On Seperation Of Church and State (My beliefs)

 

And Some Of You Didn't

 

The Good Baptist

I wasn't raised a Baptist....Not sure just what I was.....No...I met and married a "Good Baptist Woman" as I have jokingly called my wife for years and converted to the Baptist Faith around 1987...when I was 29.  I was Baptized in 1992, the Sunday after Easter.....I remember because aside from graduations and my wedding of course, it was amongst the few times I remember my mother being totally ecstatic...
See, I was out there for a minute...and I suppose when she saw that Reverend dip me into that cold water in the Basement pool of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church that Sunday...it was a signal that the prodigal son had come back to the shore..... I'm kidding of course...I was never too far out of pocket..I had too many guardian angels.... (That's an inside joke of course...You'd have to be a member of my family to get that!)

So being a Baptist and all, I have probably willfully attended church more than I did prior to my conversion, but I must admit that I haven't kept up on Baptist politics. 

Yesterday I saw a curious article in the paper about the "Southern Baptist Convention" and how they have named their first African American President in History. Another Negro First! 

Rev. Fred Luter Jr.,(Pictured above ) the man poised to become the first African American president of the nation's largest Protestant denomination when messengers, as the convention calls representatives sent to the convention meeting, vote next week in New Orleans
.

It's a big step for a denomination that was formed out of a pre-Civil War split with northern Baptists over slavery and for much of the last century had a dubious reputation for supporting racial segregation and Jim Crow in the Southern States. This is a very big step indeed!

In recent years, faced with growing diversity in America and declining membership in its churches, the denomination has made a sincere effort to distance itself from that past. Many Southern Baptists believe the charming and charismatic Reverend Fred Luter is the man who can lead them forward. Not to be cynical, but you can't help , if you're someone like me...wondering how long before the honeymoon will be over.

Reverend  Luter's rise through the Southern Baptist ranks has been a slow and steady process, the result of the hard work, leadership and creativity that allowed him to turn a struggling inner-city church of just 50 members into the largest Southern Baptist church in Louisiana by weekly attendance. No mean feat!

The 55-year-old Fred Luter grew up in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, the middle of five children raised by a divorced mother who worked as a seamstress "not to make ends meet, but just to make them kind of wave at each other," he said. The family walked to a local Baptist church every Sunday and Luter's mother made sure all the children attended.

Luter drifted away from religion after leaving home for college, just as I and many others did, but at age 21 he found himself making a promise to God that he has kept to this day.

 After a near-fatal motorcycle accident landed him in the hospital, "I said, 'God, if you save my life, I'll serve you for the rest of my life,'" Luter said.


He survived and soon began preaching on street corners every Saturday with a group of friends from church.
"We had no training," he said. "We were just really excited about what God was doing in our lives and we wanted to share it with others. We got ridiculed a lot."

Fred Luter kept it up for nine years before someone suggested he apply to become the pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. Formerly a white church, the membership had changed to African-American with changing demographics of the neighborhood.

"When I came to Franklin Avenue it was a bunch of women and kids," Luter said. "You could count the number of men on one hand."


So Luter bought a pay-per-view TV boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns and told the women in his church to invite every man they knew.

About 25 men showed up, some of whom didn't realize they were coming to the pastor's house, Luter said. Nonetheless, they happily dumped their beer to go in and see the match. Afterward, Luter invited them to come to church.

"The boxing match was on a Friday night and the following Sunday five of those guys were at church," Luter said. He recognized them during the service and all the women started applauding. After church, they lavished attention on the men.

"The next Sunday there were more men," Luter said. "Once we started the men's program we found that men draw not only other men, but men draw women. Word started spreading."

The rest is as they say, history! Today he Pastors a Mega Church!

Fred Luther has not been elected President of the Southern Baptists yet...but the way it looks...He doesn't have any opposition or challengers....This is all good....In 1962 , this would have been unheard of...It probably would have been unheard of in 1992!  I just wonder if these Southern Baptists have truly turned a corner here? or is this all just smoke and mirror?  Only time will tell.  This still aint post racial America.

The Morning After

If you are reading this...either the scheduled rapture predicted by Harold Camping didn't happen or a whole lot of people (myself included) got left behind...I saw all of the jokes on Facebook and Twitter last night and I must admit, I was responsible for a lot of em myself.

