President Obama dumps Rev. Wright for a hate-monger?

Tolu Olorunda | Posted October 16, 2009 12:52 AM

"First we get the military, then we get the nation..."

--Pastor Lt. Carey Cash (President Obama's potential new pastor)

Reverend Wright is somewhere feasting on his nails. He must be wondering, along with everyone else who consider themselves conscionable, fair, and just, why President Obama, forced last year into denouncing his former 20-year spiritual mentor for views some considered "incendiary," is now pallin' around with a guy who apparently finds Jesus' teachings on inter-faith fellowship immaterial ("... And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold."). 

No one who stayed awake through the last 24 months is at all oblivious to the reactionary mainstream media-manufactured hype built around Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (Trinity United Chuch of Christ) and then-candidate Barack Obama, that skyrocked cable TV news ratings and substantively shifted the political discourse from matters of substance to the Almighty investigative journalistic task of finding out if Barack Obama attended church some 8 years ago.

We witnessed, in living color, the death of journalism and, more importantly, the resurrection of Race-based fear-mongering. In a matter of three days, millions of citizens who had lived under the shadow of terror the last 8 years, and saw the '08 Presidential election as a declarative moment to reinforce their independence from narrow forms of political hedonism, fell right back under the impression of the narcotic: supplied by the world's most powerful pushers--mainstream media.

The Barack Obama we thought we knew was a fabrication, dominant press was quick to point out. The real Barack Obama was a secret Black nationalist who championed views critical of his country--unpatriotic! The man behind the mask was much darker than the lovable, biracial, cuddly, smiley-faced U.S. Senator who spoke loftily of Hopes and Dreams. And, worst of all, he was being counseled, most likely to the detriment--re-enslavement (!)--of White America, by a dashiki-wearing, Africa-loving, so-called theologian .

We all know how the game ended: The politician denounced the pastor. Walls tumbled, gates closed, and darkness fell over the surface of the earth. And, when all was said and done, those who contributed to this great, historic moment in self-delusion felt real good about themselves--they had helped avert an accident; they had stood up against bigotry, treason, and racial separatism. 

At a time when the young Black president was trying to unite us, they couldn't give voice to an old, stuck-in-the-'60s radical whose life-long ministry had been entirely devoted to division, they assured themselves.

Well, it would be curious to see, or read, or hear the take of these good-natured fellows following news that the man who might very well become the President's new pastor wrote in 2004--not 2001, and not in a soundbite, either!--that Islam, the religion bearing membership of nearly 2 billion people worldwide, has "from its very birth... used the edge of the sword as a means to convert or conquer those with different religious convictions." In nature, it is "violent," Pastor Carey Cash wrote. The not-so-hard-to-come-by value of "Grace," he concluded, "is often absent in Islam."  

Pastor Cash is actually very learned about Islam. After all, he's been castigated severely by watchdog group Military Religious Freedom Foundation for proselytizing Christianity--a very fine religion, I must say--to the people of Iraq! Pastor Cash must be annointed in the lineage of those revered prophets of old like George Bush, Erik Prince, and Donald Rumsfeld.

This is who President Obama dumped Rev. Wright--a man who's dedicated a lifetime of service to bridging gaps and demolishing artificial walls of discord that have burnt bridges between inter-faith believers--for?

What would Jesus do?


Tolu Olorunda is a columnist for BlackCommentator.com, and a contributor at TheDailyVoice.com.

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