London’s Kingsway International Christian Church, the largest church in Europe, no longer has a permanent home. Nor is there much prospect of it finding one in London.
This congregation of as many as 10,000 was forced off its property to make room for the 2012 London Olympics. And now it must hold six Sunday services jammed into a 1000-seat former theatre in East London.
Not far from Kingsway’s former church property is land that has been set aside for a huge mosque complex for as many as 70,000 Muslims. The City of London wants it to be an integral part of the 2012 London Olympic site. This despite the fact that the so-called mega mosque is widely controversial, because it is being built by a secretive group called Tablighi Jamaat, which some have tied to terror.
“Mayor Livingstone is actively courting the Muslim vote. That’s what he’s doing. I also think our secular authorities are actively writing Christianity out of the script,” Craig said.
A COUNCILLOR today called for more control over advertising posters in “culturally sensitive” areas of Birmingham.
Coun Talib Hussain made his plea after a billboard on the corner of Sydenham Road and Golden Hillock Road, in predominantly Muslim Sparkbrook, was defaced.
The hoarding, close to mosques in Anderton Road and Golden Hillock Road and visible to parents and children walking to Montgomery Primary School, promotes Matalan’s new swimwear range and features three scantily-clad models.
The models have been covered in thick white paint to conceal bare flesh.
Coun Talib Hussain (Ind, Sparkbrook) criticised the vandalism but said it was a result of the lack of action from city council bosses. He said: “I condemn the people that did this but at the same time it’s wrong for companies to put that kind of advert in sensitive wards.
“Sensitive”? That’s a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?
So I headed down to the Royal York hotel this morning to catch the Law Is Cool kids’ press conference.
Faisal Joseph (dressed a little like Huggybear in his gold accoutrements, yet looking a lot like a 10th grade English teacher that offers the girls “extra credit”), counsel for the Canadian Islamic Congress, sat amid the all-but-silent Law Is Cool students, who are known to be Mohammed El Masry’s fresh-faced sock puppets.
The CIC (absent Dr. El Masry, who I’m sure was off legitimately plotting to kill Jews over the age of 18) and the Law is Coolers called this press conference to announce that they wanted to make a “deal” with Maclean’s magazine, and to advise that they would drop the HRC complaints if their “deal” was accepted.
Well, I don’t know how winning these students will be at law, but if their career aim is politics, they’re off to a great start: the new deal is exactly the same as the old deal. Publish their rebuttal to Steyn’s “The Future Belongs to Islam”, or they’ll carry on with their suit.
Frankly, this isn’t news. They could have stayed home, I could have slept in, and nothing could have been said, and everything would have proceeded apace. After all, that was exactly what they proposed last year, and Ken Whyte - publisher of Maclean’s - said he’d “rather go bankrupt” than be extorted and have his publication hijacked.
Anyway, that was the body of the press conference. Aren’t you glad you stayed home? For your delight and delectation, here’s some observations about the whole thing.
Faisal Joseph (Huggybear) went on and on about “support from party leaders”, then proceeded to hand out a press pack with one letter of government support - from Jack Layton(!). Not so surprisingly, there were also letters from labor unions. Where Taliban Jack goes, the unions follow.
The letters from OPSEU and the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians that were included in the press pack were marked “DRAFT” - I cannot at this time confirm that they are final documents that were meant for release.
Mr. Joseph mentioned that threats had been made against the Osgoode students for having filed the claim against Maclean’s (they didn’t file the claim, by the way - only the CIC is listed on the actual complaint, but why let a little thing like the truth get in the way?). When a reporter for the National Post asked if these threats were being taken seriously and investigated, Mr. Joseph quickly changed the subject without answering the question. In fact, he then went on to scold the young reporter for the Post for taking up too much time and asking too many questions (at a press conference - oh the nerve of him!). If Mr. Joseph was trying to win friends in the press, he was going about it the wrong way. And what of those death threats?
