Thursday, May 1, 2008

Notable & Prophetic: Obama Reaps What Wright Sowed

"Our choices have consequences, and our behavior has consequences. I've told you for over three decades now: God will forgive you for sowing wild oats. But God's forgiveness don't stop the crop. Them oats you sowed will bring a crop. You will reap what you sow. But stop calling your crops your cross. "Well... that child is just my cross." No, that child is your crop. A cross is a sacrificial vehicle of redemption that you voluntarily pick up; a crop is the result of something you sowed. Our choices have consequences, our behaviors have consequences."Rev. Jeremiah Wright, sermon delivered on January 27, 2008, at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois

Barack Obama has been very reluctant to gather the crops that he has sown. The reverend is right, for once, that our choices and behaviors have consequences. When Obama joined Wright's congregation, he made a choice and now he is dealing with the consequences of that choice. For 15 years he sat first alone and then with his family imbibing his religion and forming his social conscience under the tutelage of his minister. Obama has called Wright his greatest teacher because he led him to Christ. Now, there are many ways to reach Christ and not all are straight; but surely Obama chose for himself one of the crookedest, and if it led him to Christ then indeed it was a miracle. Wright's teaching could well have led him in another direction as it apparently has led the minister himself.

Wright occupied in Obama's moral cosmology a central place, not the "tangential" one which he now attributes to him. Wright is correct to question the sincerity of Obamas's efforts to distance himself from him. If not political expediency, then how to explain the fact that only when the propriety of his relationship with Wright was questioned did Obama feel the compulsion to disavow Wright's more outrageous contentions while never actually disowning Wright? A coincidence? Can anyone believe that if Rev. Wright's opinions had not been publicized by the media and Obama himself placed in the position of defending the indefensible or repudiating it, that Obama would ever of his own volition have labelled Wright's beliefs "divisive and destructive?"

If he had done so on his own it would be possible to contend that moral outrage, not just political opportunism, played a part in his decision. But Obama either agreed with or disregarded the content in Wright's sermons, served to him 52 times a year for 15 years. Did he manage to miss all 780 sermons preached to the congregants of Trinity United during all that time? All of Rev. Wright's sermons contain poisonous weeds and all are alike incendiary and offensive. A little bit will certainly do you; but even the great heapfuls that Obama was fed over 15 years were not enough for him to develop a distaste for the racist mythology and visceral anti-Americanism which are its permanent themes. Did Obama dismiss it all as bombastic rhetoric? If so, then how did Wright become his mentor? Do honest men blindly follow the preaching of demagogues? Or did Obama agree with Wright's peculiar take on religion, history and politics? That would seem a logical conclusion given the influence which Obama himself acknowledged Wright had exerted over him.

Or is Obama himself Rev. Wright's "crop?" Or is he Wright's "cross?" Obviously, Obama is the best thing that could have happened to Wright. No cross to him but a most bountiful harvest. Thanks to Obama Wright has become a national figure. Don't fool yourself that notoriety is all that he has reaped. He has his legions of admirers in the black community just like Minister Farrakhan, Wright's own "mentor." Not a small minority of blacks actually believe that Obama has betrayed Wright and hence the black community to ingratiate himself to the white establishment. They'll still vote for him, of course, but they believe that in the contest between Wright and Obama it is the reverend who has the "moral" high ground. It would not be surprising if Rev. Wright got a multi-million dollar book contract to publish his execrable sermons. Not even Billy Graham did that well and he was much more popular; nor Archbishop Sheen, who was an intellectual giant compared to both of them.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright was not joking when he said that he might be picked to run as Obama's vice-president. In fact, he is already running as his "vice president." The two are now inseparable in the public consciousness; no "vice president" in history is as completely identified with the presidential contender as Wright is with Obama. Wright has certainly reaped quite a bonanza from the seeds he planted in his surrogate son. The son also got more than he bargained for. But as the reverend said, "Our choices have consequences, our behaviors have consequences."

[Yes, another post on Obama. While his ship is sinking, we insist on documenting that fact].

37 comments:

Vana said...

And that ship is sinking fast, of course had Obama not been running for president he would never have disavowed his mentor, and the book will be soon published, Obama will make his mentor a rich man, it will be Wright who will reap what Obama sowed.

nonee moose said...

[Yes, another post on Obama. While his ship is sinking, we insist on documenting that fact].

