tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008487317696293475.post-17235799155293910792008-03-18T12:47:00.009-04:002008-03-18T19:19:47.337-04:00On Tuesday Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama gave what many has dubbed "the race speech" in an attempt to explain his view on video clips recently released into the media showing some of the anti-American, racist and hate filled sermons delivered by his mentor and former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama previously claimed amnesia and sited absence at church services as an excuse for his tolerance of Wright's remarks. Today he had a different story.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(To see an example of the referenced video clips, <a href="http://barakobamanation.blogspot.com/2008/03/gospel-according-to-rev-wright-obamas.html" target="_blank">click here</a>.)</span><br /><br />"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."<br /><br />After his admission to being present and aware, he offered the following explanation for his continued association with Wright.<br /><br />"Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way."<br /><br />Although many Americans hoped that Obama would go a step further than simply "condemning" particular comments made by Wright, he refused to budge on the issue of possible severance. He stated that Wright was "like family" and had strengthened his faith, officiated his wedding, and baptized his children. <br /><br />"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," he said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."<br /><br />How Obama can equate the fearful, yet insensitive remarks of his own grandmother to the message of hate preached by Jeremiah Wright is beyond my understanding.<br /><br />What I do know is that you can't choose your relatives but you can choose your pastor. It's sad to see an American presidential candidate that has chosen to receive and maintain 20 years of council from a man who stands in a pulpit and urges his followers to say "God D*** America" instead of "God Bless America."Holly Boreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02500817369146131930noreply@blogger.com