Category: News and Views
Obama's Church
Tuesday January 15, 6:48 pm ET
Ibd
Election 2008: Since we first drew attention to Barack Obama's Afrocentric church a full 12 months ago, other media have weighed in. And additional disturbing
information has come to light.
At the core of the Democratic front-runner's faith -- whether lapsed Muslim, new Christian or some mixture of the two -- is African nativism, which raises
political issues of its own.
In 1991, when Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he pledged allegiance to something called the Black Value System, which is a
code of non-Biblical ethics written by blacks, for blacks.
It encourages blacks to group together and separate from the larger American society by pooling their money, patronizing black-only businesses and backing
black leaders. Such racial separatism is strangely at odds with the media's portrayal of Obama as a uniter who reaches across races.
The code also warns blacks to avoid the white "entrapment of black middle-classness," suggesting that settling for that kind of "competitive" success will
rob blacks of their African identity and keep them "captive" to white culture.
In short, Obama's "unashamedly black" church preaches the politics of black nationalism. And its dashiki-wearing preacher -- who married Obama and his wife
and now acts as his personal spiritual adviser -- is militantly Afrocentric. "We are an African people," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright reminds his flock, "and
remain true to our native land, the mother continent."
Wright once traveled to Libya with black supremacist Louis Farrakhan to meet with terrorist leader Muammar Qaddafi. Last year at a Chicago gala, Wright
honored his old pal Farrakhan, who's fond of calling whites "blue-eyed devils," for lifetime achievement.
It comes as little surprise then that Wright would think Israel a "racist" occupier of Palestinians, while describing the 9/11 attacks as a "wake-up call"
to "white America" for ignoring the concerns of "people of color."
Wright makes the Rev. Jesse Jackson look almost moderate and patriotic. Yet this is whom Obama picked to baptize his daughters, plus to act as his "sounding
board" during his presidential run.
The candidate already has heeded his church's "nonnegotiable commitment to Africa," spending an inordinate amount of his campaign time on the Kenyan crisis,
for one. Obama has close family ties to Kenya, and even founded a school in his ancestral village -- the Senator Obama School.
In the bloody conflict there, which already has claimed some 700 lives, Obama appears to have sided with opposition leader Raila Odinga, head of the same
Luo tribe to which Obama's late Muslim father belonged.
Obama's older brother still lives there. Abongo "Roy" Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself
from the poisoning influences of European culture." He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage.
Beyond family politics, these ties have potential foreign policy, even national security, implications.
Odinga is a Marxist who reportedly has made a pact with a hard-line Islamic group in Kenya to establish Shariah courts throughout the country. He has also
vowed to ban booze and pork and impose Muslim dress codes on women -- moves favored by Obama's brother.
With al-Qaida strengthening its beachheads in Africa -- from Algeria to Sudan to Somalia -- the last thing the West needs is for pro-Western Kenya to fall
into the hands of Islamic extremists.
Yet Obama interrupted his New Hampshire campaigning to speak by phone with Odinga, who claims to be his cousin. He did not speak with Kenyan President Mwai
Kibaki.
Would Obama put African tribal or family interests ahead of U.S. interests?
It's a valid question, and one voters deserve to have debated regardless of the racial and religious sensitivities. Thanks to a media blackout of these
issues, the electorate has yet to benefit from a thorough vetting of Obama.
We have to wonder how much of the national agenda Africa would consume under an Obama administration. Of the six "world threats" Obama lists in stump speeches,
at least half of them concern that chronically troubled Third World continent.
Yes, some of his African priorities are noble, such as fighting AIDS and genocide. But how much U.S. aid, resources and presidential time would he devote
to them? How much is enough? If Bill Clinton was America's "first black president," would Barack Hussein Obama be our first president for Africa?
Then there is the issue of his Muslim past. Obama, 47, was raised by two Muslim fathers and attended Islamic classes in Indonesia.
He denies being Muslim, however, and says he "embraced Christ" while answering the altar call 20 years ago at Trinity. (Contrary to anonymous e-mail rumors
circulating, Obama never took the oath of office on the Quran. He used a Bible, and Vice President Dick Cheney swore him in during his Senate ceremony.)
This merely raises another concern, beyond that of the controversial church he chose to baptize him. If Obama were ever Muslim, even as a youth, he would
now be viewed as an apostate, which in radical Islam is punishable by death. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes has noted, a President Obama could be the target
of a fatwah.
Still, his Muslim heritage is not the signal issue before the electorate. It's his Afrocentric church, which preaches black socialism and black nativism,
and his family ties to an African tribe that's fanning the flames of Marxism and militant Islam in a country once considered strongly democratic and a
friend of the U.S.
"I believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change," Obama has asserted. He also says his faith has led him to question
"the idolatry of the free market."
If a President Obama's foreign and domestic policies are anything like the Afrocentric doctrine he's pledged to uphold, Americans will pay a hefty price,
including those among the growing black middle class.
well, I have no idea about the church itself. I'll be fair and not say anything on that one. However, the statement that he was Muslim isn't true. Okay. He went to Muslim classes when he was six. Who in Indonesia didn't? It's the country with the largest Muslim population. He chose Christianity when he could think for himself.
So, we have a presidential candidate who might be able to connect better with the Muslim world, that's a horrible thing. And muslims would never want to kill a U.S. president unless he betrayed his faith, then again he might not have (see the discussion of the muslim ties of the church he belongs to), yes, he's not white .. that is a horrible thing, according to this post, keep people of darker skin out of the white house for clearly they don't know what they're doing.
And he does not cite with a president who used intimidation and fraud to be re ellected in Kenya, that is truly not the American tradition of overlooking any crime and idiological differences if the government does them favors.
I've expressed reservations about Obama but if other candidates really stand behind this kind of reporting I think they'd be a worse choice for the country.
Totally and completely agreed WB. What is IBD anyway? I'll look it up too of course, but do they hold any political or other bias? Because this article certainly seems to be. If they are particularly one sided, should much if any credit be given to this article at all? I'm not casting aspertions on the poster, just the article, please know that. Hilary is White, will she bring back the slave trade, segregation, or something equally as abhorant? Valid concerns too if the concerns in that article are.
don't care if he's Muslem, Jewish, Catholic, black, white, green, blue, naked, robotic...can he lead?
That's all I care about. I'm officially pissed.
I completely agree with WB. I support Barack Obama and want to see him in the White House, but even if I didn't, this is just ridiculous. There are plenty of people who have reservations about Obama for President, but this kind of reporting is not the way to go about expressing that.
Thank God. I mean, Obama is an inspiration to all open-minded Americans whether they support him or not. He's a great speaker and unifier. I, for example, used to be a Republican until now. I don't care too much about his background since he's obviously a more skilled and sincere politician and person than any candidate I've previously seen.
Obama gave a speech yesterday that is claimed to be the speech of his lifetime. But was late in starting his presentation. Is he chronically late? Media made jokes about his lateness and I did think that was rather rude for him to be late. But if this man can get the country out of the war mess and economy mess it is in right now, god bless him and I want to see him lead this country.
I must say the speech was incredible. I didn't realize he was late. Some are saying that he didn't distance himself enough from his pastor. I don't know. I mean, if you condemn comments as inexcusable, I think you've tried to do what you could especially considering that this person is a friend. What do you guys think?