The leftist elite establishment has blinded the people in this nation through its educational institutions, mainstream media outlets, and the entertainment industry to garner power for a repressive society. While Brother O and his Bread and Circuses Administration zealously dismantle the sleeping middle class, Americans have become unwitting accomplices to a growing underclass.

During education’s ongoing paradigm shift to a postmodern pedagogy in the mid-1980s, a fellow graduate student recognized that tenure and promotion in the academic world depended on the ability to “quack like a duck,” i.e., absorb and regurgitate the academy’s leftist world view and withhold personal opinions. In other words, outspoken conservatives are both persona non grata and underemployed in academia.

The duck motif not only extends to “journalists” in the mainstream media, but as Rush Limbaugh recently discovered, it extends to the National Football League (NFL), a league he greatly admires.

“[T]he NFL … is the most politically correct environment I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Dennis Miller on The O’Reilly Factor. “I don’t even know why Limbaugh would want to be in [it] quite frankly.”

Like many outspoken professors and journalists, Limbaugh now suffers from the pangs of outrageous injustice, being denied his dream for criticizing and mocking the nanny notions of the statist-minded elite. Limbaugh will not be afforded the opportunity that he has earned through achievement to work in the profession he loves for no reason other than his outspoken conservative views are abhorred by the leftist elite establishment.

Since it was leaked that Limbaugh was part of a group intending to buy the St. Louis Rams football team, the propagandists in the mainstream media have worked feverishly to malign his reputation, undermine his creditability, and destroy his character. They overturned rocks for race-baiting poverty pimps and scoured the NFL for nitwit jocks or any feckless team owner they could find to denounce Limbaugh as a bigot and racist before the nation.

The attack and subsequent defamation of Limbaugh adds to the list of media assaults on outspoken conservatives in order to prevent the resurgence of Reagan conservatism from entering the mainstream of American politics and undoing the leftist elites’ socialist agenda. The leftist elite establishment fears the resurgence of a conservatism of individualism, not of country clubs and boardrooms. The establishment dreads the Reagan conservatism championed over talk radio and at town hall meetings and tea parties, which respects the law and reflects the values and traditions of the people.

Statists demagogues live in constant terror of individualists who are independent, loosely connected to groups, and don’t know their place. They commission media propagandists, ready at their beckon call, to seek out and destroy them. The statist diktat is not to refute an opponent’s argument, it is to “wipe him from the face of the earth,” Sarah Palin, Clarence Thomas, and Robert Bork are noted recipients of the left’s scorched-earth and personal destruction politics.

The mainstream media have been frantically trying to deflate Sarah Palin’s ascendancy to the leadership of a national conservative movement since her dazzling acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in September 2008. Had she been a Democrat and espoused the statist ideology of Brother O or Hillary Clinton, Palin’s astounding rise from housewife, to mayor, to governor, to vice presidential candidate would have been praised by propagandists, extolled by environmentalists, lionized by leftists, and fawned over by feminists throughout the nation.

People who use common sense and apply the principles of the Constitution obstruct progressive governance, which explains why the media upended Robert Bork’s nomination and tried to stop Clarence Thomas’ confirmation to the Supreme Court. The media permitted and perpetuated the malicious, baseless allegations of the Democrat smear merchants to damage the reputations and destroy the creditability of both men.

Such reprehensible media campaigns, waged to disgrace both men, “did not resemble an argument so much as a lynching.” Bork was depicted as a judicial tyrant, his wife was falsely accused of being a Holocaust denier, and even his movie viewing habits were called into question. Likewise, Thomas was caricatured as a freakish feel-copping porno pervert in order to humiliate him, strip him of his dignity, and dishonor him for life.

The NFL’s management, owners, and players union along with most of the mainstream media and entertainment industry detest and despise Limbaugh as much as they do Palin, Thomas, and Bork. Yet Limbaugh persists in his love for the National Football League regardless of whether the sentiment is mutual.