All jokes aside...I really feel sorry for all of the poor misguided souls who sold their houses, ran through their life savings...euthanized their pets and told their unbelieving children (probably teenagers ) that they were going to hell because they didn't buy into this...What will they do Monday morning when the reality sets in that they are still here on Earth and they are broke and homeless? Not only that, but some of them have probably aileanated their families....What will they do, what can they say?

It is these people that I feel sorry for and that I am praying for.What of Camping? What can he say now after being wrong two times and attracting so much attention??
He's 89 years old..It's time for him to do as my grandmother would say- "Go somewhere and sit down" oh and be quiet.

I have to admit...I wondered for a hot minute if he (Camping) might be on to something and yesterday around
5:30 pm...I was a little anxious....I was thinking about Heaven...I was thinking about being left behind too, which in my case might have been more likely...Then by 6:01 pm ,..I sighed relief..went out and bought two hoagies for my wife and I and we had a little post doomsday celebration if you will.

If any good came out of this, it is this...It did get people to thinking and talking about God, about the bible and about getting their souls right...I can't quote this verbatim, but I think it says something in the bible about all things working for the good ....Right now...That's good enough for me!

Peace!

Still Don't Think They Are Racist?

I have been the biggest critic of the tea party movemant. I know that supposedly there are Black tea party supporters...I look at them as just misguided fools...There were Black soldiers in the Confederate army for that matter....What can I say? Ignorance in action is a frightening thing.

Two Weeks ago, NPR executive Ron Shiller called the tea party movement that propelled Republicans to huge congressional gains in the midterm elections last November "scary" and "seriously racist." In addition, he complained that America did not have enough "educated, so-called elite" citizens, and that the Republican Party was anti-intellectual. His opinion...and in my opinion, the absolute truth.

NPR, which is supposedly liberal(That's the rumor at least) tossed Ron Shiller under the bus, denounced his comments about the Tea Party and sought to distance themselves from him... He has since left NPR for "undisclosed reasons." They distanced themselves because his comments could possibly force the majority Republican Congress to cut it's funding ,that's why....

So I suppose the Tea Party takes umbrage at being called racist....Explain to me why they are now encouraging voters to oust a Black congressman because of his religion? Explain that?

Over the weekend, the so called Tea Party Nation sent out an e-mail to Minnesota voters backing independent candidate, Lynne Torgerson over Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison. Who is the Tea Party Nation? Glad you asked!This is the same group that sponsored the Tea Party convention earlier this year, headlined by Sarah Palin. The reason given for backing Lynn Torgerson over Keith Ellison is that Keith Ellison is an African American Muslim with alleged terrorist ties. Not only are they being discriminatory, but they also lied about Keith Ellison in the e-mail, which stated the following:

"There are a lot of liberals who need to be retired this year, but there are few I can think of more deserving than Keith Ellison. Ellison is one of the most radical members of congress. He has a ZERO rating from the American Conservative Union. He is the only Muslim member of congress. He supports the Counsel for American Islamic Relations, HAMAS and has helped congress send millions of tax to terrorists in Gaza.

A Complete lie...Not a scent of proof...just an inflammatory and irresponsible bit of truth bending.
Truth bending that they are good at...Death panels anyone? President Obama was born in Guam anyone?? It's the same old crap.

If you put the obvious grammatical errors aside,Keith Ellison is not the only Muslim in Congress, and where is the proof that he has sent millions of tax dollars to terrorists in Gaza? The Tea Party is dangerous not only because of the wacky people who are in it but also because of the rhetoric use, which is hateful, ignorant and uninformed. That is a dangerous combination that smacks of desperation. And people actually wonder, people actually question why folks think the Tea Party is racist?? Unbelievable!

Dangerous Sudden Fame

It is said that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. How unlikely is it that some kook in Gainesville, FL named Pastor Terry Jones is getting his 15 minutes of fame... his moment in the sun... possibly at the expense of many American lives, military and civilian.

Pastor Jones of Dove World Outreach Center said today that his plan to burn copies of the Quran will go forward despite mounting pressure opposing the event. "As you can imagine, we have received very, very much pressure in the direction of canceling the event. As of this time, we have no intention of canceling," Jones said at a short news conference this afternoon.

Among the comments condemning the event was a statement from Gen. David Petraeus, who said the burning of the Quran would endanger the lives of U.S. troops overseas. Jones said he disagreed with that opinion. How would he know? He's probably never been in the military and never been too far from Gainesville, FL. A trip to Tampa was going abroad for him!