The basis of the entire complaint is supposedly about having an “equal voice”. As many have said, why not start your own damn magazine and leave ours alone? But nay, they want ours. It’s part of the growing phenomenon of Sharia Creep. The darlings have been published in the Toronto Star with a Saturday circulation nearing 450,000 and a weekday circulation of just under 400,000. Maclean’s, on the other hand, has a weekly circulation of about 350,000. So, who got the better deal? So much for the “equal voice” argument.
You can read Kathy’s meltdown here. She was with me, frothing at the mouth, and is now bruised on one side where I kept elbowing her to behave. Five Feet of Fury, indeed. I found it amusing, but then again, I still have both clitoris and humor intact - unlike some religions I could mention.
I recall hearing a guest on talk radio (I forget which show) saying that a recession is defined by very specific economic indicators — and that, despite the loose use of the word “recession” by uninformed media types, those economic indicators were not present. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that the economy is growing, something even the AP has to concede, although it paints that fact in the grimmest of terms:
The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.
The country’s economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The statistic did not meet what economists consider the definition of a recession, which is a contraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if slightly.
Given that the economy is still moving forward, those $600 checks the President is sending home may indeed be the difference between stalling and sliding backwards, on the one hand, and continuing that forward growth, on the other hand — just as was the case in 2001.
Apparently the big dummies on the left end of the blogosphere think that they can magically inject manufactured cries of racism into the North Carolina Republican party for daring to expose Rev. Jeremiah Wright for the very real radical that he is.
By: John Amato on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:00 AM - PDT
This is a great idea. It appears that the Republican nominee for the presidency—John McImpotent, can do nothing to pull the racist attack ads against Obama in NC:
“The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats,” he wrote. “In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.”
The petition is hosted at Firedoglake. Pretty rich huh? You know the site, the one frequented by short time blogmaster for John Edwards, Amanda Marcotte. Firedoglake is going to lecture people on racism even though they provide a second home to the anti-Catholic bigoted ass Amanda Marcotte that penned the following:
Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?
A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.
And this is the laughable petition they put together:
Who’s the most senior member of the NC GOP? Well that would be Liddy Dole. NC Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek has sent a letter to Dole saying “without a doubt, you could halt this ad with a simple telephone call.”
Dole is up for re-election this year (and will be running against either Kay Hagen or Blue America candidate Jim Neal). But where is she? She’s never in the state, she lives at the Watergate in DC, she rarely makes public appearances in NC. It seems she’s gone Washington — because once again, she’s nowhere to be found when it comes to a North Carolina issue.
She can stop the racist attack ads against Obama, and we’re asking her to send this letter:
Dear Chairwoman Linda Daves,
I disapprove of the content of the North Carolina Republican Party’s recent advertisement “Extreme”. I feel that it resorts to a type of negative politicking that betrays the best interest of North Carolinians.
I call on you, as Chairwoman of the North Carolina Republican Party, to immediately stop airing this advertisement. Failure to do so will reflect negatively on all North Carolina Republicans, and would necessitate that I return the Party’s contributions to my campaign to disassociate myself from the vitriol which you appear to embrace.
We’ll be working with NC bloggers (including Pam Spaulding) to deliver the petition to Dole’s office.
Brilliant. Apparently the left is so threatened by the truth of Jeremiah Wright that they have to manufacture false cries of racism to cover up the racism that Barack Obama was all too comfortable listening to for over 20 years.
Great call guys, it just gives me an opportunity to play the ad myself. Please give it a try, watch the ad that the left doesn’t want you to watch and see if you can spot the racist. (Hint: It’s not the Republican party.)
This would almost be humorous if the American left wasn’t such the pile of donkey manure that it has become. The associations that Barack Obama make and the people he has the audacity to model his image after are very much fair game, relevant and important. Only an ignorant fool would pretend otherwise.
On March 18, Barack Obama (D) said “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.” Now, suddenly, today based on the speech that his spiritual advisor/mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave yesterday to the National Press Club, has disowned, disavowed, and just generally dissed the man, saying:
“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe they ended up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.”
The person I saw yesterday, and Friday night on Bill Moyers’ show, was definitely not the person I saw screeching “God damn America!” and “Barack knows what it’s like to live in country controlled by RICH WHITE PEOPLE!!!”
