Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Hard for me to believe that many churches—those with R or D leanings—don’t give implicit endorsements. “Here are our issues, X, Y and Z”—now go vote your conscience.

For most churches, I’d bet that X, Y and Z limit you to a single party, and thus to one candidate in the actual election.

Unless Wright said “Vote Obama” I just don’t see where it’s different from any of the others.

This rule has rarely been enforced and never with any consistency, best let it lie.

The content of some of the pastor’s sermons are going viral, and could really hurt Obama. How does he explain being a member of a church with the stream of comments coming from his pastor?

I don’t much care, but watching the impacts of videos (+/-) onc campaigns, clearly this is a new phenomena.

I do not mind Jerrimah White promoting Obama in his own Church.  I recognize the IRS rule (and it is an appropriate restriction to maintain tax status) but I also think a candidate should be allowed a little bit of lee way in his or her own parish or church. 

What really bothers me about Jerrimah White is the content of his sermons and how racist, bigotted and offensive they are.  So many were quick to attack McCain over a Hagee endorsement (and to McCain’s credit he denounced Hagee’s anti Catholic statements), but Jerrimah White is Barak Obama’s mentor.  I would not attend a racist church.  Why does Obama get a pass on that?

Joe,

Why exactly is it a racist church?

Excuse me.  It is not a racist church, but Jerrimah White is a racist pastor who leads that church.  I base that on Jerrimah White’s current and past statements, which include claiming AIDS was invented for killing black people, the USA deserved 9/11 for our past crimes, that White America wants to grind down the Black man and that the only thing Black Women are good for (in our racist society) is what their bodies offer.  There is plenty of material on YouTube and on the Net about this guy.  Here’s just a snippet from Instapundit. 

http://instapundit.com/archives2/016528.php

Prof, sorry for the off topic, I looked to email, could not locate the address.  Questions re BSC:  SOX or other legal issues based on this drop coming a day after the CEO appeared on CNBC and said the balance sheet was fine, quarter on track etc.  Related, wondering if anyone pokes around insider trading given the insane options play, massive volume 50% OTM, kicked off the same day GS dk’d Bear as a counterparty.  Wild stuff.
Re Obama’s church, Joe is correct and Obama is badly fumbling this issue.  His pastor is extreme, and a mainstream America hater.  His non comment and his campaign’s limp attempt is dangerous.  Hillary has him in the crosshairs, and unless he can put this issue back in the box is a dead man walking if he gets to the general.

Joe.. sorry but this is a very racist church..it is dedicated (Doctrine) to black advancement, black well being, black devotion, black community, black black black...and alliegance to Africa.. that makes it racist.. sorry.
If you exchanged the word white everywhere you see black on their doctrine they would haul their butts into court so fast you wouldn’t know what happened.. and Wright is a bigot, racist and hate monger ..he’s been hanging with Farrakahn too long.. they should all be shipped to the middle east where their ideology would fit right in.

Joe/Sunshine,

I’d agree that the guy says some controversial stuff. But...the “black value” system of Trinity hardly seems racist to me. If you perceive that your community has been wounded and is in need of attention, why wouldn’t you focus on them? This is hardly the same as a “white values” church, where there would be no such harm done to the white community overall and so no reason to organize in this way. Racism is about valuing one group as better or superior than another. The Trinity system hardly seems to push that point of view. It looks to me more like a version of triage. If a tornado rips through your town, you focus your attentions on rebuilding _that_ community, not a different one. In this case, past racism (and present) was that tornado, and the black community needs assistance from its own to build that community back up in a variety of different ways.

I’d agree that the guy has said some stupid things. But to me, that’s not one of them.

Joe..there was nothing controversial about it.. it was out and out hate mongering, racism and bigotry.. nothing more nothing less.
There is nothing wrong with focusing on helping “injured” peoples.. I am all for that.. I am not for having a doctrine in a church that is dedicated only to one race, one ideology, betterment of blacks and advancement of blacks and so on..and yes, it is valuing one group over all others. I also object to alliegance to Africa.. This is American.. we show and express Alliegance to OUR COUNTRY.. I dont care where we originate ..we owe our alliegance to America where we chose to live.. and if we can’t do that then we should go and live where we are showing our alliegance. This church’s doctrine and this minister are racist pure and simple and “reverse” racism is just as damaging as racism..we need to get rid of both. This church cannot really even be considered to be “Christian” in any sense of the word.

