I attend an extremely liberal church... openly welcoming to LGBT people, we are on the same interfaith commission as the local Buddhists, our pastor has a doctorate from Northwest and likes to go all rhetorical-critical on us in her sermons, etc.

But I have never heard politics from the pulpit the way this Wright character seems to use them. Taking explicitly political stances, instead of spiritual ones that may inform our politics, has always seemed to me to be a right-wing abuse of church authority, and something to steer clear from. We pray for world peace and for world leaders to work towards peace in my church, but we never condemn government figures in sermons. God is bigger than politics, and the church's business is not to influence people's vote, but to provide people with a responsible and caring community of faith. That an educated, liberal pastor, and of all things a pastor of the UCC, would use his pulpit as a place to preach about politics, in any way, is disgusting to me. I don't give a damn about race or whatever. But by injecting politics into your sermons, you're just stooping to the same level as the radical right-wing pastors who give sermons on which pro-life candidates to vote for.

You know, every time I come close to supporting Senator Obama, I read another virulently sexist post by one of his supporters, and I pause.

There is no excuse for any person to call Ms. Walsh an ignorant (expletive deleted). It's sexist. It's misogynist.

Oh, but wait! It's not because Ms. Walsh is a woman -- right? It's because you don't LIKE HER! Or because she supports a woman you DON'T like...

Is is okay to use racist epithets against someone because you don't like him? Hmmm?

I am a leftist, I have read Howard Zinn and James Loewen, etc., and know all about the genocide against the Indians, and the history of voting rights, and Wounded Knee, and what African American people went through and are going through, about the community and state sanctioned violence against women by their intimate partners, about gay bashing and homophobia galore.....

But I also think that we need to celebrate American resistance to tyranny, and to provide some balance. Americans DID elect Al Gore. Our election was stolen. There are many American environmentalists, and anti-racist campaigners of all colors, and people of all genders fighting for queer rights..

Susan McGee

Hope it doesn't make the American public bitter!

There is no doubt that it is not east to be Black in America.

But is it easy to be Asian, Hispanic, East European immigrant in this country.

But rather than listening to the blame and hate rants of Rev. Wright and Michelle Obama (I am sure if her husband was not in politics, we would hear her truw feelings), Black America should listen to Bill Cosby.

Million of Immigrants would do any thing to be in the shoes of Black Americans. They come go through all kind of hardships and finally become part of the productive society.

They do not compalin and blame the world for their misery.

Peace

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_el_pr/mccain

See, McCain might say something like that about Obama and there will certainly be those who are inclined to agree. What do we do about those who are inclined to see Barack as a bad person, or a stuck up person, or an ineffective person?

What could Barack do to make sure that people are not so inclined to say mean things about him? Maybe he could learn something from Hillary's experience in this regards. What does she do to make it that people don't think negatively of her? How does she pull that off?

I'm supporting Barack, but I have to admit that when I picture Hillary in the general election using her power that stops people from thinking negatively about her....it's tempting to switch. But maybe she will generously teach Barack how to make people only think decent and relatively true things about him.

Wow - I was really shocked and surprised to read this post of yours, Joan! I watched the Moyers interview and thought that Wright came off very positively. I was glad that he was given this opportunity to speak.

There seems to be a school of thought that says we have to pretend that the problems Wright works against and speaks out against - the problems that uniquely affect the African American community - that these problems really don't exist. Or at the very least we're not allowed to talk about them. Definitely people like Wright aren't supposed to talk about them.

The people behind these ideas are the same people who feigned horror when Michelle Obama said this was the first time she's been proud of her country as an adult.

Do the rest of us adults really, really have to pretend that our country is infallible and that very hard-hitting criticism is not allowed?

The ENTIRE sermons that Wright delivered from which those clips were taken are available on YouTube and they are worth watching. Any lefty worth his or her salt will see that nothing Wright said is "wrong" (except, perhaps, that the US Government created HIV) and that he is being unfairly maligned.

* http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ

* http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

I'm not going to write a long screed as I'm done venting at Joan Walsh and her ongoing (pathetic) efforts to elect Hillary Clinton.

But maybe you would like to point out to your readers, Joan, that one of Hillary Clinton's staunchest supporters and frequent surrogate for the campaign, Governor Ed Rendell, passionately praised Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in 1997. By your measure, that means Hillary Clinton supports Louis Farrakhan, too. Or does that somehow upset your house of cards? I mean if you're going to play the guilt by association game, which you have no trouble doing with Obama in this column, apply it evenly to Hillary.

Joan, you are intellectually bankrupt. Hillary Clinton lost all by herself. She voted for the single worst abomination in our history. She lied. She threatened to obliterate an entire country, and all you can do is continually bleat about Jeremiah Wright. The funniest thing is that in private, Hillary Clinton could care less about you or your support. If she had to throw you under the bus, she would not hesitate for a second. Just ask MoveOn.