Free Republic

The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of baptizing active homosexual lifestyle as God-blessed. Since 1960, that denomination has decreased in membership by 48%. The United Methodist Church has been roiled by those adamant on establishing homosexual lifestyles as Christian legitimate. In the fight for one side or another that denomination has decreased in membership by 25%. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has likewise been embroiled in the tussle. That denomination has decreased in membership by 44%. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has also been riddled with in-house fighting over homosexual lifestyles as anti-God or pro-God. That denomination's membership...

Donald Young, a vibrant, charismatic choir director at one of Chicago's largest open and affirming black congregations, Trinity United Church of Christ, was found shot to death this past Sunday in his home. Young,47, was a longtime member of Trinity's choir, initially singing bass and then moving up the ranks to become one of its most electrifying and popular directors. He was also a faithful attendee at the conferences of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The details about why and exactly how he died remain unclear; there is, however, one story that emerges with some semblance of clarity: a...

This past weekend, Barack Obama passed up two key opportunities to stand up and be counted when it comes to making good on his campaign themes of bringing people together, healing, and fighting cynicism. But instead of action to realize his proclaimed goals, all we got was slippery evasion and bland talk. If you think Obama can be a leader, examine his brhavior this past weekend and draw your own conclusions. Background While many Christians, notably the evangelical community, are deeply supportive of Israel, the leaders of a few Christian church groups in America have issued anti-Israel resolutions over the last...

"No issue has bothered me more than the UCC's [United Church of Christ] relationship with convicted Puerto Rican terrorists that are responsible for over 150 bombings in the U.S. during the 70's and 80's. There is no moral or theological reason for defending members of this group who have killed and injured dozens of people. What is further shocking and completely contradictory to any of our beliefs is that there is no record (in the nearly 30 years that the UCC has been advocating for these terrorists) that our denomination ever reached out to the victims of FALN violence." Source:...

He ran. After twenty years of sitting with apparent acquiescence in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ, after doing a slow-motion backslide from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright when the campaign spotlight flickered on, a backslide that eventually ended in an open break, Senator Barack Obama has now officially cut his ties with Trinity UCC altogether. Faced with a choice between bringing change to his own congregation, or simply turning his back, Obama chose the latter. As he would do in Iraq, so he has now done with Trinity. The question now is, will he leave the United Church...

CNN story. Apparently Obama sent a letter to his pastor but that has yet to be released.

Obama Effectively F-Bombed His Own Church with Improper Campaign Speech The Internal Revenue Service has cleared the United Church of Christ of accusations that it violated its tax exempt status by hosting Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience.” The IRS’s letter to the United Church of Christ cites the same points that we did: even though Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience” contained campaign-related content, the UCC did everything possible to prevent the Obama campaign from misusing its resources for electioneering. It would therefore be hardly fair to hold the United Church of Christ accountable for Barack Obama’s decision to...

[Placed in the public domain, copying and widespread circulation are encouraged] Obama’s Sword of Damocles: October Surprise Won’t Surprise UsLooming Scandal Will “Toricelli” Barack Obama After Democratic National ConventionThe Democratic Party’s superdelegates, even those who have endorsed Barack Obama, need to do some serious reconsideration between now and the convention. Should Obama become the nominee, the Democrats are likely to find themselves in the same situation as they did with Robert Toricelli (D-NJ) in 2002. As described by Wikipedia (more information at the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20602-2001May12), In the middle of an increasingly competitive race against Republican Doug Forrester, Torricelli decided...

Ministers said they heard in Mr. Wright’s language “the same kind of passion and hyperbole as the Hebrew prophets,” said the Rev. Richard Wagoner of Union Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ church in St. Louis Park, Minn. Clergy members have cited the prophet Amos, who cursed all the nations, saving his harshest words for his own. But many congregants heard something different, Mr. Wagoner said, and were angry about Mr. Wright’s sermons. After his speech at the National Press Club, more frustration surfaced. “Many in our congregation are resonating with Obama’s talk of raising the discourse and that...

