- Barack Obama has been criticized for the words of outspoken
Dr. Wright, his one time friend, spiritual tutor, and pastor. Obama is
embarrassed because his campaign plan does not call for discussing the
issues Wright keeps raising. Mr. Obama has done everything but discuss
them.
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- After seeing and listening to Pastor Wright, it appears
to us that the whole world would be much better off had President Bush
had Pastor Wright for his spiritual adviser. Reverend Wright made it clear
he is opposed to war on Iraq, and he was already opposed to it right after
Day911 when hatred and vengeance were in the air.
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- Moreover, Reverend Wright knew the scriptural reasons
for opposing the bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan: 'Thou shall not take
a human life!' he said in his speech, and he seems to apply this to all
people including Muslims, not just black people.
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- George W. Bush's spiritual model, if he has one, would
be a Christian Zionist, perhaps the late Jerry Falwell, John MacArthur,
or the likes of radical John Hagee. All of these believe deep down that
we are in a war against Islam. To them, killing Muslims does not defy God's
plan. Some, like Hagee, are dissatisfied with the wars we have and want
a preemptive bombing of Iran. All ignore the voice for peace in the statements
of Jesus Christ.
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- Here is a short list of words and concepts that would
be absent from Americans' vocabularies today, had President Bush taken
spiritual counsel from Reverend Wright.
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- Weapons of mass destruction
- Shock and Awe
- Guantanamo
- Abu Ghraib
- Water-boarding
- Sadr City
- 4,057 American dead
- 25,000 American wounded and crippled
- 100,000 (or many more) Iraqi dead
- Homeland Security
- The Patriot Act
- The Green Zone
- Blackwater Industries
- $3.50 per gallon gasoline (pre-war $1.00)
- $4.00 per loaf bread
- $5.00 per gallon milk
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- One trillion dollar plus federal budgets
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- Each is a new word and idea we have learned since Day911.
All these are new words we might not need to have known if George W. Bush
had gone to church in Chicago where Barack Obama was going at the time!
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- The press's condemnation of Jeremiah A Wright is not
about his patriotism or black racism, and I may not agree with every social
issue he talked about. Wright wants to talk now that he has a world podium.
The press attack is about hurting Senator Obama. Wright was a six-year
Marine; compare his service to those who criticize him. Maybe it's time
Mr. Obama talked about the issues Wright has uncovered.
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- The Zionist-friendly press can see that Reverend Wright
is not fooled by phony wars, especially those in the name of Israel. Zionists
are petrified that some of Reverend Wright's thinking might have rubbed
off on the young politician, Obama. I, for one, would like to see it rub
off on our current President who is bent on bombing Iran, or getting Israel
to do it for him with our bombs and money.
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- Reverend Wright's interview with Bill Moyers last week
revealed that he knows Jesus Christ's words and takes them seriously. Is
that not the purpose of pastors? Jesus shouts what God expects from us:
warmaking, no; peacemaking, yes.
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- Moyers did us the service of playing the emotion-packed
sermon Pastor Wright delivered to his church on the Sunday following 911.
It demanded peace as God does, not vengeance as John McCain, Hillary Clinton
and George W. Bush do. Wright said: 'America's chickens are coming home
to roost.'
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- We Hold These Truths entitled our own 911 response six
years ago "Americans Pay the Price." It was posted painfully
two days after 911, and here is what I wrote:
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- "The cause of the Day911 destruction is the bullying,
war-making tactics of those who control our own government toward multiple
small and frail independent Arab states, including Palestine and Iraq."
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- My own local church Pastor's response was a terse note
telling me not to send any more letters to him...they made him too angry!
It seems he was just too angry to distinguish Jesus' call for peace from
the call of the lynch mob to bomb the people of Afghanistan and Iraq in
revenge. My Pastor, Phil, is one of thousands who follow Christ, except
when his words command us to stand against the tide and control our own
anger.
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- We Hold These Truths received dozens of angry responses,
including an almost instant call from the FBI. The agent politely asked
me to let them know if we hear of any terrorists! Had I been preaching
to a white evangelical church I might have been stoned!