Jones said, "We have also received quite a bit of support. (From other nuts!) We understand the General's concerns, and we are still considering it. But, yesterday, we got a phone call from a retired special-forces Green Beret. It was his opinion that the people on the field are 100% behind us." (This is either a lie or he was talking to another fanatic, who should be removed from his uniform and position.)

"Our burning of the Quran is to call attention to something wrong. It is possibly time for us in a new way… to stand up. So, as of right now, we are not convinced that backing down is the right thing. So, on September 11th, we shall continue with our planned event," Jones said.

International attention remains focused on this small church tucked between pastures and sub-divisions in the north part of Gainesville. Jones is still set on burning copies of Islam's holy book this Saturday, to coincide with the nine-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks. With world leaders condemning his actions and more than 100 death threats directed at him and his church, the pastor has decided to carry a .40 caliber pistol for protection. He may need it!

As was expected, there was silence from Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter yesterday. These "Super Patriots" obviously have no qualms about the possible endangerment of American servicemen/women and civilian personnel abroad. By being silent, they are by default condoning it.

This idiot pastor is not going to achieve anything by doing this and nothing positive is going to come from this situation. However, he will have his moment in the sun... his damn 15 minutes of fame or infamy, depending on your politics and degree of common sense.

This is not Christianity... this is hate. Make no mistake about it. What those 19 terrorists did to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was not Islam either... that was hate too! It just goes to show that their are nuts and lunatics in every religion, just as in other walks of life. What is scary is when they cost other people their lives!

Save The Drama For Ya Mama!

Back when he was running for president in the spring of 2008 and winning a lot of surprising primaries, they used to joking call the president-to-be "No Drama Obama". He made winning the presidential race and everything else he's done so far look so cool, so calm, and so collect... but, the Republicans and some people in his own party are not going to stand for his being so cool but for so long. See, they all want to see the president sweat.

My grandmother used to say that misery loves company. I can't quote here what she actually said... something about the more miserable a so-and-so, the more that so-and-so wants to make everybody around them miserable so that he or she won't be alone. Such was my grandmother's wisdom and it holds true.

One way to break someone's cool is to make them waffle on something. You know, appear to not be as sure of themselves as they appear. (Like the time I fell at a school dance and ripped the girl's entire dress off who I was dancing with... definitely, not cool!)

The NAACP flap of a few weeks ago was the first waffle and now this Mosque at Ground Zero thing appears to be the latest. It appears that President Obama and the White House got roped into a story that was being driven primarily by cable and the conservative political elite (like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin): The building of this Mosque near Ground Zero.

Previously, the Obama White House had declared this issue to be a local matter (and, by the way, the Mosque was approved locally in New York). But then, President Obama weighed in personally by saying, "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."

For those of us who have followed Barack Obama since the Democratic Primary in 2004, it was an unsurprising stance, and I guess that George W. Bush would have said something similar, if he were still president. But, what was surprising to many, including Democrats, was:(1) President Obama decided to get involved in a matter that was already resolved; (2) He did so without the White House having any surrogates and validators ready to back him up as he departed for a weekend getaway; (3) He appeared to back off of his comments on the Mosque situation just a day later.

He said, "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a Mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the rights people have that dates back to our founding."

Well, this appears to the (Rush Limbaugh-Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin) right-wing pundit crowd that the president is waffling and that he and his team who, once upon a time, took the high road and felt themselves above the cable and internet chatter of the beltway area, now actually care more about it than they are willing to let on. It appears that there now is indeed a chink in his armour of coolness... especially with these mid-term elections coming in a few months and the fear of Democrats losing control of the House.

President Obama is only human... nobody can stay cool forever. I've never been cool. By now, I would've told a whole bunch of people where they could go and what they could do when they got there... and, this is the reason why I'm not in politics or holding any office. I can't smile on cue when I'm pissed off. You can't lie on me and I shrug it off and calmly speak to the cameras. My size 12 won't walk in B.S. without aiming for somebody's sitting place. I'm just not cool like that... but, our president is and if the Republicans want to run wild with this, he should let 'em. The populace at large is not as outraged about this as you would expect. Americans have short memories... it's been nine years.