No te acomplejes.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Vana:

He's already a rich man after 30 years of soaking his congregation. But now he is going to be rich beyond dreams of avarice. I didn't even mention the $100,000 speaking fees which he will now command. Wright is (unintentionally) funnier than Bill Cosby and has more name recognition at present. If he plays his cards right, he might end up making more money as a paid speaker than Bill Clinton, the acknowledged master at this game.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

noone:

As someone who wrote 20 straight posts on Val's outing of Killcastro let me assure you that I would not be in the least embarrassed to write 40 straight posts on Obama.

We grease what needs greasing.

Fulano de Cal said...

There is no way Obama can get away from this stuff. And it is very relevant to understanding who he is and what choices he might make for the country.
There is no way that he disagreed with Wright's statements. How could he not have? I admit to drifting off during mass, but I think I would have perked right up if the monsignor starting cursing America. Maybe during those 15 years of listening (and at least tacitly agreeing) he did not see himself rising beyond Chicago politics, so he did not worry about his future accessibility to the white establishment.
This morning I heard Juan Williams (a black journalist who has written a book about black churches) on NPR say that Wright's church is definitely not like average black churches in the US. Typically, ministers do not curse or give incendiary-over-the-top speeches. I don't see anything wrong with cursing or being incendiary in church, but the churchgoers can't disavow themselves from it.

Fantomas said...

Obama is stronger now with the pastor controversy

en que mundo vives?

ganara en los Estados que faltan y hillary acabara 127 votes short

bookster said...

Ay Bendito! for a minute i thought i was en la cofradia del santo reproche!

bookster said...

mat are you going to give mccain that rcab moral scolding, since were are into reaping/sowing?.

you know here's a guy that dumps his first, for a rich heiress. why did he dump her?. Read Here and here

Mas boberias!

Fantomas said...

mat tu odio hacia obama es tan grande que el dia de la votacion , cuando entres a la urna se te doblaran las piernas y votaras inconcientemente por el

asi que como dice el corgy dejate de boberias y pon algo de cuba deja a obama tranquilo que gane o pierda nada tiene que ver con nuestra causa

Fantomas said...

mat corrigeme creo que la palabra inconcientemente esta mal escrita

please rectify me

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fulano de cal:

Obama wants to be all things to all people and nothing in particular. This might work if he were really the blank slate that he pretends to be. But he holds the distinction of being both the most left-wing member of the Senate as well as the least productive. Of course, if we must have left-wing senators, let them by all means be as lazy and ineffective as Obama.

Still, it is amazing that after only three years in that august body this monumentally conceited man thought himself qualified to be president of the United States and leader of the free world.

If he were not completely committed, as he is, to the politics of race and class, and even if he had never met or been influenced by Rev. Wright, Obama would still be the most unqualified man to run for the presidency in the history of the presidency.

I am glad that you are able to see this. There are many here who seem constitutionally incapable of doing so.

Fulano de Cal said...

dejate de boberias y pon algo de cuba deja a obama tranquilo que gane o pierda nada tiene que ver con nuestra causa

Obama has voted twice to eliminate funding for Radio Marti. Eso si tiene que ver con nuestra causa.

Fantomas said...

fulano sin que obama este metido en esto


Yo no estoy muy de acuerdo con la forma que se maneja radio marti y lo vengo denunciando hace mas de 1 año que quede claro

NO SE VE 3 CARAJOS, ESTA SUPER JAMMED BY CUBA

only a small percentage see it and la programacion da azco

Fantomas said...

asco

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fulano de cal:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright accompanied Jesse Jackson to Cuba in 1984. He has praised Mandela for refusing to disavow his friendship with Fidel Castro. He is certainly not our friend and his disciple is not our friend either.

Nothing more catastrophic could happen to the cause of Cuban freedom short of the cloning of Fidel Castro than the election of Barack Obama as president.

If that happens Cuban exiles will find themselves in the same position in this country as anti-Castro Cubans in Chávez's Venezuela.

God help us all!

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fantomas:

Do you mean Radio Marti or TV Martí?

Radio Martí is heard throughout the island. TV Martí has been successfully jammed since its inception.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fulano de cal:

Given the Cuban people an alternative to the official media is clearly not a priority of the Senator's.

His vote against Radio and TV Martí is noteworthy because it is one of the few times that he ever made it to the Senate to cast a vote.

Maybe Rev. Wright phoned Obama and pleaded with him not to let Fidel down.

bookster said...

Fulano

to clear the record on reverend wright

* 9/11 he was quoting mr peck a former ambassador under reagan who said that 9/11 was a blowback or unintended concequence of our foreign intervention in other countries. Read Here


* as far as the aid thing, he was linking that to the tuskegge experiment where the goverment infected 400 black man with syphillys to conduct an expirement .Read Here

Fantomas said...

i meant to say TV marti

Vana said...

