Obama’s Church - Afrocentric, Racist And Bush-Hating

Sweetness & Light ^ | January 25, 2007 | Steve Gilbert

[Sam Hill]

There has been some recent controversy about Barack Obama's religious background. Mr. Obama has recently issued statements through his spokesmen in the media (i.e., reporters) which express his shock at being questioned about such things.

Most of his media spokesmen (i.e., reporters) have then gone on to cite his membership in Chicago's Trinity United Church Of Christ parish as proof that he is just a regular run of the mill American Christian.

But a visit to the Trinity Church's website proves that it is not your everyday Christian parish:

Trinity United Church of Christ

About Us

We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the Black Community
3. Commitment to the Black Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of "Middleclassness"
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.

The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:

1. A congregation committed to ADORATION.
2. A congregation preaching SALVATION.
3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
5. A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
6. A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
10. A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.

A visit to the church's bookstore shows they have been true to their word. It is full of (bogus) Afrocentric books, many of  which make the usual preposterous Afrocentric claims, such as that Cleopatra was black:

 

The book store also shamelessly hawks Mr. Osama's books as well:

 

But Trinity Church's proselytizing doesn't stop with re-writing history and promoting its parishioners.

Here is here is the latest sermon from its pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (pdf file):

WHAT’S GOIN’ ON?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Marvin Gaye’s powerful “message song” is a song that made him famous because it went against the “Motown entertainment rule.” It raised serious questions about the culture, the country and governmental policy.

His song raised questions about Black-on-Black violence, about drugs, about war and about the way in which we were living (or not living) in a very difficult period of history.

I use his words today on the third Sunday of a New Year to keep before you the painful truth of who we are and where it is we are in this racist United States of America! What’s goin’ on?

We have lost over 3,000 boys and girls in an illegal and unjust war, and the media is on a feeding frenzy about Barack Obama’s church. Where is the outrage about the 3,000 dead American military personnel and the 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians who are dead for no reason other than greed and ego? What’s goin’ on?

This past Wednesday, January 17th, the House of Representatives deliberated on a bill to cut interest rates on federally subsidized student loans. On Thursday, January 18th, the House of Representatives considered legislation that would repeal some royalties and tax incentives from the oil and gas industries and redistribute that money to alternative and renewable energy such as bio-fuels.

The media, however, is not covering that news. The media wants to know about Barack Obama’s pastor. What’s goin’ on?

On the weekend leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices for the Medicare program. The President who is “staying the course” and sending 1,500 more troops to their death has issued a veto threat against the measure and there is no public outcry and no media outrage. What’s goin’ on?

The President, who is “staying the course” and sending 21,500 more troops to their death has issued a veto threat against the measure and there is no public outcry and no media outrage.

The President’s “New Plan” (more troops, more death and more war) promises an insane escalation — in Iraq, Iran and beyond! With the torture of Abu Ghraib, the complete destructions of cities like Fallujah and over 600,000 deaths due to collateral damage, the President complained in his speech that there had been “too many restrictions” on the actions of the United States Forces in the Iraq war.

The President’s “New Plan” (more troops, more death and more war) promises an insane escalation — in Iraq, Iran and beyond!

Am I the only one who heard that? What’s goin’ on?

I celebrate forty years of ordained ministry this weekend. I bask in the 40-year glow of God’s Grace, God’s forgiveness and God’s lessons about humility.

The e-mails that I have been getting this week, the news clippings that I am being sent and the racist blogs that are flooding the Internet make me know, however, that even as I bask, the work ahead for the church of Jesus Christ is just as serious and difficult today (if not more so) as it was forty years ago when I was ordained during the Vietnamese War!

The President tries to frame the justification for his insanity by using language describing the debate in this country over the war as “a great struggle between those who believe in freedom in moderation and extremists who kill the innocent.”

The reality, however, is that the entire war in Iraq and the larger “war on terror” have been based on lies, half-truths and distortions to serve the agenda of the United States imperialism. Where is the public outcry? Where is the outrage? What’s goin’ on?

There is more focus on what the Bears may or may not do as they play a football game against New Orleans than there is on the 3,000 homeless who are still living or displaced in the real life game called “New Orleans.”

Those poor Black and white displaced citizens of New Orleans (not imported team members playing for New Orleans), who have no place to go and no place to live because of this administration’s illegal war and its billions of dollars wasted on prosecuting that war, join with me in asking, “What’s goin’ on?”

Excuse me! The victims of Hurricane Katrina are no longer on the radar screen of the media. Only Barack, his church, his pastor and white arrogance!

I invite your sincere prayers this weekend. The generation of ministers behind me has its work cut out for them in some incredible and overwhelming ways!

Sincerely yours,

Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

So much for the separation of church and state.

Speaking of which, here is what is being promoted at the top of the church's home page as we speak:

MEET SENATOR BARACK OBAMA!!!

On Sunday, January 28th, immediately following the 11:00 a.m. worship service, meet Senator Barack Obama, author of the best-selling book, Audacity of Hope. Purchase your copy of Audacity of Hope in the Akiba Bookstore and have it personally signed by Senator Obama. You do not want to miss this monumental experience!

Where is the ACLU?