Like the pedestaled wife of a fawning cuckold, the NFL graciously accepts Limbaugh’s lavish praises, glowing endorsements, and personal expenditures, yet abhors the very thought of embracing him. When the NFL’s leftist elite establishment denied Limbaugh limited ownership in a football franchise, it denied all outspoken conservatives and sent a subtle message to its owners, coaches, and players to suppress conservative opinion and quack like a duck.

The environment is ripe to don the special sunglasses, face the unadorned reality, and see the hideous leftist potentates and mindless moguls for the despicable fascists they truly are. In the grand scheme of things, the significance of the NFL pales in comparison to that of the USA. The country needs a wake up call, and the time has come for Limbaugh to stop chewing bubble gum and phone it in.
 

Instead of filing charges against ACORN employees for criminal violations captured on tape by hidden camera, Baltimore City State’s Attorney is looking to prosecute two investigative reporters for violating Maryland’s wiretap laws in filming the group’s lawbreaking acts.

State’s Attorney Patricia Coats Jessamy, a Brother O supporter and contributor who worked on the Maryland Women for Obama Steering Committee, issued the following statement concerning the criminal acts committed by the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now (ACORN) employees at its Baltimore office:

“The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video…. [T]he audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.

If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.” [emphasis mine]

Jessamy, who has held the office since 1995, is looking to prosecute 20 year-old journalist Hannah Giles and 25-year old film maker James O’Keefe for failing to acquire ACORN’s permission to expose its heinous underbelly to the world. A nonpartisan state’s attorney would be looking to prosecute ACORN as a criminal enterprise under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes.

In the video, O’Keefe and Giles show up on ACORN’s stoop seeking advice for purchasing a house to serve as a brothel. O’Keefe poses as a pimp with plans to run for Congress, and Giles is his prostitute girlfriend who intends to staff their brothel with smuggled teenage girls from El Salvador.

After making their intentions known to the ACORN workers, O’Keefe and Giles are given instructions on how to go about getting a loan to purchase the house, with further advice to list the girls as dependents on their tax returns and to train them to keep quiet about the prostitution activities.

Jessamy seems to be more interested in prosecuting violations of unauthorized taping than in prosecuting “child abuse, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, tax evasion,” and illegal immigration violations that may have been committed by the ACORN workers.

If Jessamy has an obsession with enforcing Maryland’s unauthorized taping law and prosecuting its violators, she fought her compulsion to selectively apply Maryland’s law on at least two occasions in 2006 and in 2000 when WMAR-TV in Baltimore used “undercover journalists with cameras to record people without their knowledge, and won awards for their efforts.”

But that was then, and 2009 is now, so when two young journalists with hidden cameras go undercover to expose a group of lawbreakers that support Brother O’s politics and policies, for Jessamy it’s more a matter of aligning with kindred spirits than with the rule of law.

Jessamy is obviously more interested in protecting fellow travelers and in enforcing the law against those who threaten Brother O’s power and policies than in carrying out her sworn duty and in upholding her oath of office.

If Jessamy presses to file charges down-the-road, will any fair-minded person look on her prosecution as anything but retaliation for uncovering the criminal activities of her president’s favorite group of community organizers? Will fair-minded people regard her authoritative actions as anything other than a tread-lightly warning for anyone who dares to uncover and expose the misdeeds of Brother O’s Obots?

I think not.

In case you are confused about when blatant bigotry IS and IS NOT allowable, dear readers, American Daughter will provide a convient cheat sheet. You can print this out and take it with you, tucked away in your purse or pocket, to social gatherings, or more importantly, to public appearances on radio or television.

• A non-black person IS NOT allowed to state the obvious fact that another person who is black, is black. Don Imus just got himself into trouble again for doing that on his radio show. You can listen to his original remarks here.