Already rich after 40 years of soaking his congregation..lol..think I will become a minister, it is tax free!

Vana said...

ooops meant to say 30*

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

corgiguy:

The guy is a nutcase. You are not doing Obama any favors by trying to rehabilitate him.

BTW, the Tuskegee experiment (conducted by a black college with federal funding) did not involve injecting black men with syphilis but withholding treatment from them. It is not less reprehensible on that account, but still the truth does not need to be barnished; it is bad enough.

It is quite another thing, however, to allege that the U.S. invented AIDS in some laboratory with the expressed purpose of committing genocide on blacks or that the U.S. was responsible for 9/11 or deserving of 9/11.

It's too early for historical revisionism. Try later.

bookster said...

mat

i'm just giving context to the discussion and where the pastor's comments came from. i'm not making it up.

blacks have historical reasons not to trust the us goverment, i know is hard for you to put your head around that one, the tuskegee experiment adds fuel to that fire.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

corgiguy:

The Tuskegee Experiment was conducted by a historically black college with funds from the federal government. Black doctors and black nurses were responsible for carrying it out. For over 30 years, this was Tuskegee's prized money cow, which subsidized generations of black graduates.

I wonder what would have happened if one, only one, of the hundreds of medical and administrative personnel involved in implementing this program over three decades had blown the whistle on it?

But none did.

Yes, the government bears by far the greater part of the blame. But those who carried out the Tuskegee Experiment are also responsible for their deeds.

Are you suggesting, therefore, that blacks should not trust other blacks; or, specifically, that poor blacks (such as took part in the experiment) should not trust well-to-do blacks (who administered it)?

In any case, they certainly shouldn't trust Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Barack Obama. Neither should those who are not black.

Anonymous said...

corgiguy said: blacks have historical reasons not to trust the us goverment


So do Cuban-Americans. But i will let this dishonest discussion continue uninterrupted.

Anonymous said...

mat,


America has betrayed the Native Americans, Black-Americans and Cuban-Americans.


Keep it real!!

bookster said...

mat, what i'm sugesting is that blacks have historic reasons why they don't trust the goverment dating all it way back to slavery, tuskegeee is part of that history. That's where that wright aids alligation came from. If you want understand the angry reverend you need to put his anger and hist statements within that context.

Now You can spin it anyway you want

Fantomas said...

what a boring conversation

who the hell cares

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fantomas:

Boring?

Stick around. You might learn something.

Fulano de Cal said...

corgiguy,

Why refer to someone's interpretation of a small portion the 9/11 sermon. Read the whole thing in all its paranoid context:

http://faultlineusa.blogspot.com/2008/03/
jeremiah-wrights-911
-sermon-in-context.html

As Manuel stated, he is a nutjob.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

John:

Very true. The U.S. government has betrayed many groups historically and Cubans are near the top of the list. It has also stood by its commitments to many others, especially its European allies.

It is when it has tried to keep the trust with non-Europeans -- e.g. the Vietnamese -- that all hell has broken loose in this country.

Anonymous said...

mat said: Very true. The U.S. government has betrayed many groups historically and Cubans are near the top of the list.


Ok, then stop trying to slice and dice the historical betrayal of black Americans.

I am fair enough to admit that my nation has betrayed the Cubans, Blacks, and the Native Americans. You ought to be able to be just as fair to express the same historical observations "outside" of the Cuban-American community.

Fantomas said...

Mat me aburrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ponme algo mejor

ya esto de wright cansa

me voy

bookster said...

fulano

let's be clear, the rev is wacky agree no argument on that, i have heard the whole sermon is on youtube, i saw him on bill moyers show last week.

you made a statement about 911 and aids asking whehter obama believe that. i reply to your statement and i gave the context from which those controversial statements by the rev where made.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

john:

I have never denied that the United States has committed historic wrongs against African-Americans and others. No one who knows anything about American history could deny it.

However, it is one thing to decry slavery and other national sins and quite another to condemn the U.S. on the basis of unconscionable canards that seek to foment hatred among its people for the benefit of the likes of Jeremiah Wright.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Note:

We had a visit today from Faisel, who left a comment that he deleted. His name linked to a new blog called Revista Guaimaro, which judging from the title might prove of interest to our readers:

http://revistaguaimaro.blogspot.com

Fantomas said...

no manuel that was me by mistake faisel was not here that was me i set up the blog for him and have his password

By the way el abogado Faisel Iglesias es el lider de la corriente Agramontista