On Jul 5, 3:36=A0pm, VTR <vexjo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Inside Obama's Christian Crusade
> By Max Blumenthal, TheNation.com
> Posted on July 2, 2008, Printed on July 5,
2008http://www.alternet.org/st=
ory/90162/
>
> On June 10, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack
Obama=
convened a meeting in
> a law office in downtown Chicago with a wide array of about thirty
evange=
lical leaders, in an
> unprecedented effort to win their sup****t. Obama insisted that the
meetin=
g remain entirely off
> the record, forbidding participants from disclosing his statements to
the=
press. His campaign
> has kept the names of attendees a closely guarded secret. But through
int=
erviews with
> participants and overlooked statements in obscure publications of the
Chr=
istian press, a
> first-hand picture of the meeting emerges, starkly at odds with the news
=
re****ts that accepted
> the formal version at face value.
>
> News accounts about the meeting stated that Obama impressed his audience
=
with his sincerity,
> depth of theological knowledge and communication skills. But according
to=
those present, he did
> little to assuage the hostility that many of the assembled --
particularl=
y the conservative
> white evangelicals -- harbor toward him and his liberal positions on
soci=
al issues. Those
> differences reached a crescendo when the Rev. Franklin Graham directly
co=
nfronted Obama about
> his supposedly Muslim background and Christian authenticity.
>
> Franklin Graham, son of the evangelical icon Billy Graham and head of
the=
international
> Christian aid organization Samaritan's Purse, was seated next to Obama
at=
the meeting. He
> peppered Obama with pointed questions, repeatedly demanding to know if
th=
e senator believed
> that "Jesus was the way to God or merely a way." Graham, who once
incited=
an international
> controversy by calling Islam a "very evil and wicked religion,"
proceeded=
to inquire about the
> Muslim faith of Obama's father, suggesting that Obama himself may be a
Mu=
slim.
>
> "They focused on abortion, gay marriage, and then Franklin Graham tried
t=
o get Senator Obama
> saved," said Rev. Eugene Rivers, an African-American pastor from Boston
w=
ho attended the
> meeting. Rivers told the Religion News Service that Graham pointedly
ques=
tioned Obama's
> "father's connections to Islam." Obama re****tedly said of his father,
"Th=
e least of things he
> was was Islamic."
>
> Graham's spokesman, Mark DeMoss, denies that Graham asked Obama about
his=
father's Muslim
> faith. DeMoss did, however, confirm that Graham questioned whether the
ca=
ndidate believed Jesus
> was the only way to Heaven. "Jesus is the only way for me. I'm not in a
p=
osition to judge other
> people," Obama responded, according to Rivers.
>
> Stephen Strang, a right-wing Pentecostal, was among those invited to
Obam=
a's meeting. He is the
> multimillionaire publisher of Charisma, an evangelical magazine, and a
si=
gnatory of the World
> Evangelical Alliance statement urging evangelization of Jews. In naming
h=
im one of the
> twenty-five "most influential evangelicals in America," Time called
Stran=
g "a Bush favorite
> ever since his homegrown Christian publi****ng house, Strang
Communication=
s, released The Faith
> of George W. Bush, the first spiritual biography of the President, in
200=
3." "We didn't write
> it to help Bush, but it no doubt helped elect him," declares Strang. He
i=
s also a close
> associate of controversial End Times theology proponent Pastor John
Hagee=
, whose endorsement
> presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain recently rejected after
a=
firestorm of
> criticism. Strang is a member of the board of Hagee's organization,
Chris=
tians United For
> Israel, and a publisher of Hagee's book on Israel. Strang told me that
se=
veral participants,
> not just Graham, expressed concern about the Muslim background of
certain=
Obama family members.
> Obama replied that he had hardly known his father, who left his family
wh=
en Obama was 2, and he
> sought to downplay the notion that his stepfather, an Indonesian Muslim,
=
was active in his
> faith. "I remember [Obama] saying, 'We never went to the mosque when we
l=
ived in Indonesia,' "
> Strang said.
>
> Strang told me that as the meeting drew to a close, one evangelical
leade=
r who sup****ted Obama
> ("a friend" Strang refused to name) stood and "lectured" the other
attend=
ees about the faith of
> Obama's opponent, Republican Senator John McCain. The pro-Obama preacher
=
railed about McCain's
> divorce as evidence of his lack of religious commitment, and added that
M=
cCain has demonstrated
> discomfort with public expressions of faith. "He also said that McCain
sw=
ore on the Senate
> floor," Strang recounted. "He seemed to be saying that if Christians can
=
sup****t a flawed
> candidate like McCain, the implication was, why couldn't they sup****t a
c=
andidate with flawed
> policies like Obama?"
>
> Strang recalled that Obama did not rebuke the minister for his personal
a=
nd pointed remarks
> about McCain. Instead, according to Strang, Obama simply smiled and said
=
he would not make any
> attempt to undermine his opponent's faith.
>
> Strang said he found Obama's outreach to evangelicals refre****ng. "Obama
=
was very clear that he
> wanted to involve people of faith in the process and he seemed to say
tha=
t he would be inviting
> people like this to the White House," said Strang, who was invited twice
=
to the White House by
> George W. Bush and once by his father. "He was very sincere and I think
h=
e scored some points."
