DADvocate

I fully agree. This boggles my mind. I hope that the American public is smart enough to see through Obama, although I'm not holding my breath.

Lindsey
 

Wow! You hit this post only a few minutes after I put it up.

Obama worries me more and more. He has a slick, polished, feel-good message but his history doesn't necessarily support this. I don't really support Hillary but at least we know where she stands.
 

Exactly.
 

"Southern women like their men religious and a little crazy, that's why they fall in love with preachers."

90% of the people I know that go to a Church anywhere will at some point be subjected to messages they do not agree with. I don't know a single Protestant who goes to Church without a Preacher who sounds crazier than a sack of rabid weasels about something.

And I'm Catholic and we have a whole dogma of brickabrack that they find just as ludicrous.

Some of them leave the church and look around for a new one. Sometimes it takes them a while. Others stay in their church for long periods of time because they are involved with the social and fellowship aspects of the church more than they are a part of the sermon every Sunday.

That's what caused the Reformation, Protestantism, and then the disentigration of Protestant churches into more protestant churches. Our entire religious makeup as a nation has to do with crazy preachers and the people that are either driven to another church or stick around regardless.

It was these kinds of disagreements that drove me away from my Church long ago, and getting back has not been easy. But Church is a part of my culture, my family, my community, and my very being - so I can't get away from it so easy, and I'm much less invested than most.

I just think this whole thing is really the most ridiculous denunciation of a candidate I have ever seen. Maybe it is because, down in Georgia where I came from, I knew a lot of folks who would judge others very harshly based on what Church they belonged to and what preacher they listened to on Sunday. I used to do that to, but I realized that a person is more than the sum of their parts. A person is more than just the church they belong to, crazy preachers and all.
 

I believe Obama says that he never heard Pastor Wright saying those nasty things. He must have skipped out on church a lot.

"If it offends you, I condemn it." Nice new motto for the USA, huh?
 

Patrick - 20 years is a long time to attend the same church and listen to those sermons. For various reasons, religious and non-religious, I've never attended any church for 20 years, let alone listened to the same preacher for 20 years.

I know plenty of people who go to churches and listen to those crazy messages. A surprisingly high number eventually move to a different church, virtually all.

If a white minister gave the same sermons with "white" used instead of "black," a long time member of his church wouldn't have a prayer :-) of getting as close to the presidency as Obama already has.
 

But I know plenty of people who gloss over the imperfections of freinds, mentors and preachers - and organizations they belong to - because of the more personal relationship or investment they have in place.

That's one way we are able to cope with living in a world where so many people important to us disagree with us on fundamental issues.
 

Something his Reverend Wright has said numerous times, is to have taken the name of the lord in vain, open, publicly, on tape.

For anyone who is Christian, and believes and attempts to follow the Ten Commandments - Wright appears to be on a hell-bound train.

In old English: "Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord God in vain. That's G-D this, or G-D that for those not familiar. That is the third commandment.

No one, anywhere, has mentioned that. Or if so, it has not hit the main stream, much less any estuaries. Why? Because it is absolute condemnation of Reverend Wright. Openly and loudly disobeying the third commandment.

"But everyone says it." And everyone is wrong. Especially a preacher supposedly teaching Christ in a Christian church.
 

Was Wright taking the Lord's name in vain, or was he invoking God to damn (condemn to hell) the US? I have not heard any of this, just read it, but I always assumed it was the latter. Or maybe that will be his excuse for saying it?
 

marbel.....watch the tapes. They're everywhere. You Tube, etc. There is no mistaking what he was saying. Invoking God to damn anything is exactly what the third commandment is saying you must not do. Vengeance is God's domain. Who should be more aware of that than a pastor of a Christian church?

Then read the third commandment. All ten can be found all over the 'net, too.

Not a bible thumper, although I am a believer. Not a shining light for Christianity, either. I would never want someone to base his beliefs on my example.
 

br549 - guilty, here, of not fully developing my thought before posting. I was thinking of imprecatory prayers (such as Psalm 69: May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever...) - a deliberate asking of God to do something to someone, rather than carelessly using God's name inappropriately.

But then I revisited the Westminster Shorter Catechism and see that I was wrong anyway:

The Third Commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.

Thanks for pinging me on that. Not the worst way to spend a few minutes on Resurrection Sunday!
 

Hope I didn't come across as a poo head, marbel. That was not my intention.
 

br549 - not at all. I wasn't being sarcastic; assume you weren't either.