Obama Launches "Religious" Outreach Site
Here's what Catholic League President Bill Donahue Has to Say About It:
“On Sen. Obama’s new website, he lists the testimonials of three controversial clergymen: Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago; Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr., senior pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California; and Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic Chicago priest.
“Rev. Wright was scheduled to give the invocation at the forum of Obama’s presidential announcement on February 10, but the night before the event Obama rescinded the bid: the Illinois senator knew that his spiritual advisor was so divisive that he would cloud the ceremonies. The black liberation theologian has a record of giving racially inflammatory sermons and has even said that Zionism has an element of ‘white racism.’ He also blamed the attacks of 9/11 on American foreign policy.
“Rev. Smith was honored by the notoriously violent Black Panther Party of Oakland in 1975, and in 1990 was given a community award by the Nation of Islam, an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-gay group.
“Rev. Pfleger has allowed Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan to preach in his church; he has been arrested for defacing billboards; he has paid prostitutes to worship at his church; and only last week he staged an anti-gun rally in front of a gun store where he exhorted the crowd to hunt down the owner ‘like a rat’ and ‘snuff’ him.
“While Obama is not responsible for the record of these three clergymen, he is responsible for giving them the opportunity to prominently display their testimonials on his religious outreach website. If these are the kinds of clergymen he admires, perhaps it’s best he shut down his new website and start all over again. It will take more than ‘God talk’ to get Obama out of this jam."
“On Sen. Obama’s new website, he lists the testimonials of three controversial clergymen: Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago; Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr., senior pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California; and Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic Chicago priest.
“Rev. Wright was scheduled to give the invocation at the forum of Obama’s presidential announcement on February 10, but the night before the event Obama rescinded the bid: the Illinois senator knew that his spiritual advisor was so divisive that he would cloud the ceremonies. The black liberation theologian has a record of giving racially inflammatory sermons and has even said that Zionism has an element of ‘white racism.’ He also blamed the attacks of 9/11 on American foreign policy.
“Rev. Smith was honored by the notoriously violent Black Panther Party of Oakland in 1975, and in 1990 was given a community award by the Nation of Islam, an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-gay group.
“Rev. Pfleger has allowed Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan to preach in his church; he has been arrested for defacing billboards; he has paid prostitutes to worship at his church; and only last week he staged an anti-gun rally in front of a gun store where he exhorted the crowd to hunt down the owner ‘like a rat’ and ‘snuff’ him.
“While Obama is not responsible for the record of these three clergymen, he is responsible for giving them the opportunity to prominently display their testimonials on his religious outreach website. If these are the kinds of clergymen he admires, perhaps it’s best he shut down his new website and start all over again. It will take more than ‘God talk’ to get Obama out of this jam."
J Alfred Smith Sr is a holy man. He is absolutely NOT about violence, nor homophobia, nor anti-Roman Catholic. He is a man of God and a man of Peace and a man of action. Kinda the American Baptist equivalent of the sainted John Dear SJ.
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