Yesterday Jeremiah Wright seemed to be having a veritable lucid interval compared with the raving lunatic Obama kept by his side for 20 years. He appeared almost rational the last three days, as opposed to the way he appeared behind the pulpit.
Senator, what changed? In your statement severing ties with the man who mentored you and helped facilitate your political career, you mentioned Rev. Wright’s praise of whack-job/anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. You mean the guy your church gave an award to in December of last year? Are you suggesting that you didn’t know about that either? You didn’t know that your pastor blamed the United States for 9/11–”AMERICA’S CHICKENS have come home to roost!!!”–in much more virulent terms than he did when he reaffirmed that opinion yesterday?
You never heard his claim that the evil racist American government created the AIDs virus to kill black people? Apparently, there was a lot about this guy that Mr. “Good Judgement” didn’t know. Yet he was a member of the church for 20 years, was married by Rev. Wright, who also baptized his children. Senator, WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?
I think that the BHO Kool-Aid drinkers, the emotionally-driven Cult of the Personality crowd who couldn’t tell you at gun point what position Obama has on the issues, will be placated by this blatantly expedient, hasty 180 by their guy.
The apparatchiks, who share Jeremiah Wright’s opinion of our country, will spin this speech as putting the matter of Obama’s anti-American world view to rest. Nothing to see here. Move on.
This bitter clinger doesn’t see it that way. I agree with what Sen. Obama said Sunday during that kid glove appearance on Fox News Sunday: his pastor’s views are an a legitimate political issue, as his relationship with unrepentant former terrorists and current America haters Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Repeating: connect the dots, people.
Apparently the thing that most irked BHO was that Wright claimed that Obama’s previous half-assed denunciations of Wright were politically motivated. That was the last straw. Dare I point out once again that the way to really anger a liberal is to tell the truth about him?
Ok, ok. Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first. Kids get bullied and beaten up all the time, and maybe it’s more dangerous (it’s certainly more comical) to threaten a kid with a peanut butter sandwich. It’s also really dangerous to throw rocks at kids, too. So, if you’re reading this, kids, don’t throw rocks or peanut butter sandwiches at other children. It’s wrong.
But people, you are hysterical! From the comments of the article:
Kim Philby from Ottawa, Canada writes: This kind of bullying should merit the same reaction as bullying by pointing a loaded gun.
John Smith from Ottawa, Canada writes: This gives credence to retroactive abortion.
Dear God. Is this for real? Let’s retro-abort the healthy 7-year old who smeared the weaker 7-year old with peanut butter. Let’s throw him in jail, because his behavior is akin to waving a gun around.
This is exactly the kind of hysterical behavior that marginalizes kids with “special issues”. You know what else causes deadly anaphylaxis? Bee stings. My school yard had an apple tree in it. Apple trees attract bees. Should that tree have been cut down because some kid in the school had an allergy? (let’s completely set aside the bullies who would whip apples at the girls, leaving us bruised and often bleeding - ban apples!!)
I asked a military friend of mine, “Does the Army allow people with peanut allergies to sign up?”
“Yeah.” (Army guys aren’t very wordy)
“So, how do they keep from getting sick?”
“They don’t eat peanuts.”
Made sense to me!
Look, every parent wants school to be a safe place for their kids. But any parent with a shred of memory should know that the schoolyard is inherently dangerous, because it’s filled with other people’s children! They fight - sometimes arms and teeth even get broken. They have food fights. They pick on the weaker kids to make themselves feel better. Nobody gets out of school without scars - be they emotional or physical.
But to liken a bully with a sandwich, who might kill one kid with a designer allergy, to a psycho with a gun who could shoot up his entire class - as has happened on too many occasion in the last few years - is irresponsible, ridiculous, callous, and hysterical.
A brief hunt on the Internet led me to discover that there are 41 federal departments/agencies…just under the letter “A”. There are 15 federal agencies that fall under the management of the president. One of them is the sham known as the U.S. Department of Education.
