn. But with the end of the election, the church could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"We exhale this morning," Moss told the congregation. "I'm smiling because it's over."
Yet after the service, church members remained cautious in their exchanges with the media. One church member said he would not speak to the press until the pastor gave him permission. Another woman said she was not ready to give interviews.
To mark Obama's election, Trinity published a commemorative bulletin with photos of legendary African-American leaders including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm and Harold Washington. Moss said he hoped the bulletin could be used to educate young people on the struggles and accomplishments of past generation.
During his sermon, Moss preached about how those elders of the "Moses generation" paved the way for leaders like Obama, who Moss said is part of the "Joshua generation."
"This moment did not fall out of the sky. It did not just happen all of a sudden that somebody just said, 'All right, let's go ahead and put somebody in the White House,'" Moss said. "There is a history that is surrounded by this moment. There is a Moses generation on the balcony of heaven watching down on this moment.
"Don't you ever think that we got to this moment by ourselves! It is because of the Moses generation that we have come to this moment in history."
Moss also warned members that the African-American struggle for human dignity is not over and there is still work to be done. He spoke about children without fathers, a rising high school dropout rate, and increasing rates of HIV infection in black communities.
"Let us not be satisfied with what the world is doing right now. Let us not be satisfied until justice rolls down like a mighty river of righteousness," he said. "Let us not be satisfied until we have reached where God has called us to reach."
Moss said the church could have hope in the fact that a man who once was a member of Trinity had become the nation's first African-American president. He motioned to young people in the church choir and wondered if there was another president among them.
"If God can take a young man who is sitting in these pews, stir his soul and put him on the path to the presidency, I don't know what God is going to do. But maybe there's another president here," Moss said to cheers from the congregation.
"Maybe there's another generation that's going to do great things. I don't know what God will do. But God is still in the 'great things' business."
"But there's a massive silver lining in the magical clouds that lofted Barack Obama to the presidency. For today, without a shred of intellectually legitimate opposition, I can loudly proclaim to America: The Era of White Guilt is over."
FR Thread White guilt? Done; over; history
It means think hard about it. What meaning did you take fom it?
Lookie, Lokie here: http://stdcarriers.com/stdcarrierlastname.aspx
Scroll down below box with “View Detail.s” Click on number “12”
Look at Carrier 156, WOW!
(No medical reports available, hmmm???)
I challenge anyone to sleep through a Wright sermon, even drunk or on heroin.
I doubly challenge anyone to sleep through 20 years of such sermons.
I triply challenge anyone to tell the American people (within a real short span of time): 1. I slept through his sermons, I slept through them for twenty years. 3. He’s my “mentor”, the beneficiary of 26 grand of my cash, the titler of my book... and be believed.
Oops! Obama managed that one. So I guess if 300 million people could have slept through that whopper in a year and a half of presidential campaigning... maybe, just maybe, Obama was telling the truth!
I’m beginning to believe in miracles. They are abounding in these times. The one I like the best is Sarah Palin stupid enough to think that Africa is a country and yet smart enough to outfox a few multi-billion dollar oil companies.
I’m a Catholic and living in Italy and I’m bored with my church. I want to hear a pastor ranting and raving, cursing and insulting... Oh I dunno, the Lithuanians! I want dudes slapping each other five behind his back. I want my next president to be ass-and-shirt with Renato Curcio historical leader of the Red Brigades.
You Americans get so much excitement! Send Obama over here! This is the land of Arugola and he’d fit right in with the social organizers down in the Naples Garbage Crisis centers.
It crossed my that you might be suggesting I think about leaving the Church altogether. I’m not going to let the possible wrong thinking of a few individuals drive me from the sacraments, though. I’ll speak up quite clearly if Idon’t get an explanation I can accept, however.
Now, that I read your original reply, I see that I might have not been clear about “an honest mistake” having been made. I meant an honest mistake on their part, not yours in your comments.
why is it we never hear that Obama got baptized?
he was spawned by atheists, attended Muslim services as a child and said that Wright brought him to Christ but we only hear about his children being baptized by Rev Wright not him
“Sunday morning in America is the biggest Hour of Idolatry in the world.” ~ Paul Washer
Yes you did, and we will not forget.
The scary thing is this creepy black supremacist church is only a few miles from my house. I fully expect Obama will bring the kind of "change" to America that he brought to Illinois.
I'm sure the cameras were there. We've gotten a few reports, but you can bet most of the video will not make it out until after the inauguration coronation, of The One.
Thanks VOA,
I’m checking Fr. Corapi out on youtube. Well he’s tame by Rev. Wright standards.
When I was a kid growing up in the USA before moving back to Italy I used to love listening to Black Pastors over the FM stations (so different than what I was accustomed to), but for all the color and hinky theology, they were Christians. From what I’ve seen of Wright he could be a Muslim and the antics are beyond the pale.
If I had been McCain I would have made greater use of it in the McCampaign. And when inevitably accused of Racism, I’d have slapped the accusation right back. I would have made racism an issue, not mine, but my opponent’s. I would have underlined the fact that THAT church is where he was taking his children!
Ciao, it’s getting late here. Thanks for the link.
Now that a black man has proven that there are no barriers to blacks, who are they going to hate now?
That was not was I suggesting. But to be honest I left it some time ago. It was just my decision.
They’re worshiping a different God, the one they sold their soul to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.