• A black person IS allowed to make much of the obvious fact that he or she is black, especially in cases where this facilitates the claim of victimhood with potential benefits from presumed “white guilt.” For example, Barack Obama played the race card in the primary and now is doing it again for the general election — very prominently. Nothing subtle about dealing this hand.
• Criticism of a woman in a position of importance IS NOT allowed. Even if the criticism is justified, say because of a low approval rating, you will be accused of sexism.

Tail wag: Gateway Pundit

• So-called “progressive Christians” ARE allowed to criticize evangelicals — but James Dobson pushes back.
• Evangelicals ARE NOT allowed to criticize progressive or black Christians.
• And black Christians ARE allowed to damn their country, if they perceive that it is controlled by a white majority.

Just so you are clear on that!

 

• If you are a citizen of the United States, you ARE NOT allowed to oppose the criminal illegal aliens who break our laws by entering our country without permission. If you do that, you will be labelled as a racist.
• But if you are an illegal alien, living off the resources provided by the taxpayers of the country you have invaded, you ARE allowed all forms of disrespect for your benefactors.
   

   

 

• Muslims ARE allowed to burn the flag of England — “We start with your flag, we end with your blood.”

• Muslims ARE allowed to desecrate the American flag.

• But non-Muslims ARE NOT allowed to say much of anything about Muslims. If they do, the overly sensitive Muslims will take it as an insult. This is not just a social restriction. It is considered a mortal offense.

• Age discrimination against white males (who are definitely becoming a beleaguered minority) IS allowable. On the FOXNews show Hannity & Colmes (Tuesday, June 24, 9-10PM EST) Alan Colmes referred to John McCain as someone who

  “…has been around since the earth cooled.”

……….

Now just imagine that Alan Colmes had been Don Imus…

And just imagine that John McCain had been black…

Related articles:

Barack Obama plays the race card: early and often

The Candidate of Hope, Change and… Race Baiting…

UPDATE, Wednesday evening — We just had to add this comment left on Buzzwatch:

Political correctness is the new McCarthyism.

Twenty-seven years ago, Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System. This is the moral compass for Barack and Michelle Obama, who repeatedly praised this church as their source of comfort and guidance, and raised their children in its theology. What comes through loud and clear is that this congregation, including the Obamas, subscribes not to the American value system, but to this “black value system.”

Some of the goals, such as the pursuit of education and the pursuit of excellence, are laudable. But the underlying premise is an “us versus them” mentality. The entire motivation is to benefit what is perceived as a separate “Black Community” rather than the American society as a whole. Note in particular the egregious “victimhood” expressed in #8. This stridently apartheid attitude is entirely congruent with that articulated by Michelle in her senior thesis.

Does this express what should be the primary goal of the president of the United States?

To measure the worth and validity of all activity in terms of positive contributions to the general welfare of the Black Community and the Advancement of Black People towards freedom.

A president should be devoted FIRST to the general welfare of all Americans.

Every thinking American should read this carefully. To the extent that black individuals subscribe to these concepts, we do have a race problem. And over and over again, we have proof that this represents the world view of the Obamas, which would render them seriously unfit to be the president and first lady of our country. From Trinity United Church of Christ:

These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered.  They consist of the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God.  “The God of our weary years” will give us the strength to give up prayerful passivism and become Black Christian Activists, soldiers for Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind.
2. Commitment to the Black Community.  The highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of strength and continuity of the Black Community.
3. Commitment to the Black Family.  The Black family circle must generate strength, stability and love, despite the uncertainty of externals, because these characteristics are required if the developing person is to withstand warping by our racist competitive society. 

   Those Blacks who are blessed with membership in a strong family unit must reach out and expand that blessing to the less fortunate.

4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education.  We must forswear anti-intellectualism.  Continued survival demands that each Black person be developed to the utmost of his/her mental potential despite the inadequacies of the formal education process.  “Real education” fosters understanding of ourselves as well as every aspect of our environment.  Also, it develops within us the ability to fashion concepts and tools for better utilization of our resources, and more effective solutions to our problems.  Since the majority of Blacks have been denied such learning, Black Education must include elements that produce high school graduates with marketable skills, a trade or qualifications for apprenticeships, or proper preparation for college.