$720 billion (2005): Total estimated annual cost of US public schools
$249 billion: Total cost of US public schools in 1990
190%: Increase in cost of US public schools in 15 years
$9295 (2005) pdf: Average cost per pupil per school year
$15,155 (2005) pdf page 43: Annual cost per pupil of New Jersey public schools (national high)
31 pdf page 43: National mathematics ranking for New Jersey
29 pdf page 43: National reading ranking for New Jersey
69% (2007) : Students nationwide performing below proficiency in math
71% (2007) : Students nationwide performing below proficiency in reading
-1% (2007)pdf page 97: Nationwide improvement in reading proficiency since 1996
9%: Federal government’s financial contribution to public education (37% increase since 1990)
My concept on federal spending is pretty easy to comprehend. As a citizen of Minnesota, I think it is a reasonable position to expect that my tax dollars going to Louisiana or South Carolina or Colorado should benefit me somehow. Interstate commerce is something that benefits me. Federal interest in a nationwide recognition in driver’s licenses and marriage is of benefit to me. Educating children in another state is not something that will benefit me.
I’m not a zero-tolerance kind of person when it comes to public schools. Many states are bound to their own Constitutions to provide accessible education for their populace. It is of the interest of a state or locale to have a system for providing education to it’s children for the sake of it’s economy, crime levels and next-generation stability.
But there are three big problems with public education.
The first, as I led in with, is federal involvement. It’s simply not necessary. I discovered something that surprised me while looking up these numbers. As you can see in statistic #1, we spend an impressive amount of money on education. What surprised me is how little we actually spend on the federal level. Of the total of public ed spending across the board, federal taxes pay for about 9% of it. 9% of a lot is still a nice sum of money but you might say, “OttO - 9%? What’s the big deal?”
The big deal is that it means it’s one of several pointless federal spending programs that increases the size and scope and bureaucracy of the federal government. It’s senseless to send my tax dollars to Washington so they can be disseminated back to schools across the country when that money could go directly to schools in my community. Keep in mind that the feds aren’t just assisting with a transaction: they are using this money to buy power in your community. That money has big strings attached to it. It is given out with conditions. Those conditions are subject to change at the will of the feds which then means that a state must choose between accepting those conditions or removing established funding from a supposedly desperately cash-strapped institution. Is there any reason why the states can’t determine their own standards?
Which of course leads directly into the boondoggle that is No Child Left Behind. We can argue about which aspects of it work and which don’t work but do we really need the federal government charging us more and more so bureaucrats in Washington can tell us how our schools are going to operate? In many ways, each state should have it’s own NCLB. But not at the federal level.
The second problem with education is of course the cost. The thing to keep in mind when looking at statistic #4 is that most of this $9300 per pupil is going to shared expenses. It doesn’t cost $9300 for a kid to have a desk, a locker and a textbook. A classroom of 20 students has an average cost of $186,000 per year. Take out the average teacher’s salary of $48,000 and that leaves $139,000 leftover to fund that classroom. Most of that money never touches the classroom and a majority isn’t even for the school itself; take out the school level administrative costs, utilities, building and maintenance costs, libraries and computers and the rest goes to the school district to pay for what is most often bloated and poorly managed bureaucracies.
Every year the schools cry for more money. One would think that a single year could go by without some sort of financial crisis in public schools. Even though the least amount of tax dollars actually goes to the classroom, the first thing the powers-that-be threaten to do in a budget crunch is promise to make the children suffer. No school district ever sets up a referendum to increase funds with the concern that if this request isn’t fulfilled, some administrative department is going to have to suffer or some district employee is going to face a salary-cut. Instead, the threat is to lay-off teachers, increase class sizes, stop providing necessary classroom materials etc. In other words, threaten to harm their very purpose first because that is what will get the tax payer’s attention. This is the epitome of governing through fear and the consensus is that more money does not mean more education:
“…the United States is a world leader in education investment. However, nations that spend far less achieve higher levels of student performance.” (U.S. Department of Education)
“Of the 10 states that increased their per pupil expenditures the most over the past two decades…only [three] ranked in the top 10 in academic achievement. Four states…ranked in the bottom 10 in academic achievement” (American Legislative Exchange Council)pdf
And we can further see from statistic #5, #6 and #7 that money does not mean results. New Jersey, having the most expensive public education in the country, should be at or near the top in performance as well. But in reading and math, they are average at best (and average in this regards is not something to be proud of - statistic #8 and #9). District of Columbia boasts the third highest cost-per-pupil in the country and ranks in last place in reading and math. In the context of ever-increasing spending, statistic #10 speaks for itself.