N.B. bold red-letter emphasis is mine. The original article's emphasis is making the case that Barack Obama is a Muslim. My emphasis is that Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ claims to have "many Muslim members." --Dajjal http://www.sonsofapesandpigs.org/2008/02/press-release-america-is-being.html Press Release: America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! [posted by] ibn Misr on February 15, 2008 We ask for your immediate attention, and viral dissemination of this news. America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! "YES, MUSLIMS ARE MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH." "WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH WHO ARE MUSLIMS." I am Usama K. Dakdok,...

We remind our readers that Jeremiah Wright’s accusation that Israel created an “ethnic bomb” to kill Black people and Arabs was first exposed at IsraPundit [http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=551]. Now we bring you more fresh revelations of anti-Israel hate speech from Barack Obama’s pastor of 20-plus years. With regard to the following, the United Church of Christ has ties to the Sabeel Ecuminical Liberation Theology Center, which refers to the creation of Israel (NOT the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the creation of Israel) as the Nakba or “catastrophe.” Trumpet Magazine The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for almost 40...

Dear Senator Obama: Our common denomination, the United Church of Christ, has a suddenly serious legal and financial problem with the Internal Revenue Service. You, personally, are the cause of this problem. Candidly? I think you owe it to those of us who are your fellow congregants to help repair the damage that you have done. ...UNSURPRISINGLY, ALL OF THIS resulted in a complaint being filed with the IRS following your presentation. In addition to your speech and the stories featured by the UCC's own website, the complaint cites numerous media accounts describing your appearance as a campaign event. This...

In addition to widening revelations about racist and/or anti-Semitic hate speech not only from his pastor, his associates like Al Sharpton, and even bloggers at his official campaign Web site, there are very credible allegations that he misused the tax exempt resources of the United Church of Christ to promote his candidacy: a malicious and self-serving action that may put his own church’s tax-exempt status in jeopardy. The story centers on "Obama’s General Synod speech prompts IRS to investigate UCC’s tax-exempt status," which is posted at the UCC’s own Web site. [http://www.ucc.org/news/obama-speech-in-2007-prompts-1.html] The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United...

Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy for the presidency has produced negative and often inaccurate publicity about the United Church of Christ, the president of the 1.2-million member denomination said in Lincoln on Saturday. The Rev. John H. Thomas acknowledged that controversy over allegedly anti-American comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has placed UCC leaders in the center of a media firestorm. Wright retired in February as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama is a member. In addition, many of Obama’s opponents have criticized the UCC for its support of gay marriage and falsely characterized the denomination...

Several U.S. mainline Protestant denominations are about to face their latest showdowns on one of the most vexing issues since slavery: whether to break from biblical morality as traditionally understood to allow clergy with homosexual partners and to sanction blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. "Mainline" groups (predominantly white, with early American roots, and affiliated with the National Council of Churches) contain vocal, well-organized liberal and evangelical combatants. The resulting dispute "certainly has taken a big toll," says Jack Haberer of Presbyterian Outlook, an independent magazine that airs varied views. "For some, it's the total compromise of all things moral. For...

Until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's spiritual mentor in Black Liberation Theology, popped out of the woodwork, I didn't even know about BLT -- Black Liberation Theology. But the doctrines of Black Liberation have been preached since 1966 in black churches, with the enthusiastic support of white churches of the Left, notably the United Church of Christ. The Rev. Wright runs an official UCC church. Though I am not a professional theologian, I daresay that Jesus would not, repeat not, approve of BLT. Because Black Liberation Theology seems to go straight against every single word in the Sermon on...

Until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's spiritual mentor in Black Liberation Theology, popped out of the woodwork, I didn't even know about BLT -- Black Liberation Theology. But the doctrines of Black Liberation have been preached since 1966 in black churches, with the enthusiastic support of white churches of the Left, notably the United Church of Christ. The Rev. Wright runs an official UCC church. Though I am not a professional theologian, I daresay that Jesus would not, repeat not, approve of BLT. Because Black Liberation Theology seems to go straight against every single word in the Sermon on...