   Basic education for all Blacks should include Mathematics, Science, Logic, General Semantics, Participative Politics, Economics and Finance, and the Care and Nurture of Black minds.

5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence.   To the extent that we individually reach for, even strain for excellence, we increase, geometrically, the value and resourcefulness of the Black Community.  We must recognize the relativity of one’s best; this year’s best can be bettered next year.  Such is the language of growth and development.  We must seek to excel in every endeavor.
6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic.  “It is becoming harder to find qualified people to work in Chicago.”  Whether this is true or not, it represents one of the many reasons given by businesses and industries for deserting the Chicago area.  We must realize that a location with good facilities, adequate transportation and a reputation for producing skilled workers will attract industry.  We are in competition with other cities, states and nations for jobs.  High productivity must be a goal of the Black workforce.
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect.  To accomplish anything worthwhile requires self-discipline.  We must be a community of self-disciplined persons if we are to actualize and utilize our own human resources, instead of perpetually submitting to exploitation by others.  Self-discipline, coupled with a respect for self, will enable each of us to be an instrument of Black Progress and a model for Black Youth.
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.”  Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.

   Those so identified are separated from the rest of the people by:

   1. Killing them off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.
   2. Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.
   3. Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which, while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us.”
   4. So, while it is permissible to chase “middleclassness” with all our might, we must avoid the third separation method – the psychological entrapment of Black “middleclassness.”  If we avoid this snare, we will also diminish our “voluntary” contributions to methods A and B.  And more importantly, Black people no longer will be deprived of their birthright: the leadership, resourcefulness and example of their own talented persons.
       
9. Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills Available to the Black Community.
    
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.
     
11. Pledge Allegiance to All Black Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace the Black Value System.
     
12. Personal Commitment to Embracement of the Black Value System.  To measure the worth and validity of all activity in terms of positive contributions to the general welfare of the Black Community and the Advancement of Black People towards freedom.

The Chicago Tribune raised this concern in early February:

Obama … faces his own challenges in dealing with race as he seeks to frame himself as a candidate who can bridge historic divisions not only of race, but class and religion as well….

The product of a black Kenyan father, white American mother and a series of elite schools, Obama has prompted some African-Americans to question whether he is really in touch with their lives.

At the same time, conservative critics already have begun a buzz on the Internet about a far less known part of his biography: his adherence to the creed of the prominent South Side church he attends, Trinity United Church of Christ. The congregation posits what it terms a Black Value System….

The next day, Tucker Carlson weighed in:

….Tucker Carlson criticized Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), a presumptive candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, for being a member of a church that Carlson claimed “sounds separatist to me” and “contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity”… Carlson was referring to the “Black Value System” advocated by the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, of which Obama is a member….

“So Barack Obama is a member of a church called Trinity United Church of Christ. It’s a predominantly black church in Chicago, that espouses something called the “Black Value System,” which includes calls for congregants to be “soldiers for black freedom” and a, quote, “disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness.” Now, it would seem to me … not to make a broad sweeping statement here, but a racially exclusive theology, a theology that ministers to one group of people, based on race, kind of contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity, and is worth talking about.”

Barack Obama has spent a little over three years in the United States Senate. Even without the other concerns, it is hard to see how this qualifies him to lead the country. It appears that he is using the color of his skin as a qualification for office. His party is so desperate to show how ecumenical they are that they are eager to promote an unqualified black man.

As we have pointed out repeatedly, we would not even be having this discussion if Colin Powell (R – Secretary of State) or Douglas Wilder (D – Governor of Virginia) were running. So this is not about racism on the part of white voters. This is about using reverse racism as a political tool to manipulate public perception. And that is truly RACIST.

