In a major speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama tried to stanch the recent hemorrhaging of his support among moderate Democrats and independents. At issue, of course, is the senator’s longtime pastor and family friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose vitriolic rants against white people, the United States, and Israel have been airing almost non-stop on cable stations and the Internet.

The fact that Sen. Obama felt the need to deliver the speech was a clear sign that his previous efforts at damage control – in which he denounced the statements but not the man who uttered them – were not working. Unfortunately for him, with his Philadelphia speech Sen. Obama seems only to have cemented the perception that he is all too comfortable in the company of out-and-out racists and anti-Semites so long as their bias is an expression of their experience and they have otherwise done positive things in their lives.

Condemn the sin, he seems to be saying, but not the sinner. Praiseworthy sentiments, perhaps, but a presidential campaign is not a revival meeting and Sen. Obama has succeeded in raising serious questions about his judgment – and, frankly, his candor.

In his Philadelphia speech Sen. Obama passionately and eloquently recounted the black experience in this country and tried to explain Rev. Wright’s diatribes – and why they reflect the views of many blacks – in terms of that experience.

“[T]he anger is real; it is powerful,” he said. “And to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”

(It will be recalled that several weeks ago Sen. Obama told a Jewish audience in Cleveland that Rev. Wright’s outspoken anti-Zionism was based on Israel’s relationship with the old apartheid government of South Africa.)

In Philadelphia Obama reiterated his disavowal of his pastor’s claims that that blacks were justified in hating white Americans and that 9/11 was caused by America’s alleged mistreatment of people of color around the world and its support of Israeli “oppression” of the Palestinians:

I have already condemned in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country–a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

Why then didn’t he quit the church and end his relationship with Rev. Wright? He explained:

The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another, to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine … and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Several concerns leap out at us. Until this speech, Sen. Obama maintained that he hadn’t heard or known about Rev. Wright’s controversial comments. This claim plainly did not pass the smell test. A number of commentators dismissed his insistence that he must have been absent every time Rev. Wright dispensed his poison, pointing out that he was a member of the church for more than 20 years. They also noted that Rev. Wright was a veritable icon of the “liberation theology” movement, which preaches that the church must combat all notions of white dominance over third-world countries and minorities.

In Philadelphia, Sen. Obama seems to have backed away from this. But does he really think racism can be marginalized if racists – whether black or white – far from being made pariahs, are embraced?

Perhaps most important is how this “redemption” philosophy would play out in an Obama presidency vis-à-vis Hamas, which in addition to killing Jews runs hospitals and schools for Palestinians.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 and is filed under opinion. You can leave a response.