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OBAMA'S appearance, Lynn was quick to issue a pass for his own church, saying neither Obama nor the UCC had "run afoul of federal tax law."

The Christian Century Magazine News March 25, 2008 IRS probes appearance by Obama at UCC convention The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United Church of Christ that it has opened an investigation into possible "political activities" connected with Senator Barack Obama's speech at the denomination's national convention last year. UCC president John H. Thomas termed the investigation "disturbing," but said that church officials took great care to see that Obama's appearance at the UCC General Synod meeting last June in Hartford, Connecticut, "met appropriate legal and moral standards." Engaging in partisan political acts can endanger a church body's tax-exempt...

Editor’s note: CNN Contributor Roland Martin has listened to several of the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Portions of the sermons have been excerpted in recent stories. Martin says listening to the full sermons help put the excerpts in context. I just finished listening to the nearly 40-minute sermon Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave on April 13, 2003, titled, “Confusing God and Government.”

. (AP) Senator Barack Obama has told members of his denomination that some conservative Christian leaders have exploited and politicized religion to sow division. In a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, the Democratic presidential candidate said, "Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us." Obama said, "They've told Evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion...

Barack Obama belongs to an unabashedly Black African-centered church. Its teachings focus on a "black value" system. It has knowledgeable Americans questioning how Obama's church (Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ) and its pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. influence the man who wants to be President of the United States. Why couldn't Obama have chosen to be a Methodist, a Pentecostal or a Lutheran? What drew him to a church that many find questionable? Many Americans attend churches their parents attended. Others choose denominations where they are comfortable with the teachings. As a whole, the United Church of Christ...

... The Obama campaign said the speech in Philadelphia will address "race, politics, and how we bring our country together at this important moment in our history". It comes after a week in which he has taken a battering from Hillary Clinton's campaign team, particularly over incendiary remarks by his pastor about the US and discrimination. In interviews last night previewing today's speech, Obama described as "stupid" remarks about the US and whites by the preacher at his church in Chicago, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and admitted that the focus on race over the last week had been "a distraction"....

Obama church responds in 9/11 row The church attended by US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has dismissed criticism of its senior pastor over comments he made on race and US policy. Reverend Jeremiah Wright said in 2001 that the 9/11 attacks were like "chickens coming home to roost". After the remarks resurfaced Mr Obama denounced them as "incendiary" and "completely inexcusable". But now the church says the attacks on Rev Wright have been made by "external forces" that want to "vilify us". In a statement released on Sunday, the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago compared the criticism to...

No apologies. Instead, they've gone with the "look over there!" approach. “AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH”: Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008 ) — Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe. This does not even purport to address the issue. No one is disturbed...

After he moved to Chicago in the mid-1980s to work as a community organizer, Barack Obama forged close ties with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- joining the pastor’s Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and using the topic of a Wright sermon, "the audacity of hope," as the title of his most recent best-selling book. But more than a year ago -- long before some of Wright’s more incendiary sermons became hot-button videos on YouTube, forcing Obama to publicly renounce his pastor last week -- the Obama campaign had a sense that Wright's sharp tongue might spell trouble for...

Are they keenly aware that honoring an America-hater like Louis Farrakhan is all-of-a-sudden embarrasing? It was the link referenced in this thread 4 days ago. I hope this other link posts correctly. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1985213/posts http://youtube.com/index?&session=S39JiAwT7fqBIAbNY7VOK2RWx1m9Jywsn_t1QRyONtyoMbbLb0FOVhBISRI580ER_oO8F5jjT295eOaaaEAHl6HqxbLAfdPlfm2U7ibuRvUfc05SQPZQX65JG628Tnyv_TI2mHXxGIPIsVwYcPby2pLMVdT6ashk_JSnSoVURuoBnSwHMF4EPqpa5IcFAxGVUwGET79PrrQNQfbNOdEc63ap0dByBQVhWPyvupUD9e5zzPeBl-n-p95Mgzm5NutFpFYPPiizZ4_IBk29UqbfokY9WuVh8rNH0gIgZyUWX2U=

Saturday, March 15, 2008 A Word Of Respect For Jeremiah Wright There is much being made this week about the preaching of The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the now retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. Do I agree with every word he has preached? No. But I've never met a pastor who hasn't made mistakes or gone overboard (myself included). As Diana Bulter Bass wrote yesterday: Anyone who attends church on a regular basis knows how frequently congregants disagree with their ministers. To sit in a pew is not necessarily assent to a message preached on a particular day....