Today the last two primaries in the long and contentious Democratic Party nomination process are being held — in Montana and South Dakota. And although Barack Obama got off to a surprisingly buoyant start in Iowa, in recent weeks his luster has been dimming. If he does secure the required number of “superdelegates” to clinch the nomination, he may in fact limp over the finish line.

His lack of experience is only part of the problem. His Achilles heel is his wife Michelle, who appears to have an attitude problem. The American Thinker characterizes the situation accurately:

….angry Michelle Obama might provide the visible potential knockout punch … She is remarkably bitter about the country that has provided her fame, wealth, luxury, and status, and is not able to understand the way other people see her. A remarkable case study in the depth of human self-absorption, she has already generated considerable mockery for her whining about the difficulties of getting by on what seems to ordinary folk like considerable wealth. She appears to carry a huge racial chip on her shoulder, repeatedly characterizing ordinary life challenges faced by everyone as a matter of some bar being raised by an unseen “they”. For the last few weeks the campaign has succeeded in squelching her tendency to reveal smoldering racial resentments with offhand remarks, such as the infamous “proud for the first time” aside….

Now The American Thinker is generally regarded as a Republican-leaning magazine. But the same assessment can be found in Democrat-inclined commentary as well. Reason Magazine also sees the same problem:

The idea that Michelle Obama could “rail against whitey” would have been racist bilge a year or so ago. But since then we’ve heard her say that her husband’s political success made her “proud of her country for the first time” in her adult life. We’ve seen her senior thesis about racial identity. We’ve learned about her church. Based on that, Obama has been transformed from a glamorous potential first lady into a female Louis Farrakhan….

As a senior majoring in sociology at Princeton University, she wrote a very revealing thesis in fulfillment of graduation requirements — Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community by Michelle LaVaughn Robinson. Here’s a passage from the introduction:

….there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost.

She reveals that she felt a separation from the general student body of the mostly white school:

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second.

Michelle’s thesis described the changes in attitude experienced by black Princeton alumni as a result of their college education in a primarily white environment. She sent a questionnaire to the community of black Princeton graduates, and based her study on the compilation of answers from respondents. She approached her task with a race-based world view:

When I first set out to examine the attitudes of the respondents toward Blacks and Whites, I believed that the extent to which a respondent identified with the Black community would determine that individual’s attitudes. In defining the concept of identification or the ability to identify with the Black community, I based my definition on the premise that there is a distinctive Black culture very different from White culture. Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppressions suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history.

In fact, this passage reveals a “victimhood” approach that is certainly not justified by her personal opportunities and experience. It also shows a lack of comprehesive awareness of the American experience, which is an amalgam of many cultures equally unique and some with equal injustices to overcome. The next passage betrays the depth to which she sees cultural orientation as an either/or kind of decision:

….with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique….

This thesis was written 23 years ago, and many folk might expect that her worldview has mellowed and matured with experience. In fact, this would be the case with most adults. But her uncensored asides on the campaign trail slip out, and reveal that she still has a reverse-racist point of view, a chip on her shoulder, a certain bitterness.

Both Michelle and Barack have developed their public careers in the Chicago black community. Together with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, they have supported the development of a powerful black voting bloc in which race, religion, and politics become one entity. And this orientation is a poor training ground for a couple who want to be president and first lady of a country whose best characteristic is being a “melting pot.”

Back in March the Asia Times had this to say:

The wrath of swift-tongued Michelle Obama well might lose the White House for her husband…. Barack Obama … evinces a preternatural sangfroid, for he is in America but not of it, a Third World anthropologist profiling Americans. But his wife’s anger at America will out, for it is a profound rage amplified by guilt.

Mrs Obama averred that she could not recall the contents of the thesis she composed in 1985, but that cannot be quite true, for it is a poignant cry from the heart. It explains her controversial outburst during the campaign to the effect that she felt proud of her country for the first time in her adult life in 2008, after “feeling so alone” in her “frustration” and “disappointment” at America.