[colorado tanker]

Doesn't opposing "middleclassedness" and promoting "economic parity" sound a tad inconsistent?

[arizonarachel]

That was a SERMON? Where was God, Jesus, or preaching from the Word? All I saw was rambling.

[BunnySlippers]

I looked at the website and it stresses the Afro-centrism. CAN OBAMA SERVE A COUNTRY THAT IS NOT ALL BLACK?

If I belonged to a church that was White-centric questions would be raised about my ability to serve ALL the people!

[Jim Robinson]

Well, now you know and you have a choice to make. Your link on this thread links to a page on your site containing a full text copy of a Chicago Tribune article which is in violation of our settlement agreement. You need to remove the text from your site or we need to remove this thread. If you post other links to your site containing full text copies from restricted sites, we'll have to remove them too. And if we find that you continue posting links to pages on your site containing full text copies from restricted sites, we'll have to find another way to compel you to comply.

[Sam Hill]

Of course the link on this thread does not contain the full article. (That what the ellipses mean.)

And of course you could just remove the offending comment.

But I suspect that this is not what all of this is about. Or we would have seen this rule enforced (or maybe even mentioned) before.

[Jim Robinson]

Don't push your luck, pal.

[LC HOGHEAD]

[Sam Hill]

"That was a SERMON? Where was God, Jesus, or preaching from the Word? All I saw was rambling."

That was one of his tamer ones, apparently.

I have posted a YouTube recording and transcript of one that is absolutely insane. But I can't post it here.

[LC HOGHEAD]

[rollo tomasi]

"1. Commitment to God"

Which god would that be?

[Sam Hill]

My transcription of a sermon purported delivered by Rev. Wright:

God Has Got To Be Sick Of This Shit!

[Joined in progress] … Justice is ignored. When women are treated like, or are permitted by this society to be called publicly "bitches," justice is ignored.

And on that note, on that note, let me paraphrase Dr. Anthony Canpote (sp?), one of the nation’s greatest preachers.

He said something to this effect.

Fact number one: we’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college.

Racism is alive and well. Racism is the American way.

Racism is how this country was founded, and how this country is still run.

No black man can ever be President. I don’t care how hard you run Jesse.

No black woman will ever be considered for anything outside of what she can give with her body.

Fact number three: America is still the number one killer in the world.

We invaded Grenada for no other reason than to get Maurice Bishop. We destroyed Panama because Noriega would no longer dance to our tune anymore.

We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training professional killers.

We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children, while trying to turn public opinion against Castro and Qaddafi.

Fact number four: we put Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there.

We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority. And believe it more than we believe in God.

Fact number five: we supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians, and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic.

Fact number six: we conducted radiation experiments on our own people. You’re just finding out about that. We care nothing about human life, if the end justifies the means.

Fact number seven: we do not care if poor black and brown children cannot read and kill each other senselessly. We abandoned the cities back in the sixties when the riots started, and it really doesn’t matter what those nnn- natives do to each other.

We gave up on them and public education for poor people who live in the projects. We with VCRs, DVD, CDs and portable phones have more homeless than any nation in the world.

Fact number eight: we started the AIDS virus, and now that it is out of control we still put more money in the military than in medicine. More money in hate than humanitarian concerns.

Everybody does not have access to health care. I don’t care what the rich white boys in the cities say.

[Garbled] listen up. If you are poor black and elderly — forget it.

Fact number nine: we only able to maintain our level of living by making sure the Third World people live in grinding poverty.

Fact number ten: we are selfish, self-centered ego egotists, who are arrogant and ignorant.

We pray at church and do not try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked about a reality.

And, and, and… in light of these in fact God has got to be sick of this shit!

Sorry, I can't post the link to where this is from. But if you look around, you will find it.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Where is the outrage about the 12 dead American citizens killed by *illegal aliens* every day in the United States (that's 23,556 Americans killed since 9-11), and who are dead for no reason other than greed and ego? What’s goin’ on?

[uptoolate]

Yes I did too.

What do you call a religious organization that is anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Arab, and pro-Palestinian?

It would be interesting to find out exactly where all the 'plate' is really going.

[happygrl]

What do you call a religious organization that is anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Arab, and pro-Palestinian?

Uh, ROP, as we say here on FR ?

Or maybe just Mainline Protestantism.

[happygrl]

Dr. Anthony Canpote

Probably Anthony Campolo, one of Clinton's spiritual advisors post-Monica, and the man Clinton is walking with in the famous film clip at Ron Brown's funeral where Clinton is laughing, then notices the camera, and assumes a grave, mourning demeanor (fake).

[Sam Hill]

Yes, I think you're right.

[GOPJ]

You're right!

[Zeon Cowboy]

The real question is: Will the MSM demand that Obama keep himself uninfluenced by his church, like they did to Kennedy? I think not.

[Sam Hill]

You're right. In fact, they think it is wonderful that Obama is so close to this church's lunatic pastor:

Pastor inspires Obama's 'audacity' | Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/chi-070121-relig_wright,1,271630.story?page=1&coll=chi-religion-topheadlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

[brooklyn dave]

If one comes over to the Roman Catholics, one has to be a bit particular where one goes to worship as well. Many conservative Catholics would prefer to keep the politics out of church and prayerfully concentrate on the "Mass".