What Obama’s black church believes

As readers know, I think that Christianity properly understood is compatible with the expression and preservation of distinct peoples, nations, and cultures. Therefore I am not necessarily hostile to a Christian church which defines itself as black. The Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, to which Barak Obama belongs, defines itself as black. Fine, no problem. However, the racial component of this church, as laid out in its About Us page, doesn’t stop with an acknowledgement of blackness. TUCC is drenched in an exclusivist, anti-American, black racial consciousness. Literally everything it cares about, it defines in terms of an all-embracing blackness. It defines ethics in terms of a “Black” ethics. It identifies itself solely and exclusively with Africa, which it calls the “cradle of civilization.” It places itself effectively outside America, which it speaks of only in negative terms of “the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism.” It even promotes a “Black Work Ethic,” while simultaneously disavowing “the Pursuit of ‘Middleclassness.’” It would be interesting to know more about a work ethic in America that does not lead to middleclassness. Perhaps TUCC is talking about how to, uh, “work” the system?

The fact that the apparently non-racial Obama belongs to an extreme racialist black church puts his presidential candidacy in a decidedly less pleasant light. Its’ a phenomenon we keep running into over and over again. All too often, when you look more closely at the “good” minorities (Obama), the “pro-Western” minorities (Hirsi Ali), you find something this is incompatible with or hostile to our society.

Reader Larry T., who brought the TUCC website to my attention, has sent further material. First, here are excerpts from the “Black Value System” (in pdf, no link yet):

BLACK VALUE SYSTEM

Statement of Purpose

We honor Dr. Manford Byrd, our brother in Christ, because of the exemplary manner in which he has thrice withstood the ravage of being denied his earned ascension to the number one position in the Chicago School System…

The Black Value System

These Black Ethics must be taught and exampled in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect the following concepts:

Commitment of God

“The God of our weary years” will give us the strength to give up prayerful passivism and become Black Christian Activist, soldiers for Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind…

Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect

To accomplish anything worthwhile requires self-discipline. We must be a community of self-disciplined persons, if we are to actualize and utilize our own human resources instead of perpetually submitting to exploitation by others. Self discipline coupled with a respect for self, will enable each of us to be an instrument of Black Progress, and a model for Black Youth.

Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”

Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must keep the captive ignorant educationally, but trained sufficiently well to serve the system. Also, the captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.

Those so identified as separated from the rest of the people by:

Killing them off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.

Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.

Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us”…

Here is a recent sermon from the TUCC’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr:

WHAT’S GOIN’ ON?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Marvin Gaye’s powerful “message song” is a song that made him famous because it went against the “Motown entertainment rule.” It raised serious questions about the culture, the country and governmental policy.

His song raised questions about Black-on-Black violence, about drugs, about war and about the way in which we were living (or not living) in a very difficult period of history.

I use his words today on the third Sunday of a New Year to keep before you the painful truth of who we are and where it is we are in this racist United States of America! What’s goin’ on?

We have lost over 3,000 boys and girls in an illegal and unjust war, and the media is on a feeding frenzy about Barack Obama’s church. Where is the outrage about the 3,000 dead American military personnel and the 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians who are dead for no reason other than greed and ego? What’s goin’ on?

This past Wednesday, January 17th, the House of Representatives deliberated on a bill to cut interest rates on federally subsidized student loans. On Thursday, January 18th, the House of Representatives considered legislation that would repeal some royalties and tax incentives from the oil and gas industries and redistribute that money to alternative and renewable energy such as bio-fuels.

The media, however, is not covering that news. The media wants to know about Barack Obama’s pastor. What’s goin’ on?

On the weekend leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices for the Medicare program. The President who is “staying the course” and sending 1,500 more troops to their death has issued a veto threat against the measure and there is no public outcry and no media outrage. What’s goin’ on?

The President, who is “staying the course” and sending 21,500 more troops to their death has issued a veto threat against the measure and there is no public outcry and no media outrage.

The President’s “New Plan” (more troops, more death and more war) promises an insane escalation—in Iraq, Iran and beyond! With the torture of Abu Ghraib, the complete destructions of cities like Fallujah and over 600,000 deaths due to collateral damage, the President complained in his speech that there had been “too many restrictions” on the actions of the United States Forces in the Iraq war.

The President’s “New Plan” (more troops, more death and more war) promises an insane escalation—in Iraq, Iran and beyond!

Am I the only one who heard that? What’s goin’ on?

I celebrate forty years of ordained ministry this weekend. I bask in the 40-year glow of God’s Grace, God’s forgiveness and God’s lessons about humility.

The e-mails that I have been getting this week, the news clippings that I am being sent and the racist blogs that are flooding the Internet make me know, however, that even as I bask, the work ahead for the church of Jesus Christ is just as serious and difficult today (if not more so) as it was forty years ago when I was ordained during the Vietnamese War!

The President tries to frame the justification for his insanity by using language describing the debate in this country over the war as “a great struggle between those who believe in freedom in moderation and extremists who kill the innocent.”

The reality, however, is that the entire war in Iraq and the larger “war on terror” have been based on lies, half-truths and distortions to serve the agenda of the United States imperialism. Where is the public outcry? Where is the outrage? What’s goin’ on?

There is more focus on what the Bears may or may not do as they play a football game against New Orleans than there is on the 3,000 homeless who are still living or displaced in the real life game called “New Orleans.”

Those poor Black and white displaced citizens of New Orleans (not imported team members playing for New Orleans), who have no place to go and no place to live because of this administration’s illegal war and its billions of dollars wasted on prosecuting that war, join with me in asking, “What’s goin’ on?”

Excuse me! The victims of Hurricane Katrina are no longer on the radar screen of the media. Only Barack, his church, his pastor and white arrogance!

I invite your sincere prayers this weekend. The generation of ministers behind me has its work cut out for them in some incredible and overwhelming ways!

Sincerely yours,
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

- end of initial entry -

N. writes:

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is not the same thing as the “Church(es) of Christ” one commonly finds across the Southeast, into parts of the Mountain West and as far north as parts of Pennsylvania. UCC was formed in 1957 as merger between two Protestant groups. The typical “Church of Christ” is not affiliated with the UCC, and is more theologically and culturally conservative than the UCC.

UCC, in my opinion, is following the more mainstream Protestant denominations (Methodist, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopalian, etc.) into what one might loosely call the “social gospel.” The unique governance system allows for such things as Obama’s Afrocentric church, as well as more traditional congregations, to co-exist. However see the 2005 General Synod for where this is going.

Homepage of the UCC.

Wikipedia on the UCC, a long but well done article.

Note how the General Synod is selected, and consider the political issues involved. Then skip down to “Current Issues,” especially the “Bouncers” and “ejection seat” TV ads, as well as the 2005 General Synod resolutions on such topics as homosexual marriage.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 13, 2007 12:06 PM | Send