Republicans want to make political hay out of President Obama’s Mosque comments... but, such a move for the GOP (especially after its embrace of Arizona’s controversial immigration law) carries some real risks. There is now more anti-Muslim rhetoric in legitimate political circles than there was immediately after 9/11. Ben Smith and Maggie Habberman have written that, “Republican leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11th rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence (always controversial inside the party) that Islam is a religion of peace.” This was George W. saying this, mind you. It wouldn't be wise for Republicans to look like hate mongerers. I'm talking about responsible politicians, not the tea bagger crowd, which already has that tag!

When you consider that the issue has already been settled by the New York Authorities, both sides, Democratic and Republican, would do better to just let it go, move on, and allow our president to be cool... or in other words, save the drama fo ya mama!

He Lives... Nuff Said

ART: "His Voyage" By Unknown Artist

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Make Me Smile

I've been thinking a lot lately about life, death, and all things meta-physical. Without being too preachy or too deep (after all, it is Friday and the beginning of the weekend), I would like to pose the question of what makes us happy? What really makes us smile from ear to ear? Did you ever stop to think, when was the last time you were truly, truly just happy to be alive?

I don't have time to answer this in one blog post and I'm not sure I could write a book to answer this but, I do know one thing... people don't have a clue as to what really brings them joy. It has been said by someone wiser than I that we all live lives of quiet desperation and everyday that I'm still allowed to breathe in and breathe out, I realize that is true.

Somewhere after the age of (let's say) 21, life stops being this wonderful journey of constant discovery and wonderment to us and we get serious. We get locked into jobs, relationships, morgtages, automobiles, bigger homes to store more things in, and making more money than the next guy. Before we know it, life is over and we find that we don't know our spouses... our kids have grown up and we don't know much about them or feel comfortable having a conversation with them... and most of our friends have gone on to other jobs, new cities, or what have you and at the end of the day, you really don't have much to smile about. This thought came to mind this afternoon.

I was driving past the first place my wife and I lived as man and wife. It was a huge house on the corner of the block that the owners had turned into a duplex. Their son lived on the top floor, they inhabited the floor below it, and my wife and I lived in what was really a basement that had been turned into an apartment. It was very roomy... the bedroom we had, as well as the kitchen, were actually larger than the bedroom and kitchen in the house that we live in now. There is a huge for sale sign on the house now and the couple that rented the apartment to us have since died and, the last I heard, their son was living in Washington, DC.

I spent some of the happiest days of my life in that place. We didn't own a car but we lived near the train station so, I commuted to work everyday. We lived near a market and a dry cleaners and there was another black newly married couple that lived near us. They moved into a house a few years before we didbut, I couldn't tell you where they are now. The point is, I was blissfully happy. I don't even think I had a credit card then.

Today, I have a home, a car, a grown daughter, two grandkids, a job that is very stressful and unfulfilling but pays well, and a lot of stress and free-floating anxiety. I've got a savings account, checking account, credit cards, and the like but, I'm not as happy as I was then when it was just the three of us and we had next to nothing, except each other. The funny thing is, if you had asked me back then, I would've told you something like... "When we get a home of our own and a car, we'll be so happy and so set. We all do that... "If I can get a bigger house, I'll have it made!" "If I can get that new BMW, I'll be happy!" "If I can make 200K next year, I'll be king of the hill baby!"

When we do get what we say will make us happy, we find ourselves miserable still. Do you know why? Things can't make you happy. Some of us never find that out until it's too late. I'm not writing this to make you think that I'm depressed. I'm not... I'm doing real good. It's just that the things that really made and continue to make me happy have nothing to do with money or the accumulation of things. Usually, people who don't have any money or anything else write something like that but, I'm being the exception to the rule.

Think about this... every dollar, every quarter, every nickel, and every penny you ever earned and put aside will go to somebody else after you've gone. The house you are living in will, more than likely, be lived in by somebody else. The car you're driving now will be driven by somebody else. You're only using the stuff that you sweat and bleed to obtain for a short period of time. Money doesn't have an owner... only a spender.

So, what makes me really happy? What makes me smile? Probably something different from what might make you smile but, I can say this... what makes me smile are things that can't be bought. Things I brought here with me when I came and things I hope to take with me when I leave. The answer is in the spiritual... the unexplainable. Those things, those moments... with a child, a lover, a good friend, or a pet that are priceless. Those things that can't be measured... at least not by man.

Cone of Silence

LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sen. John McCain, Dr. Rick Warren, and Sen. Barack Obama

address the audience at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA

Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" hosted a forum for John McCain and Barack Obama at Saddleback. Most of the audience was Evangelicals and the good folk of the so called "Bible Belt"... the type of folk who more than likely, will not vote for Barack Obama anyway.