Princeton both humiliated her and corrupted her, Michelle Vaughn Robinson complains in an undergraduate prose that is all the more touching for its clumsiness. By condescending to the young black woman from a Chicago working-class family, the liberal university made Michelle feel like an outsider. Worse, by giving her a ticket to financial success, Princeton caused her to feel that she was selling out to the institutions she most despised.

Michelle’s ambivalence towards Princeton, and by extension towards America, has the makings of a tragedy of the sort found in the novels of Theodore Dreiser or F Scott Fitzgerald, a fatal compromise in pursuit of status. Young Michelle felt she was betraying “lower class Blacks” by assimilating….

And there is that arrogance and disdain for “ordinary” Americans. From Michelle:

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment.

And from Barack:

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Michelle just can’t seem to help herself. Speaking to campaign workers in Billings, Montana yesterday, she said:

“The way this campaign has been run is the way we need to be forever. Don’t trust bloggers or someone else’s opinion, because people lie.”

Tail wag: Buck Naked Politics

References:

Michelle Obama’s thesis, Part One
Michelle Obama’s thesis, Part Two
Michelle Obama’s thesis, Part Three
Michelle Obama’s thesis, Part Four

…Barack Obama resigned from his Chicago church, his campaign announced yesterday. The CNN Political Ticker reports:

Obama resigns from controversial church

Barack Obama resigned Saturday from his Chicago church — where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers had created repeated political headaches for the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination — his campaign confirmed.

The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama’s Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for crying in New Hampshire during the runup to the primary there.

Previously, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ and Obama’s minister for about 20 years — drew unwanted attention for the campaign when videos of several of his fiery sermons surfaced….

Certainly some of the tactless pulpit pounders in this particular church have been an embarrassment to Obama as he campaigns in the national spotlight. But there is a deeper issue here than just some sermonizers’ lack of good judgement. The focus of many churches throughout the country seems to have gone awry — caught in the pervasive slide from high ideals to materialism.

Between the end of World War II and the present, there has been a notable transition in the perception of democracy. It used to mean personal freedoms — of speech, religion, assembly, and so forth — and equal participation by all citizens in franchise. Now the popular discourse seems to define democracy as an opportunity to earn consumer goods. And parallel to this decline from philosophy to consumption, there has been a general shift in the activities of religious organizations, from houses of worship to community centers replete with bingo parlors, bowling allies, kitchens, etc.

The highly publicized disaster at Trinity is iconic of this moral derailment. The shepherd should be using his theological background to help the congregation learn HOW TO THINK, based on the spiritual guidance of the religion. Instead, his is telling them WHAT TO THINK.

From the videos of the Trinity sermons, it is abundantly clear that the pastor is using rhetorical techniques to get the congregation “pumped up,” and that there is a pervasive substitution of human emotionalism for spiritual experience.

And, since Obama has had this pattern of religious involvement for twenty years, we might assume that this is what he perceives religion to be. And that is not a very good moral compass for the leader of the free world.

Stop The ACLU Blog has coverage.

If true, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Obama is not only one of the most shady characters in American presidential election history, the guy is totally inept.

Everyone on planet earth will see such a move for what it is: a cheap, years-late political calculation. I guess Obama means to put this on the list of things we are not permitted to discuss.

Confession time: Barack Obama opened a door in my mind Tuesday morning. A light penetrated: it is undeniable. Dare I say it possible this man was used of God to broaden my understanding even as his pastor spoke hellishly? Mr. Obama’s speech on Tuesday was inspired: history making.

I am a Christian conservative, a registered Republican, the proud father of five children, one a U.S. Marine who served two tours in Iraq and came home with a Purple Heart on his chest (and yes, I’m braggin’!).

