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March 23, 2008
Where's the 'sharp contrast'?
Posted by: Chris
The headline this Easter Sunday in the non-denominational Christian Today reads, "McCain's pastor a sharp contrast to Obama's," but that conclusion doesn't bear up to scrutiny:
John McCain's Phoenix pastor, Dan Yeary, is a folksy patriotic Southern Baptist who opposes abortion and believes homosexuality to be a biblical sin, but says Christians have an obligation to love such sinners.
That puts Yeary, who heads the church attended for the past 15 years by the US Republican presidential candidate firmly in the US Southern Baptist mainstream, and in line with the Republican Party.
He offers a sharp contrast to Democratic contender Barack Obama's former preacher Jeremiah Wright, who has stirred controversy with his fiery comments on race and America.
The comparison is false on its face. Yeary may well be within the mainstream of Southern Baptists but Wright is similarly within the mainstream of the black church, however incendiary the snippets from his sermons may have been to white Americans.
I also fail to see any contrast in the suggestion that Wright is divisive but Yeary somehow is not. Yeary opposes abortion rights, guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court for 35 years, and advocates second-class treatment of gays. What's worse, there is every indication that McCain agrees with his pastor on those points, in the religious and political sense, making his pastor's views much more clearly fair game for discussion.
For example:
The 69-year-old Yeary adheres to the Southern Baptist belief that gay marriage and homosexual relations go against Biblical scripture, hot-button issues for many in the United States.
"The Bible is pretty clear about it, in my opinion it specifically calls it a sin. I also am a sinner and you are a sinner. ... Did Jesus Christ love homosexuals? I'm sure he did," Yeary said.
This sounds remarkably light John McCain's fervent opposition to absolutely any form of legal recognition for gay relationships -- not just marriage or civil unions but even limited domestic partnerships.
There's no indication, on the other hand, that Obama has taken any political cues from Wright's divisive views. To the contrary, Obama has insisted Wright is purely a spiritual mentor and has rejected, denounced and otherwise distanced himself from the controversial political views Wright has aired from the pulpit.
If anything, we should be hearing less about Wright and more about McCain's pastor, and his other religious supporters like Pastor John Hagee, who famously claimed that Hurricane Katrina was intended by God to wipe out the gay Southern Decadence party set for that weekend.
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Comments
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Check this out. Do not miss the video.
http://www.newzity.com/2008/03/23/is-presidential-race-possible-without-a-row-about-race/
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Yeary may well be within the mainstream of Southern Baptists but Wright is similarly within the mainstream of the black church, however incendiary the snippets from his sermons may have been to white Americans.
Um, no.
One, there is no such thing as a single "black church". There are multiple denominations that are predominantly black, multiple denominations that have black members, and so forth, all of whom vary wildly and drastically in their methods of worship, their structures, and their general beliefs.
Furthermore, despite Obama's insistence otherwise, there are numerous black and predominantly-black churches and denominations who oppose abortion, who oppose gay marriage, and who do not think screaming "God damn America" is productive or uplifting, who do not believe that whites cause all of blacks' problems, and who do not spew conspiracy theories about HIV.
In short, Obama is trying to spin out of the fact that he endorses and supports a racist moonbat by claiming that all religious black people are racist moonbats like Wright -- a statement that is not only untrue, but plays to the worst stereotypes of white liberals about black churches.
The comments to this entry are closed.
No Name Girl on Mar 23, 2008 4:29:09 PM:
Check this out. Do not miss the video.
http://www.newzity.com/2008/03/23/is-presidential-race-possible-without-a-row-about-race/