You know, I'm not sure what to think.
I mean, generally, if you strongly disagreed with your pastor on such big issues ... wouldn't you find another church?
I still love Obama, but I'm not sure what to think about this whole church thing.
That pastor does seem a little over the top & has said some inflammatory things. But maybe his views are balanced by other pastors' and members' more moderate beliefs? I can't say, and I can only hope that Obama does stand by the whole 'separation of church and state' thing.
I actually don't have an answer to this one, though. Hard to believe, I know.
Can you help me out on this, Lawmommy? Got any thoughts or words of wisdom?!

You know, that is really what I don't understand. If he so strongly disagrees with his pastor, why did he stick around for 20 years. Unless he is just being a politician and lying like all of them do and really does agree with this man. If so, that is scary. But who really knows?!

I don't see any reason not to believe him. He hasn't said those things himself and has instead said he doesn't agree.

Also, in response to the "why didn't he change churches" question, Obama said in one of the articles that this was "cherry picking" quotes from the pastor. That leads me to conclude that this kind of inflammatory stuff wasn't the substance of all of his sermons. If there were a few (or even multiple) instances of his saying outlandish stuff and Obama not agreeing with him, it obviously didn't rise to the level where he thought he should change churches.
Besides, some of what he said, not the 9-11 stuff but the stuff about the U.S. and institutional treatment of black Americans, is not so crazy. He might word it in a much different way than I would, and he frames it in a religious context, which I wouldn't do, but I don't wholly disagree. And I don't think we can deny that, while it's a far stretch to say we "caused" it, we have as a nation contributed to the international climate in which terrorism has blossomed.

Wow, Lawmommy. Smart AND fast!

Hah! Thanks, DistractedMom!

Looks like the Obama camp's reaction has gotten tougher as the day goes on.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/14/obama.minister/index.html

I found a really good blog post on this subject, and thought I would share it with you all. It is kind of long though.

By Joe from Maine, March 16 at 2:47 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I don’t believe for a minute that Barack Obama believes in his heart the most extreme views of his pastor and spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. We should take Obama at his word when he distances himself from his pastor of 20 years until there is some proof otherwise. We should acknowledge that Obama donated over $20k to his church in 2007, but should not confuse this support with any beliefs that Obama may hold that the US government was responsible for the AIDS virus, that the government was responsible for the attacks of 9/11/01, or any of the racially divisive, hateful black-separatist language we’ve all seen from the Trinity Church of Christ on the news this week. There is no doubt that the experience of being an African-American, especially on the hard streets of Chicago’s south side, is more difficult than many of us could imagine. Therefore the Sunday sermons might be, understandably more supportive of an oppressed people. What is not difficult to believe is that Senator Obama had to have been aware of Reverend Wright’s more extreme views long before the rest of us were. Most people would expect a parent, upon hearing the angry, bigoted, hateful ranting of Rev. Wright to leap up out of his pew and head for the door while covering the ears of his baby girls. Why this didn’t happen on any given Sunday in the last twenty years remains a mystery to me. Obama insists that he never personally heard any of these harsh remarks in person, yet he must have been aware his pastor would be controversial or why else would the Obama for President Campaign first invite Rev. Wright to give the invocation at his presidential campaign launch, then reverse course and have Obama personally ask Wright to stay away? According to the New York Times Obama had to call Wright saying, “You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.” Clearly there was recognition over a year ago that the explosive sermons of the man who was the inspiration for Obama’s best-selling book, The Audacity of Hope might become an huge political liability. Obama spent Friday last off the campaign trail appearing on a long list of political television shows assuring the American people that he had no idea of these hateful sermons until just ‘recently’. I have a very difficult time believing this, but am willing to reserve judgment.
This entire episode calls into question not only Obama’s judgment but his honesty as well. I for one am beginning to see a pattern of poor judgment from this self-described post-racial politician, a man who has assured us that, “Words matter. Speeches matter.” I am wondering why it took the media so long to expose this story until Obama all but has clinched the nomination. I also would like to know why it is considered racist or bigoted to question anything about the Obama campaign. Should we not be allowed to ask even a single question about race in this historic election without being immediately labeled a racist by the Obama campaign? When Bill Clinton called Obama’s record on the Iraq war a ‘fairy tale’ he was immediately called a bigot and the media never questioned it. Why exactly? Did anyone bother ask what he meant by that? Did anyone bother give the former President of the United States and long time supporter of the black community the benefit of the doubt? I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and yet I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. I think his pastor has some extremely hateful views that Obama has assured us he doesn’t share, yet has depended on the good reverend’s support, credited Wright for bringing him to Christ, baptized the Obama children, inspired Obama’s book, supported Obama’s campaigns, campaigned for Obama from the pulpit, received thousands of dollars in donations, but never, ever, not even once did Obama sit through a racist, hateful sermon. I guess there’s no reason to believe otherwise, as far as I know.

While this blogger raises some valid concerns (mainly why Obama stayed a member of his church in spite of the pastor's sometimes extremist sermons), he clearly is not reserving judgment as he claims to in the first paragraph. The blog entry is a strong condemnation of Obama's handling of the pastor scandal as well as other questions about him. There is no unbiased or balanced approach at all, in spite of his recurring assurances to the contrary.
Too bad "Joe" couldn't be honest, a sin he accuses Obama of throughout his posting.

I agree with you on that LawMommy, yet I think he is merely asking the questions that Obama has yet to answer that most of us want to know. If Obama had not heard and did not know that Mr. Wright said some of the racially divisive comments, then why did he ask Mr. Wright not to speak for him in public? It just leaves us all wanting a real explanation, and not just a "I denounce his statements, and I never heard any sermons like this". Same goes for his dealings with Rezko. He has never really explained that either. The questions Obama has not answered and the explanations he has not given leave everyone to question his judgement and make some of us scared of a man preaching "UNITY", but attending a separatist church. The things Obama says do not always jive with the things he has done and the people he has associated himself with. When I am given no other explanation, I will always take what someone does as a testament to who they really are, over what they say.

It is all very confusing.

well just when you know that a first women women or first black man to be president or vice president are running against or from each other......hillary clinton will gett the nomination but she will not personalize her choice for a running mate....obama will be clintons vice president...mccain??both hillary and obama want to be president but do not want to be each others candidate as president or vice president.see you in november....clinton-obama ....were did the undecideds go after mmcains???

Ronaldsmom - great links - and I agree with you on a lot of the issues that you have posted. Thank you for being so open and honest with your opinions, and I'm glad that we can all have an open and honest debate about these topics.

I think one of the most important things is staying true to what you believe and realizing and respecting that others may not share the same beliefs.

Here Here GoodGolly... I have loved having debates with everyone. Especially seeing how we are all so repectful of each others different beliefs. Thanks for support....I was kind of alone in my opinions for a while...LOL!

And I agree the most important thing is staying true to yourself...even if that makes you the odd man out.