CHICAGO: Members of Trinity United Church of Christ squeezed into a downtown hotel ballroom in early March to celebrate the long service of their pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. One congregant stood out amid the flowers and finery: Senator Barack Obama, there to honor the man who led him from skeptic to self-described Christian. Twenty years ago at Trinity, Mr. Obama, then a community organizer in poor Chicago neighborhoods, found the African-American community he had sought all his life, along with professional credibility as a community organizer and an education in how to inspire followers. He had sampled...

I guess "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the Name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember I AM with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20) is not as important as "From each according to his ability to each according to his need" (Communist Manifesto) at TUCC.

When Sen. Barack Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ 20 years ago, little did he know that the church’s charismatic pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., would become a flashpoint in a Democratic presidential primary. Wright, an activist pastor who brought the South Side church from a 85-member congregation to an 8,000-member mega-church, has been under constant attack on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes� as a “cult� and “separatist� church. In an interview, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that, despite the controversy swirling around Wright over racial comments he made from the pulpit about Sen. Hillary Clinton, he is...

When Sen. Barack Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ 20 years ago, little did he know that the church’s charismatic pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., would become a flashpoint in a Democratic presidential primary. Wright, an activist pastor who brought the South Side church from a 85-member congregation to an 8,000-member mega-church, has been under constant attack on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes” as a “cult” and “separatist” church. In an interview, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that, despite the controversy swirling around Wright over racial comments he made from the pulpit about Sen. Hillary Clinton, he is...

The Obama Implosion In a nutshell, Obama just doesn’t get it. The more he keeps hedging and huffing about the demagogic (“God damn America”) Wright, while simultaneously preaching about ethics, tolerance, and healing, and the more his own prior sermons are juxtaposed to Wright’s venom, so the more Obama appears an Elmer Gantry-like figure. He obviously either doesn’t fully grasp the degree to which his intimate relationship with a peddler of hatred offends Americans; or he feels that the Wright narratives are merely a wink-and-nod part of the local Chicago African-American landscape, and thus not that big a deal; or...

As the media begins to examine Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC), Obama will distance himself from Wright's virulent racism. That exercise will display some interesting linguistic choreography and promises to be an example of incredible denial. For 25 years, I was the pastor of congregations in a mainline protestant denomination similar to the UCC denomination. It doesn't take a preacher long to understand why people join a church, why they stay, and why they leave. In a setting where the pastoral leadership turns over frequently, laypeople will stomach a...

As noted earlier, Jeremiah Wright is no casual aquaintance of the Obamas. Jeremiah Wright helps keep Obama's "priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated." Sweetness and Light and The Chicago Tribune reported last year: Obama says that rather than advising him on strategy, Wright helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated. “What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice,” Obama said. “He’s much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking as truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I’m not losing myself in...

CHECK IT YA'LL- PUMP UP THE VOLUME!!!

No wonder Michelle Obama has never felt proud about this country. You try sitting in the congregation of someone like Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, and I'm sure that some of the hate he spews would rub off on you, too ("9/11 Slur by Obama Rev," March 14). Obama rails that his "good judgment" offsets his lack of experience. What kind of judgment does selecting this anti-American racist as your "spiritual adviser" show? Democrats and Republicans alike would be wise to take a step back before pulling the lever for this unknown, lest they wake up screaming the morning...

