It's probably always going to be messy when chruch, race and politics collide, so without pretending that i know much about the situation (because i don't) here's what i've read about it:
Associating with apostasy
Rev. Wright and Obama
Obama to give major speech
To me, the question seems to be, regardless of whether he agrees with the theology of the church or not, should someone who is happy to associate with this sort of belief be elected as the de facto leader of the free world? How about if we substitute the word 'black' for the word 'white' and put McCain the place of Obama?
Weekend A La Carte (April 20)
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[image: A La Carte Collection cover image]A La Carte: Living
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2 comments:
My question is: What is so alarming, offensive, or worrysome about a pastor's suggestion that US foreign policy has had much to do with recent events?
I have no idea what you might be suggesting by asking, "How about if we substitute the word 'black' for the word 'white' and put McCain the place of Obama?"
I would remind the author that were this suggestion the case, McCain would be forced to own up to his endorsement from a pastor (john hagee) who seems to think that a Christian's chief role in the world is to speed humanity toward armageddon through unflinching military support of Israel, trampling in bombs and poverty the Palestinian people who have co-habitated the area for the last millennia.
I don't think that this "look at what your pastor said in one of his sermons" tells us anything about the character of a candidate.
Does alarm over the words attributed to one's pastor entitle us to some objective criticism of a congregant's theology?
'Does alarm over the words attributed to one's pastor entitle us to some objective criticism of a congregant's theology?'
Yes, i think it does. Now, obviously there's no way of telling what Obama actually thinks of what his pastor said in this sermon is there? We don't know if he agrees with it, or whether he wasn't there that sunday, or whether he wasn't paying attention or anything.
What we do know if thats he's been going to this church for 20 years. and that the church websites statement of faith is not exactly what we'd call orthodox. So what do we do with that?
Either we accept that Obama does to some extent agree with what his pastor preaches, enough to listen to it for twenty years, or that sound doctrine and practice actually makes very little difference to his choice of church. I'm not really sure which is better.
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