The third big problem, which goes hand-in-hand with the cost problem, is your friendly, neighborhood teachers union. The mafia has nothing on these unions in regards to power, influence and extortion. Unions have destroyed the public education system. One of the most prevailing offenses is the unwaivering job security that unions provide teachers. Two schools of thought here: (1) teachers are public servants dispatched to educate and mold our children and should be held to the highest standards; and (2) failure to achieve this task should be dealt with harshly and swiftly.
Any demand for more tax dollars under threat of harming the classroom/students should include a public display of past performance. When we approved the 10% increase last year, what did we get out of it? Higher graduation rates? More students proficient in math and reading? Students who understand how their government works and have a general grasp of American history? Then where did that 10% increase go? Why should we give you more? Oh right, because if we don’t then our kids are going to pay. Which is interesting - less than half of public school employees are actually teachers; for every teacher employed in a typical school district, there is at least one non-teacher employed. Unions willfully protect their bureaucracy at all costs.
Here’s an idea to address the demand for more money where performance is static if not recessive: here’s the money - now replace the worst 20% of teachers whose income we are paying. But teacher’s unions would never allow this. It only makes sense that in the business of educating kids, those who fail to do so should not be allowed to continue failing. Unions are in essence anti-performance. In fact, it seems counter-productive for a union to want to see a school district succeed. It’s easier to get more money when things are dire. Since unions work feverishly to eliminate or minimize school competition in all of it’s forms, it’s easier to not have to perform.
***
If there is one government program that we should expect to work and work within reasonable means, it’s the public education system. It’s time to stop rewarding failure and for people to recognize that the very system we are expected to rely on for one of the most important societal contributions is in it’s current form, an enemy to the kind of common sense and decency we as parents and tax payers should expect.
I received this email on Barack Obama from someone named Nagol Kluth :
I want you to know that for lying and intentionally spreading falsities, you will be judged. It is not within my right to say what judgement will be passed, since that is His domain alone, but you should think twice before knowingly spreading lies.Sincerely,
A Concerned, Educated Reader
I did not answer the email and have no intention of answering. But I will comment here:
Nagol Kluth (if that’s your real name), I do not lie, I do not knowingly or intentionally spread ‘falsities’, and I always think twice before printing anything here at Right Truth.
Additionally I don’t claim to be perfect, but I willingly submit to “His” judgment, the God of the Holy Bible, the God of Christians and Jews.
On Barack Obama, he is a ‘fake’, he is the liar, he is a creation of the Chicago political machine.
… Obama is a bald faced liar. And it would appear just looking at what Tom Blumer has been able to come up with that either Obama looked the American people in the eye during his speech in Philadelphia and lied through his teeth …Blumer, by the way, makes a compelling case that Obama was wide awake during the services, went so far as to take notes of Wright’s sermons in the space provided by the church bulletin, and purchased at least one tape of Wright’s talks.
Anti-gun hysteria has reached a fever pitch in the Golden State. The California Assembly is considering a bill (Assembly Bill 2062) this session that, if passed, will have dire consequences for California’s law-abiding gun owners.
AB2062 is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, May 7 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.Sponsored by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB2062 would require that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would impose severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition. Applicants for a “permit-to-purchase” would be required to submit to a background check, pay a $35 fee, and wait as long as 30 days to receive the permit.
Under AB2062, it would be unlawful to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database. Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to purchasers. The bill would also require vendors to keep a record of the transaction including the ammunition buyer’s name, driver’s license, the quantity, caliber, type of ammunition purchased, and right thumbprint, which would be submitted to the Department of Justice. Vendors would be required to contact the purchase permit database to verify the validity of a permit before completing a sale. All ammunition sales in the State of California would be subject to a $3 per transaction tax. Lastly, mail order ammunition sales would be prohibited. Any violator of AB2062 would be subject to civil fines.
