Today I heard Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama give a speech to explain about his pastor, his church and where he stands on both issues. Now I am not a political guy and this is not a political blog, this is just my observation of this whole event.
Mr. Obama attends a church where a pastor was taped saying some pretty awful things about America, different races and the U.S. Government among other topics. This is big trouble for Mr. Obama so today he tried to clarify things.
First Mr. Obama said that while he repudiates some of the anger preached in his church by this pastor, he also said that because of the history of this country, he understands where this anger comes from. In other words he is justifying hate.
I am not a church goer myself although I am a very big believer and follower of Jesus and God. Even though I do not attend church, I am quite surprised to learn this sort of hatred is being spread in a church. I would think that church would be the one place you could go to and get away from this sort of hatred. A sort of sanctuary from the ills of the world so to speak. But if you can't even go to church and not hear this anger, what does that say for this country? Are we doomed?
Justifying hate only allows hate to last longer. There is no stopping hate when you justify it. What happened in this country many years ago with slavery is awful, but how do we move on as a society when it keeps getting reminded to people and anger is preached about it?
Mr. Obama has said that he loves his pastor because his pastor taught him the Gospels of Jesus. But I have read the Gospels of Jesus many times and nowhere in those Gospels does Jesus ever say anything close to resembling this hatred. Jesus never preached hatred, or anger, or retribution. Jesus never said He was owed anything. Jesus only preached love and forgivness. Jesus said if you are going to slap one side of my face, might as well slap the other side too. And was there anyone treated with more hatred and persecution then Jesus. Yet no matter how bad Jesus was treated, He always forgave. And even though Jesus showed them love and forgivness, they crucified Him.
So maybe the churches need to stick to the teaching of Jesus and the bible and stop getting political. There is a time and place for everything and church is no place for anger. Anger only breeds hostilitiy. And when people are hostile they lose the love they have in their heart. And if we are ever going to be a society that all gets along, we need to stop the hatred talk. And if we do hear hatred being preached, we need to try and stop it instead of justifying it. Church is for God, not someones political point of view or hatred.
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read more blogs!
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scorpiogirl36
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Mar 18 @ 9:02PM
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Good blog
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LongRanger278
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Mar 18 @ 9:11PM
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So maybe the churches need to stick to the teaching of Jesus and the bible and stop getting political.
Amen. They also need to remove tax exempt status from churches, organizations, etc. that become political movements.
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matisse731
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Mar 19 @ 12:17AM
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Here's my kudo, ~*~ 
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observed50
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Mar 19 @ 2:18AM
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If ya believe in Jesus, then maybe ya believe in a god, often referred to as his father.
If ya believe in his father, then the Old Testament has meaning, as does the New Testament.
If ya think the New Testament is simply about 'love your neighbor,' then you have to remember that the dude who put forth those words, wiped out humanity in a flood, and did all sorts of things to people who he thought had gone asunder of the relationship built in 'the Garden.'
i.e., both a loving god, and a just god. In other words...angry.
If ya believe god was the father, then the role of prophetic voice rings through the Old Testament, as the father got angry a lot over injustice, greed, lust and so on. Killed a lot of folks. Never once, in that anger, does the text refer to the father hating his kids.
There is a tension between the Old Testament god of justice and wrath, and the New Testament god of reconciliation. But even JC speaks to his not coming to deny the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. i.e., the god of prophetic voice is not dead...angry, especially with those who treat the poor unjustly.
In the 1960s, there was an explosion of theology in the Western Hemisphere called Liberation Theology, or social gospel theology. James Cone was a major writer in the black American experience of that theological perspective. Angry, yes, with oppression and injustice, yes. But hateful? No. "Speak truth to power" is to speak in prophetic voice, calling one's world to accountability because one loves one's world and knows it can do better.
And finally, to provide explanation of causation is not a justification. When the white cue ball hits the black 8 ball, the resulting carom is not something justified by vector physics...it is simply something explained. The constant confusing of explanation with justification in US rhetoric is profoundly misdirected, and serves no purpose but ideological justification for the attack that will follow once something has been so mislabeled.
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