PrintMarch 15, 2008
Obama's 23 years of silence
This is a quiz.
Question 1
Imagine that person A hears person B give sermons which are filled with hatred for the U.S.A., include an exhortation to sing "God Damn American" rather than "God Bless America and claim that the U.S. deserved the 9/11 attack, speeches which accuse the nation of creating the AIDS crisis to destroy Africa, speeches which include diatribes such as ""We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We [white America] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life..."
What is the reason that the Person A does not walk out, does not quit the church, does not publicly or privately chastise the speaker, but silently remains in his seat and comes back for more of the same?
A. Person A agrees with Person B. Their ideas about the United States are basically similar.
B Person A slept through 23 years of sermons and didn't hear these statements.
C. Person A does not have the courage to confront Person B.
The media has been asking Barack Obama this question, and he strongly denies having the some of the same opinions as his pastor. We don't know precisely which ones the two men don't hold in common, but let's be generous and not attribute distain for the U.S. for the man who wants to assume the presidency. So let's eliminate option A.
Obama is praised for his ability to be a good listener and would not sleep through hundreds of sermons by a man he considers his "mentor" and "spiritual guide." Wright did not make his outrageous comments once or twice; they appear in dozens and dozens of his sermons which ABC recently purchased. Obama must have hade a hint of Wright's controversial harangues as he told a Wright, "You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we've decided is that it's best for you not to be out there in public."
That eliminates option B.
The most benign reason would be that Barack Obama avoids confrontation even in the midst of the ugliest provocations. Wait! What does that say for his character if he cowers before belligerence and hate? Doesn't Obama promise that one of his first acts as president would be talks with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? If Obama couldn't muster the courage to speak up on behalf of decency and unity when he faced his minister, what will he do when Ahmadinejad launches similar missiles of hate against the U.S, and Israel? Will he politely let evil take the day?
Obama and his spokespeople are attacking the questioners and offering a variety of convoluted explanations for his silence. The fact is, there is no good answer to that question.