Here’s what you can do to help protect our Second Amendment freedoms:
Participate in NRA’s Virtual “Lobby-Day” on Tuesday, May 6 and tell the Assembly to stop supporting ill-conceived anti-gun proposals like AB2062.
On Tuesday, May 6, call, fax, and email the Assembly between 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM and voice your opposition to more gun control proposals. Respectfully, tell your Assembly Member to oppose any assault on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. To identify your Assembly Member and to get contact information, please click here. A roster of the entire Assembly can be found here.
Firearms owners able to travel to the State Capitol will be visiting the legislative offices at the same time your calls, faxes, and emails will be arriving. Please be polite while you address your concerns! The combination of your calls, faxes, and emails, together with those personal visits, will show legislators that California’s firearms owners strongly oppose AB2062 and similar anti-freedom proposals.
Forward this message to every gun owner you know and include all gun clubs, stores, ranges and Second Amendment groups. Please cross-post this on the internet on websites and firearm-related forums.
I have to admit that I never would have dreamed, a decade ago, that I would be serving as a conduit for the NRA. I’ve never handled a gun myself, and find them somewhat frightening. I know that guns in criminals’ hands are a huge problem. I also know that good people die in gun accidents all the time.
What I also know, though, is that the Constitution is not ambiguous about guns: The Founders saw government as the greatest threat to people and they wrote the Second Amendment with the idea that armed citizens could come together to protect themselves against a dangerous government — something I bet German Jews, Chinese intellectuals and Sudanese villagers all wish they could have done.
I know too that the NRA’s slogan — “if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns” — something that I always thought was superficial and glib, is absolutely true, as experiments in London and Washington, D.C. have both shown. Lastly, I know that, just as good people die in gun accidents, they also die in car accidents, yet no one would think to outlaw cars.
But to get back to the NRA’s action message. We know that, if the Legislature passes that law, it will instantly be challenged in Court. It will probably fail, although there is a possibility that it won’t. It will certainly cost the California taxpayers a great deal of money as California defends the indefensible. Isn’t it easier just to protest the proposed law now, before we go down that risky and expensive path?
Contrary to media reports, Jeremiah Wright hasn’t been in self-imposed exile since Obama distanced himself from Wright’s anti-American and racist remarks. On the contrary, Wright has continued his whirlwind speaking tour across America. Friday he was interviewed by Bill Moyers of PBS, Sunday he delivered two sermons at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, where he finally received a belated award from Brite Divinity School (see previous articles below), then he flew to Detroit to address the NAACP, and this morning his gave another self-gratification speech to the National Press Club.
So what’s up with Wright?
To summarize Juan Williams’s assessment on Fox TV following Wright’s speech this morning, Wright is saying “If you are attacking me, you are attacking the Black Church.”
Yesterday, Wright said that he was being “crucified.” Today the Black Church is being crucified.
Williams went on to observe that Wright never explained his inflammatory statements. “It was all about ego and self-gratification for Wright. . . Wright isn’t looking out for Obama. . .It’s all about Wright and Black Theology.” Williams said that Wright “Is playing racially divisive politics. You don’t hear that from the Black Pulpit. It’s not typical.”
I watched the entire speech and the Q&A session following the speech. His speech lasted less than fifteen minutes but it was packed full of inflammatory quotes that should come back to haunt Wright as well as continue to plague Obama. Another 20-30 minutes were devoted to answering pre-screened questions.
Here’s the gist of the speech:
Wright said that he will be opening a two day symposium of Black Theologians, scholars, and social workers etc., and said that Obama has called for a dialog on the Black Church. He opened his speech by referring to the media’s playing of the “out of context” sound bites saying, “It’s not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It is an attack on the Black Church.”
Then Wright went into a brief history of the Black Church in America and attempted to distinguish his “Prophetic Theology of the Black Church” from James Cones’ “Black Liberation Theology.” What are the differences? Basically none except that Wright’s theology goes beyond “white supremacy” to the prophets of the Old Testament. He hinges his theology on the 61st chapter of Isaiah and on Luke 4.