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- Day911 did not demand vengeance in Jesus' eyes. But politicians
demanded it for purposes of their own! The outrage from Christian Zionists
over our words convinced me we needed a project to intervene between these
very Pastors and those who make the mistake of listening to them. We now
have Project Strait Gate to rescue others from Christian Zionism, to which
we invite participation.
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- Barack Obama has thus far dodged discussing the substance
of Reverend Wright's speech. The press has him dodging and they love it.
Maybe it would serve Obama better if he confronted these issues; what is
our government's responsibility for keeping peace? what are the bitter
fruits of vengeance?
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- Among the some 65 churches where we have held our interventions
were two black churches, not so different from the one where Reverend Wright
preaches. The reaction was interesting. Many who attended seemed to think
we had singled them out; they asked our volunteers why we don't go to white
churches, saying 'we are not for war.' I might not be comfortable in an
all black church, but I am not comfortable with Pastor Phil either! We
all have a right to our own idea of race, even race jokes. Reverend Wright
was not joking when he said in his sermon after 911. 'God bless America...
'No, God Damn America,' and then Wright provided a long list of ungodly
acts that God could condemn America for, from slavery, to Hiroshima, to
Iraq, to US support of Israel's oppressio n of the Palestinians.
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- Wright is right! It should be plain to everyone that
our chickens have indeed come home to roost, bringing with them disease
and corruption as well as the visible and invisible human costs of war.
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- We do not know who God calls to be prophets in our time.
A prophet is one who tells the truth when it is not easy to do so. Reverend
Wright's facts were 20-20 six years ago. He did not miss much in describing
America's decline into moral and financial suicide in the speech I heard.
He stood up and said it when there was pressure, even from his friends,
to stay silent.
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- I do not care a whit what Wright says about race or how
he expresses himself in his hometown black church. He is not oppressing
me, and he is uplifting me by his courage. He did not once deviate
from Jesus' central message of love and forgiveness. His 911 message began:
'God wants wholeness, not revenge.' Amen, Brother Wright!
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- We now live with the fruits of revenge that we sowed
in such abundance. Let's not be afraid to talk about them, whatever the
consequences. Perhaps Barack Obama should stand up and argue the issues
Jeremiah Wright has raised each time the hostile press plays the Wright
card. They would soon stop playing it!
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- Here are a few issues he could talk about, all caused
by War: the gasoline price explosion, the Wall Street collapse, run-away
food prices, the human cost of serial wars, and the dreadful slide to immorality
that comes from war, all issues that were voted for by our present administration
and by Obama's opposition.
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- Wright is right. God says the God of the Old Testament
damns nations who turn from his law. He damned the Israelites of old -
why not the U.S.? It would be well for every pastor and church lay-leader
to watch Bill Moyers' full interview of Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright aired
on PBS television on April 25. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html
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- Here Is Our Own Day 911 Advice
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- By Charles E. Carlson
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- September 13, 2001
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- The people who died and were injured on 9/11/2001 (Day
911) were of every race and religion, including Jews and Arabs. Who could
be without sympathy for the victims and their families? We are already
learning of acts of heroism, courage and sacrifice similar to those that
took place on the Titanic. We salute the many brave firemen and other rescue
workers who must have known how great the risk was when they entered the
damaged structures, putting their duty ahead of their lives.
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- Our purpose at We Hold These Truths is to place the guilt
squarely on the guilty. Only if we do that can we prevent a recurrence
in some other place and some other way. The only alternative to our proposal
is a police state in which all must surrender freedom in exchange for protection
from an ever-larger government. We will need an armed guard on every plane
and a metal detector at every door, and still we will not be safe.
-
- The cause of the Day 911 destruction is the bullying,
war-making tactics of those who control our own government toward multiple
small and frail independent Arab states, including Palestine and Iraq.
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- Read the rest here:
-
-
- Day
- mip://cp.whtt.org/news_id=188
- 911 Americans Pay The Price
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- http://cp.whtt.org/news_id=188
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- We Hold These Truths
- Project Strait Gate
- PO Box 14491
- Scottsdale, AZ, 85267
- http://www.whtt.org
- 480 947 3329
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