> But Strang was not persuaded. He is a strong sup****ter of McCain. "I
supp=
ort him 99 percent.
> How I vote is based on whether the candidate is for or against life,
peri=
od," Strang said.
> Nonetheless, he is publi****ng in August, in time for the Democratic
conve=
ntion, a new book, The
> Faith of Barack Obama, by Stephen Mansfield, the author of The Faith of
G=
eorge W. Bush.
>
> Besides Strang, Graham and Rivers, attendees at the meeting included
cons=
ervative Christianity
> Today editor David Neff, Evangelical Lutheran Church President Mark
Hanso=
n, conservative legal
> scholar and Reagan Justice Department official Doug Kmiec -- who has
been=
denied communion for
> his sup****t for Obama -- and T.D. Jakes, the Dallas-based
African-America=
n Pentecostal
> mega-church pastor who has supplanted the black church's traditional
soci=
al justice teachings
> with "prosperity gospel" theology, preaching faith as the way to the
prom=
ised land of wealth
> and status.
>
> "I'm not against marching," Jakes told PBS in 2007. "But in the '60s,
the=
challenge of the
> black church was to march. And there are times now perhaps that we may
ne=
ed to march. But
> there's more facing us than social justice. There's personal
responsibili=
ty, motivating and
> equipping people to live the best lives that they can."
>
> "Obama is said to consult Jakes on a weekly basis and called him a 'role
=
model' of a Christian
> who puts his faith into social action," Sarah Posner re****ted in her
book=
, God's Profits:
> Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters.
>
> Another influential African-American prosperity gospel pastor, Kirbyjon
C=
aldwell, attended the
> June 10 meeting with Obama. "It is unscriptural not to own land," the
pre=
acher has declared.
> Caldwell, a former bond dealer who founded the country's largest
Methodis=
t congregation, the
> Houston-based Windsor Village, has been among George W. Bush's most
vocal=
and visible black
> backers. He introduced Bush at the 2000 Republican National Convention,
d=
elivered the
> benedictions at his 2001 and 2005 inaugural ceremonies and presided over
=
the wedding ceremony
> of Jenna Bush. Bush has rewarded Caldwell's good works by lavi****ng his
m=
issions with federal
> faith-based grants.
>
> But almost as soon as Obama declared his campaign for the presidency,
Cal=
dwell broke from the
> GOP, delivering a roaring endorsement for the Democrat from Illinois,
hai=
ling him for his
> "character, confidence and courage." "For the last twelve months, I've
be=
en talking to people
> who are part of the [Obama] campaign very, very regularly," Caldwell
said=
recently.
>
> Caldwell's endorsement did not come without controversy. Just days after
=
Obama delivered a
> speech criticizing homophobia in the black church, some gay bloggers
reve=
aled that Caldwell's
> own Windsor Village church hosted a ministry that, according to its
websi=
te, was "created to
> provide Christ centered instruction for those seeking freedom from
homose=
xuality." Caldwell
> denied any knowledge of the ministry, though he refused to condemn it.
Ye=
t when the revelation
> spread from the blogosphere to the mainstream media, and proof surfaced
t=
hat the ministry was
> an integral component of Windsor Village, Caldwell's congregation
scrubbe=
d all mention of it
> from its website.
>
> Behind Obama's religious outreach effort is a group of avowedly
Christian=
political consultants
> who insist that white evangelicals can be persuaded to vote Democratic
if=
candidates overtly
> display their religiosity. Among these consultants is Obama campaign
aide=
Joshua DuBois, an
> African-American lay minister who organized his candidate's recent
meetin=
g with evangelical
> leaders. DuBois himself has sidestepped questions about Obama's
pro-choic=
e politics and sup****t
> for same-*** civil unions. As a paid member of the candidate's staff,
DuB=
ois has refused to
> state his own position on abortion. Instead, he emphasizes the appeal of
=
the senator's social
> gospel message.
>
> "There are folks who are concerned about abortion, they're concerned
abou=
t gay marriage,"
> DuBois told David Brody, a re****ter for Pat Robertson's Christian
Broadca=
sting Network, "but at
> the same time, they're concerned about health care, they're concerned
abo=
ut poverty, they're
> concerned about the war in Iraq. So I wouldn't necessarily put
[Christian=
voters] into the two
> camps like that."
>
> Mara Vanderslice has been called the "faith guru" by The Hill in
Wa****ngt=
on, DC. Her consulting
> firm, Common Good Strategies, recently formed a political action
committe=
e, the Matthew 25
> Network, to advocate on Obama's behalf. In the past, Vanderslice has
advi=
sed her clients not
> only to downplay their sup****t ...
>
> read more =BB
Piss on a bunch of goddam "evangelicals."
Franklin Graham is a coke-snorting, skirt-chasing asshole who "saw the
light" and "accepted Jesus as his savior" when he realized he could
preach to the converted and enjoy the perks of inheriting his father's
multi-million-dollar income and empire.
Ditto for the rest of these self-appointed assholes.
Ask yourself: If Jesus were to come to the USofA today for a 24-hour
visit, where would he go:
-- to preach at a Franklin Graham "crusade?"
-- to be a guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club?"
-- to dinner at the White House?
-- to volunteer at a homeless shelter in Chicago?
I rest my case.
|