According to Wright, his theology is a theology of liberation, transformation, and “ultimately, reconciliation.” Why did he insert the word “ultimately”? According to Wright, the white church in Europe and North America is a “theology of white supremacy.”
Here’s a summary of Wright’s speech concerning what whites have to do in order to become reconciled to the Black church in America.
God’s desire is for a radical change in a social order that has gone astray. God’s desire is for a radical transformation. This is the heart of Liberation Theology. What must we do in order to become reconciled? “Children of God repenting for past sins against one another.”
Apparently, Wright thinks whites have a long, long way to go before they deserve to be reconciled to the Black Church.
I wonder what kind of additional repentance Wright has in store for Whites? Hint, go listen to Obama’s new pastor’s sermons and, can you spell Reparations and residtribution???
With regard to the “white supremacy” church in America, Wright quoted Dr. William Augustus Jones to explain how one’s theology determines one’s sociology. Really? Can we get permission from Wright to apply that same standard to Obama???
I wonder if Wright considered that if that’s truly the case, then why shouldn’t all Americans have a right to ask Obama to explain his own theology in terms of comparison and contrast to Trinity United Church of Christ and Jeremiah Wright?
The Q&A session offered some hard questions that Wright attempted to turn to his favor.
When asked about the “chickens coming home to roost” post 9/11 sermon he responded:
“Have you heard the whole sermon? (He waits for a response) Well that nullifies that question.” Then Wright went on to say that (1) “I was quoting the ambassador of Iraq,” (2) What Wright said “comes from the Bible”, and (3) “You cannot do terrorism against other people and not expect it to come back on you.”
Asked if he was patriotic and loved Aemrica, Wright said:
“I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic?” Then he waved a flimsy salute.
Hummm. Looks like he doesn’t want to give a direct answer on that one.
Wright was asked about his relationship with Louis Farrakhan, the acting head of the Nation of Islam. Wright implied that he had been hurt by his relationship with Farrakhan because Farrakhan has once called Zionism a “gutter religion.” But Wright went on to say, “Farrakhan and I don’t agree on everything. Farrakhan is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st centuries. I won’t put down Farrakhan any more than (Nelson) Mandela would put down Castro.”
Asked about Sen. Obama’s disavowal of him, Wright reminded the audience that Obama had not disavowed him just “distanced himself from me because he is a politician.” Wright said that he was downstairs praying with Obama before Obama went upstairs to talk. What does this imply?
When asked about his own motivation, Wright said, “If Obama had not said what he said he would never get elected.” Then Wright added, “I’m not running for office . . .(then with a kidding grin) I’m hoping to be V.P.” As a matter of fact, he said that again at the end of his speech. Interesting, and I bet he’s serious.
Asked about what evil our government is capable of, he said, that based on the Tuskegee experiment, “I believe our government is capable of anything.”
Asked if he likened Israeli policies to apartheid, he denied saying that and said that Israel has a right to exist but needs to sit down and work out a solution – reconciliation.
Wright refused to comment about Bill Clinton and said that “I came to talk about the church not politics.” Funny, he could have fooled me.
Wright was asked how the Black and White church could reconcile. He said that many have already “taken great steps to do so. To reconcile, whites must understand the injustice that was done.”
He would start educating at the earliest levels by using “Infusion curriculum” – telling the true story.
When asked if Islam is the way to salvation, Wright said, “Jesus said, ‘Other sheep have I not of this fold.’”
So what’s Obama to do?
Wright, like a dirty old piece of gum, is permanently stuck to Obama’s shoe. Obama can’t shake him. Granted, Obama hasn’t tried very hard to convince most voters that he’s all that upset with Wright, but why should he? If Obama were to come out even stronger against Wright or his own Black Liberation church, he’d lose the votes of his primary supporters on the left.
Some speculating yesterday on the news had the Obama camp actually redirecting Wright in an attempt to rehabilitate his image. The idea is that if Obama can stop attacks on Wright, he can win the blue collar white votes he badly needs. The only way to do that is to turn this thing on his head. Apparently, the far left is taking the ball and running with it.
Here’s the new spin. To question Wright or Obama is tantamount to white racism!
So I headed down to the Royal York hotel this morning to catch the 
