The frequent opinion expressed that Wright “owes” Obama something is absurd. Should Wright deny who he is and what he believes to accommodate politics? Wright is a pastor not a politician. What kind of a pastor would he be to set aside 30 years of belief for the political convenience of an individual in his “flock”?

If Obama didn’t agree with Wright, why did he stay in Wright’s church for two decades? Who is being dishonest? You already talked about the reaction many had to the new message of a new pastor – they left.

Irreverent Wrongs

Cheers.

The other thing is “speaking in tongues”. Don’t pull that in a trained linguist and analyst. We can take phonetic notes and view structure. We can tell the difference between language and babbling. I had a relative who attended Oral Roberts University. She dropped out because she couldn’t master speaking in tongues. The problem was she was actually expecting to be able to speak in tongues, rather than understanding it was a con and making up her own vocabulary. She really believed and quit, feeling she had failed and was unacceptable to G-d. She would have been a good pastor, but hasn’t done too badly in her current profession.

It’s the con men [and women] that are annoying. They are messing with peoples’ faith and no one wants to do anything about it. They want to construct a one-way wall between church and state, i.e. they can muck about with the government, but the government shouldn’t be allowed to check up on them.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I was once a part of a good Baptist congregation. When I first arrived with a friend, I was skeptical because the majority I’d been to before, simply did not feel *right* for several reasons. This particular preacher was a pleasant surprise. He preached the parts of the Bible most either ignored or skimmed over rapidly. I could see he was a shock to the congregation! (He was a newly arrived Pastor). 😀 And the singing and hymns were not bad either. 😉 I returned the following week, and after mass asked if I could speak with him if he had a moment, and he invited me back to the rectory and we had a cup of tea. I think he could see I was troubled. And I spoke about my past problems with *churches* and Pastors, and we had a long discussion that was quite refreshing. 🙂 In fact, mindful that I had just used an hour of his busy schedule (he was visiting Hospitals, and homes of the Elderly! Imagine that!) I asked if there was anything I could do for him and told him what I could do. Turned out he had some problems with his notebook, so I offered to fix it for him while he went about his own work. It took me almost two hours, but felt good. 🙂 I thanked him and he thanked me and said “This is Christianity. It’s simple.” and I responded “It is. But it seems far from simple for many.” I spent the next few months going there and helping the members of the congregation (that hadn’t left in disgust because they now had a Preacher who wasn’t always telling them they were going to Hell next Friday). And they in turn helped me when I needed it. We started a serious youth center (we had a big problem with bored teens .) LOL And it grew! 🙂 And I finally felt I lived in a *community*. 🙂 And of course, because he was doing well and we all liked him, they transferred him somewhere else. Oh well. At least I got to have a taste of what a *REAL* Man of God can be like.

“Always seeking, never finding.” 😉

One of the sermons that stuck in my mind the most was about Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle. Tarsus was what is now Turkey Saul was originally a strict Jew (an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day, Phil3:5) and was a leader of the Persecution (arrests and murder of Christians) when he had a visions and was left blind until he met a Christan disciple called Ananias and he was baptized (reborn or born again) as a Christian. The part that stuck the most was that Paul would go out of his way to win men for Christ and God, but he would NEVER break any of God’s laws or sin against God in any way. Today, the word “accommodation” is equated with “compromise”, which it isn’t. Paul essentially said that a Christian can and must accommodate others to win them for Christ, but must never compromise the law of God, and that to compromise is to break the Law. Most of this is found in 1 Corinthians which I spent a lot of time reading. It makes sense to me. And may explain why I am so hard on the rightwing neo-Christians (the false Christians) and others. Some are simply ignorant, true. But I believe many do what they do knowing full well they are sinners and will not change. Some quote Paul as saying “Be all things to all men so that you might win them for the Lord Jesus”. But he didn’t actually say that, but the essence is almost right. So long as the Laws of God are never compromised, then yes. Neither Christ nor any of the Apostles or disciples ever advocated invading Nations or torturing people to make them good Christians! Only someone insane or evil would think that would ever work!

Erm… end of sermon! 😉 LOL

BTW… Paul’s nickname was “The fisher of men”… any guess why? 😉

And yes, I do enjoy a good Gospel sing-along! I lived for 4 years with the Lady that created ‘Gospel Theater Australia’ and had the voice of an angel (She had been a member of the Australian Opera Company for may years). She taught me much.

Cheers. 🙂

of course he should have. except that most of the voters in this country are white and probably only 5 of us, or maybe 500 of us, are going to listen to more than the sound bites. no percentage in courting that small a number.