As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight to the death in Pennsylvania, we are in the midst of some exciting political times. Exciting for the political junkie — and already revealing to the discerning voter. Finally, a little of the glimmer is off the once-messianic rose that is Barack Obama. He lost the Texas and Ohio primaries and ever since has looked positively human . . . with a little help, yes, from Saturday Night Live of all places. But it’s far from all laughs. If you’ve heard some of the chilling audio or watched some of the video from...

Wow! The Obama-Rev. Wright story accelerated at warp speed on Friday, so fast that I figured I better get what I've got up now. If I wait till I have time to catch up with all the latest developments, we'll fall behind the news cycle. A quick recap. For 20 years Barack Obama has been a member of a church with a racist, hate-mongering pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Here's a quick sampling of the Wright Stuff: "The government," Obama's pastor says, "wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God bless America. God damn America!"...

Barack Obama on Friday, in a written statement and then in an interview with FOX News, issued his firmest denunciation to date of his longtime Chicago pastor and described the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s anti-U.S. remarks as “inflammatory and appalling.” Obama, in an interview Friday with FOX News’ Major Garrett, said he has been a member of the church since the early 1990s after working with the congregation as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago. He was married at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, had his children baptized by Wright and donated money to the church,...

Obama says that rather than advising him on strategy, Wright helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated. "What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice," Obama said. "He's much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking as truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I'm not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that's involved in national politics." Wright has continued on an independent path ever since, often questioning the common sense of Scripture, objecting to mandatory prayer in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWvxTUy47Fk

<p>Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."</p> <p>The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."</p>

It’s no wonder that Michelle Obama has never been proud of her country before or that Barrack Hussein Obama refuses to wear an American Flag pin on his lapel. This is a sermon by Jeremiah Wright, Chief pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ where Obama and Michelle were members. In it he describes how a black Jesus was oppressed by white people and Pastor Wright proceeds even deeper down that well. A “Damning” Indictment of Left Wing HateAnd if you really want to see the hate filled influence that is so pervasive within the circle of liberals that...

On Christmas morning, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. compared presidential candidate Barack Obama's impoverished childhood to Jesus Christ's. "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people," he then trumpeted. "Hillary [Clinton] can never know that." Mr. Wright ...was standing at the pulpit before the mostly African-American congregation of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, where Sen. Obama has worshiped for more than 20 years. Mr. Wright, who will be ending his 36-year tenure as the church's senior pastor in June, has previously been criticized for...

Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America." The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism." In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I...

CHICAGO — Barack Obama's controversial pastor and the church he's served for 36 years may be in hot water over statements he has made from the pulpit in support of the Illinois senator's run for the White House. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. preaches that he follows the righteous path, but when it comes to the federal tax law, his Trinity United Church of Christ may have crossed the line. snip During a Christmas sermon, Wright tried to compare Obama's upbringing to Jesus at the hands of the Romans. "Barack knows what it means living in a country and a...

The Internal Revenue Service has started an investigation into the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's church, because of a speech Obama gave at the denomination's meeting last year, church officials said today. ...The IRS sent a letter to the United Church of Christ headquarters in Cleveland last Wednesday, saying it was concerned because of articles posted on several Web sites that mention Obama's appearance. The letter states that 40 campaign volunteers set up tables outside the Hartford Civic Center.

The News: Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church has been promoting him -- and criticizing his rival Hillary Clinton -- from the pulpit. • The Issue: Has the church violated federal law that restricts a church's political activity? • What's At Stake: The church's tax-exempt status and its ability to raise money. Mr. Wright, who will be ending his 36-year tenure as the church's senior pastor in June, has previously been criticized for comments deriding President George Bush and lauding Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Now Mr. Wright's and his successor's repeated enthusiastic promotion of their famous parishioner may...

Obama Minister's Hatred of America Thursday, March 6, 2008 3:54 PM www.newsmax.com By: Ronald Kessler In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama’s longtime minister, friend, and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs, and creating a racist society that would never elect a black man as president. The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006. While snippets from the sermon have appeared in a few magazines, no news...