I'll give Barack Obama some points for just showing up, just like I gave John McCain points for going to the NAACP convention earlier this year. There, McCain was faced with a group of people who more than likely, will not vote for him either but, unlike George W. Bush four years ago, he was not arrogant about it.

As moderator, Rick Warren asked the two candidates a number of questions dealing with how they felt about moral and spiritual issues... such as "When do you believe conception begins?" Are you people serious? Have any of you taken a look at this country? Are you still debating issues from three presidential elections? Get over it already, it's the law... a woman can have an abortion, okay...? Is this all you folks can talk about? Still? Then, they were asked if there was EVIL in the world? Yes, it is... look no further than the present vice-president... an evil man if ever there was one. Personally, he scares the "cowboy crap" out of me.

Mr. Obama went on first and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. He never answered any of those questions directly. He went into long, rambling, scholarly dissertations without ever directly giving a yea or a neigh. In his defense, this is because these are spiritual and moral questions that can't be answered like that... these are issues that each human being has to wrestle with and it is between the person and God and their interpretation of what God wants of them. There are no easy answers and really there are no wrong or right answers to these questions.

Mr. McCain was supposed to be in a room dubbed the "Cone of Silence"... a soundproof room (I guess) in which he couldn't hear the questions. The problem is... he wasn't there. He was in his car where it is alleged he could have heard the questions. He and his people say that this isn't true and nobody but them really knows so, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

At any rate, John McCain answered the questions decisively and without hesitation. I feel as though he got the better of Barack Obama in this forum. John McCain was in familiar territory, he was amongst his people. The Republican faithful and more importantly, he was preaching to his choir. Would his answers have been any different had he of been in the Cone of Silence? I can only speculate at this point.

My real question here is... were the questions asked that important in the first place? Whether a candidate is pro-life or pro-choice, how a candidate feels about confronting evil in the world (not to mention in the White House) means nothing to the worker who doesn't have health care... the man or woman who has just been laid off and is now wondering how they can afford that mortgage and that predatory loan they took out... the farmer, whose crops have been devalued... the worker who's job has been outsourced and sent to another country... and those brave and wonderful soldiers still in Iraq and Afghanistan, still wondering when they can come home.

These are the issues that concern a lot of people and unfortunately, they were locked in the Cone of Silence instead of John McCain!

Better In Heaven

This day marks ten years that he's been dead. (I'll call him V.) When I began serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, V. was my first supervisor. He was a Staff Sergeant and four years my senior. I came to the base fresh from boot camp with a wild crew... we were all in our early to mid 20's and none of us had any stripes; therefore, we had no fear and no responsibility. V. understood us... he and his crew had all been what we were... the young terrors on the base. These guys were now in the midst of changing because they were starting to get promoted and had a little responsibility. The same would happen to us in a few years too.

V. and I became fast friends. We were both raised in the same part of West Philadelphia, had a penchant for the ladies, and had been burned by love. It would take a book to talk about our many adventures and mishaps in the Air Force and I don't intend to talk about them all here. I'll just go over the basics.

V. met me at a time in my life when I was going through a change... I was 26 years old, starting to think about my future, and beginning to tone down all of the wildness of the years before. I had finally listened to my mother and started socking away some money. I already met the woman I was going to marry and my entire attitude had changed. In effect, I was no longer any fun... I stopped drinking, cut down on the partying and staying up late, and I was starting to move up the ranks in the military. Me and two other guys (I'll call them E. and S.) eventually equaled V. in rank and were no longer his "charges" but rather, his contemporaries.

My fun came from living vicariously through V. He had gotten divorced before I met him and had just married wife number two. He was constantly battling wife number one over issues of child support. Then, he and wife number two had a baby. While we were all over in Europe, she neglected to pay any of the bills for the house they rented and subsequently, they all got evicted. V. and his new family had to live at his mother's house, which was around the corner from my aunt's house.

When we went back to Europe, V. got involved with a beautiful woman whose father was an African American G.I. and mother was a German civilian. The entire time we were there, he stayed at her home in Amsterdam. E. and I covered for him when he didn't show up for work. The woman wrote him a beautiful letter, put perfume all over it, a lipstick smudge, and mailed it to his home in PHILADELPHIA. The letter beat him home and his son from his first marriage opened the letter and showed it to his step-mom!!! Well, that pretty much ended marriage number two.