I’m the proud husband of a woman whose family rose from serious depravation, a woman with Irish and Native American blood in her veins; all of us descendants of immigrants from Scandinavia and the British Isles.

Modern liberalism is anathema to me for many reasons. My parents taught me (as we teach our children) the world owes me nothing: my life is my responsibility, the outcome the direct result of my effort, devotion, faith, work and optimism.

We were taught, and I believe, America is great because her people are great, and her people are great because they love God, work hard, and help each other. We were taught, and I believe, America is great because her government serves people best by staying out of the way.

For all my serious disagreements with Barack Obama about the role of government in our lives and his ideas about economics, the military and foreign policy, I had to admire the man as he spoke from Philadelphia. Every American should read his speech and ponder its contents.

I do not believe Mr. Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, nor do I believe he is the savior of the world. Like others I was critical of him for speaking flowery words about vague concepts like hope, calling for more issue-specificity. Others cannot be blamed for being wary, but I’ve changed my mind.

I’m happy to see how he inspires, challenges and leads. He is a leader, and I suspect our next President. I doubt I’ll vote for him, but he has my respect, and if he is elected, he will have my patriotic support.

His words touched a place deep in my soul and brought tears to my eyes. It was and remains an astounding experience, completely unexpected and radically startling. Even as I write, the tears come. There is something Lincolnesque about Mr. Obama. Oprah is right. He is brilliant.

Listening to Mr. Obama’s words, I identified with Black men like never before. He spoke of the humiliation and frustration Black men have endured as discrimination prevented them
from providing for their families. I began to break down.

For perhaps the first time, my heart broke for those many men down through the years, their tears of rage blending with my tears of sorrow for them and their families, and for my ignorance, and my negligence.

I have been guilty of allowing my heart to harden. I am guilty for protecting my heart; callously hiding behind the excuse I’m not responsible.

I was convicted of not being part of the solution, escaping responsibility by insisting I’m tired of the complaining.

It was as if the Lord pointed a finger at a dark place in my heart, leading me into the light of day, showing me what real love is about, that it is sacrificial, painful. Real conviction means real pain leading to real repentance. The rest is illusion.

Mr. Obama is right to point out that our original sin was slavery, and our continuing sin is denying the multi-generational damage slavery and discrimination continue to visit on people in the Black community, and on the rest of us.

Mr. Obama is also right to decry the malice and blame we heap upon one another, challenging us to see with new eyes, to work for healing with new hands, and to speak with new words of blessing, love and respect.

My people never enslaved a Black man. So far as I know, my Norwegian and Swedish relatives never even knew Black people or mistreated them. Still, I’m an American. And if there is injustice in America, I’m responsible. I’m responsible to say something at the very least, and to do something, at the very least.

We will never be free, all of us, together, or breathe life into all the corners of this great land until the words of the Constitution and the Declaration are given full life and meaning in the lives of all Americans “yearning to breathe free.” We will never overcome our enemies until we bind up the nation’s wounds, “with malice toward none,” as Lincoln proclaimed.

Mr. Obama rightly condemned his pastor’s remarks. But he also used the occasion to teach and inspire and correct and challenge us to work together to fulfill the promise of America to become as he said, a “more perfect Union.”

We are on the road, not perfect, but being perfected. What I heard Mr. Obama say is
this: let us stop shooting one another. Let us instead start working together for the greatest good for the greatest number.

We are not African Americans, or Norwegian Americans or Asian Americans or Native Americans or Hispanic Americans.

We are Americans, period. We offer this weary world the great hope of love and freedom.

Let’s start behaving like we really believe it.

It starts with me. Will this new open door of perception provoke me to be a better servant to all my brothers and sisters? That is my prayer.

(Parting note for Pastor Wright: Semper Fidelis. As one Black pastor proclaimed years ago: “If God is our Father, You are my Brother, and if we agree Jesus is God, we are Brothers, indeed. He commands us to love in the unity of the Spirit. Will we obey?)