Introducing: John McCain’s Pastors

By David Samuels is a regular contributor and writer for Black Into The Future. David asks a few central questions about theology and racism.

For the past week, Barack Obama has been at the center of a media firestorm over his association with Pastor Jeremiah Wright. He has been interrogated by Anderson Cooper,
chastised by Lou Dobbs, and roasted by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.
Everyday they ask, “Why won’t Obama walk away from Wright? How could he stay in Wright’s church for all of these years?” I am currently waiting for these champions of racial justice to focus their fury on two pastors who have endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

John Hagee, senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio Texas, is a millionaire televangelist, who McCain has said “ …represents the things that I believe in.” Hagee has referred to the Catholic Church as “The Great Whore” and “ …a cult”. He has issued this summation of Catholicism: “A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years has produced a harvest of hate”. Hagee described Hurricane Katrina as punishment for homosexual New Orleans residents. According to Pastor Hagee, their lifestyle amounted to “ …a level of sin that was offensive to God”. He cited the fact that Katrina struck on the same date that a gay parade was held in New Orleans as proof. The problem with his theory is that the French Quarter and Marigny, New Orleans’ recognized gay neighborhoods, were spared the brunt of Katrina’s wrath.
Finally, Hagee has claimed that the Qur’an mandates that Muslims kill Jews and Christians. Televangelist Rick Parsley, who McCain describes as his “spiritual advisor”, had this to say about Islam: “I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed…”

Is it just me, or does it seem somewhat odd that McCain’s association with these individuals has received zero coverage by the corporate media? Why isn’t Fox News devoting some of its “Fair and Balanced” coverage to this unholy alliance? Could it be…racism?

Barack Obama has been made to bend over backward to make white people comfortable.
Yet, there has been no mention during “Jeremiah Wright Week” of America’s history with blacks, which consists of slavery, rape, Jim Crow, lynching, firebombing and shootings (oops, I almost forgot about the fire hoses and police dogs). I could be grasping at straws here, but perhaps this history has something to do with Wright’s anger, which former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently pointed out. Is America in a moral position to pass racial judgment on Obama or Wright? Why aren’t McCain , Hagee and Parsley being subjected to the same scrutiny?

Barack’s Blasphemy: Rejecting Wright to unite.

On March 18, 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a speech that has been called the greatest speech on race since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I have Dream speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 1963. Listeners were reminded of the Illinois Senator’s command of the English language and smooth groove oratorical style.

The speech was named after the first sentence from the Preamble of the United States, “A More Perfect Union”; a powerful start and a high mark to maintain throughout a landmark speech while facing a political firestorm bearing down on the Senator’s campaign.

Why did Senator Obama do it?
Just five days ago several carefully edited excerpts from Senator Obama’s retired pastor, Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr’s, sermons had become the top political story in cable news. The clips showed Rev. Dr. Wright making statement like:
- God Bless America – No - Goddamn America (the Sunday after the 9-11 attacks);
- Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger (December 2007); and
- America’s chickens have come home to roost (in response to 9-11).

In response to these statements Barack Obama was facing an obvious “swift-boat” attack similar to the John Kerry 2004. As a result cable news anchors and conservative radio talk show hosts demanded Barack Obama to:
- Reject and distance himself from his retired pastor;
- Denounce the “hate for America” language in the sermons;
- Prove his patriotism and maintain his vanilla racial identity; and most importantly
- Make White America feel safe enough to vote for him.

In short Barack Obama was being forced to pledge his undying, religious commitment to the United States of America or suffer a painful political death. And these cable news anchors would serve as the jury who would find him guilty of treasonous acts towards the USA.

Barack’s blasphemy.
Facing impending political doom Barack Obama stood in Philadelphia, in front of a row of United States flags and delivered a Sermon On The Mount about race, the Black Church, and the mulato experience in America.

“I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.”


Instead of falling in line with the United States religious commitment to be an A-racial politician Obama began a speech that turned American zealots into weeping surrogates for the historical significance of his campaign. With almost blasphemous arrogance Barack Obama took on the very issue that the Clinton campaign, her surrogates, and neo-conservatives have attempted to use to marginalize him, race.

Barack backing them down.
When was the last time you saw a Black politician running for the highest office in the land stiffen his/her back and tell America to CUT THE SHIT? It happened in this speech:

“As imperfect as he (Rev. Dr. Wright, Jr.) may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.” - “He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.”

“I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.”

The impact of Barack Obama’s speech is undeniable, evident in the response from conservatives like Charles Murray, who said of the speech, “it is just plain flat out brilliant”. Murray is a co-author of a book called the Bell Curve which discusses the connection between IQ scores and cultural propensities to crime. You can imagine the analysis of people of color in the book. By the end of the speech supporters were reminded of the “Yes We Can” speech in New Hampshire and opponents were warned that an underestimation of Barack Obama’s political chin and thickness of skin is a huge mistake.

Your reactions:
What do you think of Senator Obama’s speech A More Perfect Union?
- Will this act limit him to the “candidate of race” (as Rush Limbaugh put it)?
- Does Obama need to reject Black Liberation Theology and focus on the economy, Iraq, healthcare, and poverty?

White women stand up!!!

Geraldine Ferraro lets her emotions do the talking



Keith Olberman's Special Comment on Geraldine Ferraro's comments about how lucky Senator Obama is to be Black.


Who laid it down the flattest, Geraldine Ferraro or Keith Olberman?

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Keep Your Eye on the Ball
By David Samuels - David is a community activist working on issues of criminal and juvenile justice reform, drug policy reform, and public safety in Connecticut with the Clean Slate Committee.


Hillary Clinton is facing what is known as an “elimination game” in the sports world this Tuesday, in the form of the Ohio and Texas primaries. James Carville, Clinton’s advisor, has gone on the record, saying “Hillary must win either Texas or Ohio to stay in the race”. Hillary has continuously harped on Barack Obama’s “lack of experience” as the reason to cast a vote for her. This assertion is to say the least, amusing, and to say the most, disingenuous. During the 1992 presidential campaign, the argument used by incumbent George Bush “the” Elder against his opponent was that the guy was a Washington outsider, who had no clue how the D.C. machine operated. Bush was a Washington lifer, a former CIA chief who knew where all the bodies were buried. He was an experienced leader who was on a first name basis with all of the world leaders. Hey, he even threw up on one of them! His opponent was a hick from the sticks who surely would be unable to navigate the stormy sea of domestic and international politics.


Bush’s opponent of course was Hillary’s hubby Bill, who used his outsider status as a selling point. He vowed that he would end politics as usual in Washington and bring fresh ideas to the table. Two presidential terms later, Bill is revered by some, despised by others, and a lengthy debate could be had as to what, if any, “fresh” ideas he implemented while he sat in the Big Chair behind the Big Desk in the White House. Now, Hillary is telling us that she is the one we should trust, because she ran the country with her husband while he was in charge. The problem is, while Bill was in office, she totally denied that she had any input in her husband’s decisions. Hillary slammed Obama for using Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s words in his stump speeches, then the next day, MSNBC unearthed statements that she lifted from former presidential candidate John Edwards, in addition to her spouse. When Hillary’s representatives were asked to explain why she was throwing stones from a glass house, their response was that it wasn’t the same thing, because Hillary is not acclaimed for her oratory skills, as Obama is. In other words, it’s ok to bite other candidate’s words as long as your public speaking skills put people into a coma. Keep your eye on the ball folks. Vote for experience. No, don’t vote for experience; vote for …well, you get the idea. The question is, does exchanging one presidential monarchy for another constitute change?