V., E., and I went to San Antonio, TX a few years later and V. got involved with a much older woman (she was 50 years old). Mind you, we were by then in our late 30's. Her husband had been some kind of "negro first" something or other in Texas, died, and left her a pile of money. She bought V. clothes, let him drive her cars (I did say cars... she had a black Jaguar and a white Mercedes Benz), and she gave him money. V. would come to the base, pick us up, and we would go out on the town and have a high time.

One time, we met these girls from Philly who were visiting for a few days and they wanted to party. I was married by then and in a rare moment of good judgment, I elected not to go with them to the party. Just as I was getting out the car (the Benz), his woman drove up in the Jaguar! She yelled, "Get them b-----s outta mah car, nigguh!" E. Looked at me and I motioned for him to come with me. He did and we both went back to the barracks.

Later that night, V. knocked on my door... his clothes were torn and he was a bloody mess!!! The woman made him get in her car, they quarreled, and she drove at speeds of 80 and 90 miles an hour while screaming, "If I can't have all of you then, I'm taking us both to the grave! V. leaped out of the car and she drove the car into an embankment. I know this wasn't funny, but I had to walk into another room to keep him from seeing me laugh... the woman wound up in the hospital and all of us returned to Philadelphia.

Right after that, V. realized that he needed a change in his life so, he married a church-going girl. He even got saved himself and he left the Air Force. He got a good civilian job and he and his new wife moved into a small home in the Mt. Airy section of Philly. I went to Italy that summer and returned to Philly in August. One day, I was walking down the street towards my block and saw V. with his wife. He had on a very nicely tailored suit and was all smiles. We embraced and I talked about my trip to Italy. He told me that he and a friend were going to go partying the next night and he asked me if I wanted to come. I declined but told him I would drop by his house and see him in a few days. Unfortunately, that was the last time I would ever see him alive. I never knew who the "friend" was that went with V. to the party but apparently, they went out and got an "8 ball" of coke (not the soft drink) to get high. V. subsequently went into cardiac arrest and died. He was only two weeks shy of his 44th birthday.

I had just turned 40 years old a couple of months before this happened and, it felt so weird attending his funeral. Every guy I had known throughout my Air Force career was there. It was like a reunion of sorts... guys I hadn't seen in years, guys who had retired, transferred, etc. And women!!! All three of his wives were there, his four children, and past girlfriends. It was like a rock star's funeral and V. WAS a rock star. Everybody had a funny story to tell about V.(celebrating his life). As I walked by his coffin and looked at him in his full military garb, I couldn't cry... in fact, I smiled because I remembered all of his misadventures with the women (and there were a lot more than the two I talked about here). Then, I silently said to my friend... "I hope the action is better for you in Heaven."

The Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has been in the news a lot lately and, as usual, Americans only know him through soundbites and talking heads like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. If anyone would have bothered to listen to his entire speech (as I did), you would've found that a lot of what he said was said by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 41 years earlier... although, probably in a different way... yet, still the same thing. Once again, I'd like to share an article with you concerning the man so, you decide for yourself if he deserves all of the criticism that he has been getting...

What Obama Could Have Said About His Pastor
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, A True Patriot
By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss

In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia, and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)

The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premiere medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the Commander in Chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.

While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections. Who is the real patriot?

The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?

After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities. This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades. Since these comments became public we have heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements, and rejections of his comments and him. We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many sermons. Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling this man "unpatriotic," let us not forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country.

How many of Wright's detractors, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service, and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights struggle? Not many.

While words do count, so do actions. Let us not forget that, for whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has demonstrated his patriotism.

Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss are, respectively, Navy and Marine Corps veterans. They work at The Center For American Progress. Korb served as assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. This piece ran in the Chicago Tribune on April 3, 2008.

I came across this and I realized that the average person in this country doesn't like to read and doesn't prefer to go any deeper than a CNN soundbite. If you cut 'n' paste sound and video bites, you can smear and misrepresent anybody. I feel that this man has been unfairly maligned by the media. It's not the first time and it won't be the last. To quote Parliament-Funkadelic leader, George Clinton: "Think, it aint illegal yet!"

Happy Easter

Simply Put...He Lives!

Quotes: Here are some timely assurances that you may want to keep in mind while remembering the true meaning of this special day. Take note of the quote by Robert Flatt and keep it some place where you can see it everyday.