Religious Wright

There is certainly no way to predict how this presidential election cycle will turn. Each week, there is another attempt by some in the media and many in the Republican party to destroy to fabric that holds the Democratic party together.

While ignoring the same issues in the Repubican party.

However, John McCain will not be able to capitalize on this because he can't keep his facts straight on the issue he is supposed to be strongest on: Iraq.

He said yesterday that is is "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran; that's well known. And it's unfortunate."

Trouble is, Iran is training insurgents that have nothing to do with Al-Qaida. Just like Bush, he doesn't seem to know the difference between Al-Qaida and other extremists, or the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Of course, Republocrat Joe Lieberman was there to prop the presumptive nominee up. Watch:



But that is not the issue of the day (especially since the media is letting it slide).

The issue is Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his anti American tirades and Obama's response to the hoopla. The issue is also how the media jumps on this, because it is about a black man and race, yet igonores McCain's association with right wing hucksters like John Hagee who calls the Catholic Church the "Great Whore". We heard Wright's "God damn America" a hundred or more times on TV over the last few days, how many times have you seen this person:



I am not a fan of the Catholic church or the pope, but I am just pointing out that this divisive message has not been shown across America.

McCain also has as his "spiritual advisor" Rod Parsley, who gave us these gems:

• called hate crimes legislation a "deceptive ploy of [the] liberal, homosexual agenda."
• advocated criminal prosecution of adulterers.
• compared Planned Parenthood to the Nazis.
• declared "I came to incite a riot! Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! Lock and load!" at a "War on Christians" conference.
• urged voters to "let the Reformation begin! Shout it like you're going to carry the blood-stained banner of the cross of Christ the length and breadth of the Buckeye State!" at a political rally.

Brent Childer's of Faith in America has written an excellent article in which he points out that if Americans are asked to consider what Obama heard coming from the pulpit, it should also "consider how many times the Religious Right, from its pulpits, has stated that America is damned because of policies aimed at protecting gay and lesbian Americans from hate crimes and discrimination? How long have Americans, former presidential contenders and presidents sat in front of that pulpit?" Read Brent's article here.

He also questions "A nation where corporate greed holds sway over hard-working Americans? A nation that goes to war under false pretense? A nation in which political forces cater to prejudice and racial division? A nation in which gay and lesbian teenagers are being sacrificed on the alter of religion-based bigotry."

Rev. Wright is no more hateful or divisive than the preachers that millions of Americans sit before (in the sanctuary or in front of the flat screen) and soak in every week. The white guys can say whatever they want and condemn whoever they choose, and nobody seems to care.

It is not the religious Wright that is the problem, it's the religious right.