I AM OFFENDED BY WRIGHT'S MESSAGE
"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Philippians 4:8
Philippians 4:8
Maybe I am self-righteous and reactionary, but I’ve learned those words, written by St. Paul, nearly 2000 years ago still hold true. I was talking to a friend on the phone today. He mentioned how disgusted he was by Barack Obama and his acceptance of and apology for Jeremiah Wright, as a great man of "God". I am also angry. It even makes me wonder which "god" he is talking about. Barack Obama through Jeremiah Wright has a completely different "god". My God is a God of Love, Salvation, Kindness, and Peace. The "god" of Jeremiah Wright and his ministerial associates is one of anger, cruelty, damnation, and hate. I honestly don't see how you the two are even the same faith.
I don't care if Barack Obama is a Christian. Well, I do in that his immortal soul is in danger, but that's his problem. He is old enough to make his decisions. I do, though, care that he has opened the door to something akin to pure evil and hate. The nastier demons of darkness and death seem to be pulsating through the doors of his "church". The "christian" faith taught by Jeremiah Wright and his associates has absolutely nothing to do with what I have been taught and what I believe. I pray for the innocent lives and souls he is mis-leading and corrupting.
Around the first of the year or so I decided to opt to receive my copy of Forward Day by Day (an Episcopalian devotional) via my inbox. There are some days it is perfectly right on target. Today is one of those days.
“…John 15:12-27. This is my commandment, that you love one another.
Interesting, this joining of "commandment" with "love." How, our sentimental-romantic culture wonders, can love be commanded? Surely it is something one helplessly (and pleasurably) feels, not something one obediently (and possibly with difficulty) does?
But no. Twice in today's gospel, Jesus uses the word "command" with his injunction to love. It is not a suggestion or a nice thought; it is an order.
Therefore, we must deduce, it is not about a "feeling" at all. And presumably, if we need to be ordered to do it, we need not expect it to be easy.
We are commanded to love one another as Christ has loved us: with our lives, to our deaths, and beyond.
And that will be the measure of our love for Christ. The standard of Christian discipleship, as the Jesuit priest and peace activist Father John Dear points out in a sermon on this text, is "not whether or not we are popular or successful or law-abiding or rich or patriotic; not whether or not we did what everyone else did--but whether or not we love one another."
What would be the implications for injustice, greed, hunger, war, and violence if we loved one another as Christ loved us?...”
MEDVED TO THE RESCUE
Medved takes on Obama and his Wright wrong.
In his most recent Townhall column, Medved has 12 questions for Obama. I like the last one particularly well:
“…You have said repeatedly that you are a “devout Christian,” and pray every day. How has your faith evolved – particularly regarding the Black Liberation Theology endorsed by Trinity – since you joined the church two decades ago? As President, would you continue to worship at Afro-Centric churches which promote this theology, and would you invite your pastor to participate in the Inauguration and other state occasions?...”
(thanks SV)I think one of the top apologists for Christianity is an Orthodox Jew – Michael Medved. From Medved has come some of the most impassioned respect for my faith that I’ve heard in many years.
Faultline says that Obama was registered Muslim when he was a kid living in Indonesia. Frankly I don’t care about this. I don’t give a rip if he is Druid, Jedi, Hari-Krishna, or a Moonie. I find his coldly calculated membership in the Wright Church an insult to what I believe. There is nothing wrong with a person being a Muslim. To chose a church and a religion because of political feasibility is the worst hypocrisy I can think of. It insults people who are involved in their faith, church, synagogue, or mosque – for all the right reasons.
WHY I AM ANGRY
Like I said above, I don’t give a rip what Barack Obama believes. I do resent his constant repetition of the canard about his “conversion” to Jeremiah Wright’s church. I don’t hear that much about Obama’s relationship with Christ, but his relationship with Jeremiah Wright. And this is what I resent.
Jeremiah Wright is not exactly preaching what I call “Gospel”. At least what he is preaching and teaching and passing off as the real thing is heresy. It is corruption of my faith. That’s why I don’t mind if Obama is Muslim, Jedi, or what-ever. I am furious with what he is doing and has done, mis-representing my faith.
My Christian faith is based on love: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes Him will have eternal life. (John 3:16)
I judge ministers and teachers by that love. If someone is doing nothing but preaching hate divisiveness. If we follow St. Paul and his writings, then we know that what Barack Obama’s Jeremiah Wright, his minister friends, and even Obama himself are not following “the Gospel”.
What Jeremiah Wright is teaching had nothing to do with honor, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellence, or worthy of praise. He is preaching hate.
“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things”.
John 3.17-36
17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’
The Gift of Love
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels,
but do not have love,
I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains,
but do not have love,
I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions,
and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient;
love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant
or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing,
but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.
But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end;
as for tongues,
they will cease;
as for knowledge,
it will come to an end.
For we know only in part,
and we prophesy only in part;
but when the complete comes,
the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child;
when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly,
but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part;
then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known.
And now faith,
hope,
and love abide,
these three;
and the greatest of these is love.
1 Cor 13
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rosemary's Thoughts, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, Pirate's Cove, Cao's Blog, A Newt One- Don't miss this show!, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, The Yankee Sailor, and D equals S, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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