Sojourners Jim Wallis' response to Obama /Muslin references

[chelaque liberal]

So I am going to defend my friend, Barack Obama, from an increasing number of ridiculous and scurrilous attacks on the Internet and in the media. The latest incident occurred when a loud-mouth radio talk show host in Cincinnati let loose with a barrage of disparaging remarks against Senator Obama and kept using his middle name—Barack HUSSEIN Obama—over and over, seemingly to tie into the Internet accusations that Obama is really a Muslim who, as a child, attended a Muslim "madrassa" school in Indonesia that taught Islamic fundamentalism, etc. As a Chicago Tribune blog piece commented, "Anyone who uses Obama's middle name repeatedly, like Cincinnati radio host Bill Cunningham the other day, knows what he or she is doing and what feelings they are trying to evoke. There's simply nothing innocent about it."


...............................................................................................................................................


So let's set the record straight. I have known Barack Obama for more than 10 years, and we have been talking about his Christian faith for a decade. Like me and many other Christians, he agrees with the need to reach out to Muslims around the world, especially if we are ever to defeat Islamic fundamentalism. But he is not a Muslim, never has been, never attended a Muslim madrassa, and does not attend a black "separatist" church. Rather, he has told me the story of his coming from an agnostic household, becoming a community organizer on Chicago's South Side who worked with the churches, and how he began attending one of them. Trinity Church is one of the most prominent and respected churches in Chicago and the nation, and its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is one of the leading revival preachers in the black church. Ebony magazine once named him one of the U.S.'s 15 best Black preachers. The church says it is "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian," like any good black church would, but is decidedly not "separatist," as its white members and friends would attest.

And one Sunday, as Obama has related to me and written in his book, The Audacity of Hope, the young community organizer walked down the aisle and gave his life to Christ in a very personal and very real Christian conversion experience. We have talked about our faith and its relationship to politics many times since. And after he gave his speech at a Sojourners/Call to Renewal conference in June of 2006, E.J. Dionne said that it may have been "the most important pronouncement by a Democrat on faith and politics since John F. Kennedy's Houston speech in 1960 declaring his independence from the Vatican."

Like his politics or not, support his candidacy or not - but don't disparage Barack Obama's faith, his church, his minister, or his credibility as an articulate Christian layman who feels a vocation in politics. Those falsehoods are simply vicious lies and should be denounced by people of faith from across the political spectrum.

Read it all here:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/02/defending-the-facts-on-obamas.html

[leftofcool]

1. A Born Again Christian

That's nice. So is GWB, or so he claims. I don't care if he is the High Priest of the Clan of Silver Rabbits. Let's talk issues. We already know that he opposes the war. Good. So do most of us, in fact, most of the country. Now, whatcha gonna do up against McCain. That's the bottom line.

Left of Cool

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. These are good points to be made

because I know for a fact that there is an effort in certain fundamentalist Christian churches to paint Obama as a Muslim (and to call all Muslims terrorists). I know this because my boss tells me what his preacher tells him. And since it comes from a preacher, hey, it must be right. :sarcasm:

For others, I see the Muslim accusations as a smokescreen--they don't like Obama because of his color, but they don't want to labeled racists and so they hide behind religious intolerance, which, sadly, is much more acceptable here.

I know that many here don't care about religion, but let's face it, an election is about getting votes. And right now there are many believers in the middle politically whose vote could go either way. Letting them know of Obama's faith might very well make them decide to vote Dem. I'm not denigrating ANY honest method of wooing voters.

[elocs]

3. I work with a man who is a devout Lutheran and he said he had heard that

Obama was a Muslim. "They" said he was a Muslim and "they" also said that Muslims would be very happy to see Obama elected as president because he would do so much for them. Like it or not, branding Obama as being a Muslim is propaganda that will be used against him time and time again and there will be people who will believe it.

[MethuenProgressive]

4. His pandering to Fundis, constant 'God Speak', and getting in bed with the Hate Wing of his church..

...should be much more disconcerting to Democrats than his distant, barely-there, long-ago connections to Islam.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Recursion]

7. Oh, yeah, we can't have 'God Speak'...

:eyes:

[MethuenProgressive]

8. "Our campaign is like a hymn that will heal our nation!"

Amen?

[Recursion]

9. And?

Were you going to post something troublesome? I like that quote.

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Faith of Our Mothers vs Right Wing-Nuts

I find it shocking (Though not all that surprising) that the right wing would attack Senator Obama for his alleged religious connections. We're all too acquainted with religious conservatives' claims that Christianity is the ONLY one TRUE religion, often accompanied by the claim that their particular Christian sect is the ONLY true way. Yet Barack Obama's father was not only an inactive Muslim, but an atheist as well.

Which leads to an interesting line of speculation. Do Religious Right-Wingers believe that just as only certain kinds of Christians practice the only true religion, do they also believe that ONLY certain kinds of Christians can be true atheists? Do Religious Right-Wingers also believe that religious faith is ONLY transmitted through the father? Do Religious Right-Wingers also believe that children of atheists who then have spiritual awakenings AUTOMATICALLY head back to whatever religious background their atheist father had before he chose the path of non-belief, and that whatever spiritual background their mothers had is of NO account?

Senator Obama had a mother, and she did NOT come from an Islamic background. Why are Right-Wingers denigrating her background and her religious beliefs?



:evilgrin:

[Bluerthanblue]

10. The mentality of those individuals you are talking about has very

little to do with actual 'religion' and much more to do with a need to control, marginalize, and ostracize others. Yes, there are those who are part of a "Ultra-fundamentalist-'c'hristian movement" who believe that 'their' way is the one and only way.

Obama's mother's religion is not of interest to them, because it can't be used to slander a candidate who frightens the hell out of them. They fear (as well they should) that their hold over the 'Christian' community in the US, will be weakened tremendously by the election of a person of 'faith' who does not intend to use 'religion' to manipulate or intimidate others.

IMO-

peace~

[Vogon_Glory]

11. Interesting...

You wrote an interesting and thoughtful post. You wrote a serious respsonse to what I wrote as only a partially tongue-in-cheek response to those--people's--name-calling (I confess that my writing style has also been influenced by William F. What's-his-name). I can only hope and pray that what we said, and what others have said, might start chewing serious holes in the foundations under the shibboleths of some lurkers who come across this thread.

Namaste.