It’s Hui, not Joe.

A few things: the black value system IS meant to focus on helping injured people. So if you’re OK with that, what’s the problem with it? Claiming that you should dedicate your energies on bettering and helping those of your community (which is black, and injured) is NOT saying that blacks are better than whites. Sorry. Apples and oranges. Helping the tornado victims of your own town over helping people in some other town is not claiming that the people in the former town are superior to those in the latter.

I’d agree with you that he should be claiming allegiance to America, though that doesn’t mean he can’t complain about America, or suggest that it has wronged blacks. The two are not mutually exclusive.

My bad, its Wright not White.  That was an error, not a freudian slip. 

Personally, I think Jeremiah Wright is a bigot and racist. Listen to his sermons.  They are out of control.  Jeremiah Wright also holds political/economic views that are utter nonsense and litterally the same as Daniel Ortega’s, Hugo Chavez’s and Ward Churchill’s.  I do not think that Obama’s church (and its congregation), per se, is racist.  But Jeremiah Wright is far more offensive than most wacked out ministers (i.e., Hagee, Falwell, etc.).  So yeah, Barak Obama needs to explain why this guy is his spiritual mentor.  Because I do not get it.

sorry hui.. I was originally I was speaking here with Joe.. anyway..to address your comment Hui first, you can certainly be helping people..I like to do that too.. but all people..not just white..all color and religions, if they need help the color of their skin doesnt matter.. this church is racist because it only wants to help blacks, see that blacks advance and climb the social and corporate ladders, get good educations (have scholarships plans etc.). all dedicated to blacks only.. that is racism sorry.
Joe.. I agree with you about Wright’s sermons..but they are even worse than that.. he is a racist, he is a bigot and he is a hate monger. If you have seen the videos released today on TV then you know what I am talking about.. that was the most repulsive thing I have ever seen..he’s also a blasphemous evil man and in no way does he or his church represent Christianity.  What really sickened me the most besides his comments were the people in the background.. they were clapping and cheering and dancing in the damn aisles of the church and every time Wright said something slanderous and disgusting they cheered louder.. what the hell kind of America do we live in anyway.. this is so degrading to this church, the community, to Obama and his family and to African Americans.. I am sure that many will be speaking out against this hate mongering.. but I have also been informed by a lady that lives in the Bible belt ..that if I think this video is bad she has some that are ten times worse.. What kind of hatred do these people have for whites anyway.. this is like the kkk in reverse.. who is going to do something about it?? We cannot tolerate hate like this in America anymore than we could tolerate the KKK.. we need to ..all of us.. speak up about this now and make certain something is done.

Sunshine,

My bad, I thought you were talking to me!

In any case, I’ve explained why I think it is not racist to have a black value system, but you don’t address what I said specifically, so I’ll just refer back to those comments again.

On some of the guy’s other comments. On the 9/11 comment—hell, the same thing that Ron Paul argued, in prime time, in the Republican debates. Just without the theatrics. I don’t see this comment as hateful, but I do think it was stupid and insensitive to say it on Sept 19th 2001. Plenty of time for that later, but not immediately after.

On some of the other stuff, regarding blacks in America. The guy is clearly being theatrical, but that to the side, racism in America is, indeed, ugly. I think he’s acknowledging the reality of what folks in such communities live through.

Does America do good things? Sure. Is it also good for blacks in some ways? Of course. But I can understand the need for a person who feels kicked down to first have the fact that they feel kicked down acknowledged. Then, from there (and this is my reading of the “black value system") we can work as a group to try to fix our own problems and try to help people to build themselves, and their communities, back up. 

By the way, I too live (now, not originally) in the Bible belt and I too have heard worse—coming from whites, about blacks. America is always getting better in this area, at least as far as I can tell in my experience over time, but it ain’t exactly color blind just yet, in the sense of one group of folks thinking they are superior to another (which again, I insist, is different from focusing on attending to the damage done to one group over another).