by John McGuinness - March 18, 2008
Before becoming King, Shakespeare's Prince Hal needed to sever ties with his former mentor Sir John Falstaff, who was a lousy soldier, a thief, and liar. This was an important step for Prince Hal to take before becoming the heroic King Henry V.
Today, Barack Obama stands at the cusp of the presidency. For the past twenty years, he has attended a church led by Pastor Jeremiah Wright, who tends to mix some anti-Americanism in with his sermons. The title of Obama's last book, The Audacity of Hope, comes from the title of a Wright sermon.
Must Obama banish Wright in order to take his place as president?
Or, more importantly, do we want to be the type of society that makes such a demand?
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It is understandable that Wright's comments would become an issue. Obama has been a national public figure for only four years. We don't know much about him. He sometimes speaks in vague terms like "hope," "belief," and "unity." Before they commit to him, voters want to know what's behind the words. No candidate will be eager to share parts of his personality that might be unattractive. So we start to dig around. How about that church he goes to that he says such wonderful things about? What's up with that pastor? What does Obama really believe?
This would all be well enough, but even Obama and Wright's harshest critics would have to admit that there is no echo of Wright's uglier sentiments in Obama's writings or rhetoric.
And so they have continued to be indirect. Obama chose that church, took his family there for twenty years. Doesn't that imply some comfort with Wright's more hateful rhetoric? Plus, he's given lots of money to the church over the years. How can he support such hate?
The answer is that Obama supports the church in spite of, rather than because of, the more outlandish statements of Rev. Wright. He recognizes the evil of Wright's statements, but also recognizes that people are more than their worst qualities. And he's betting that you can do the same.
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Foremost among those wanting to make political hay out of Wright's more outlandish statements have been conservatives. They should be careful what they wish for.
It is the institutional teaching, not just the opinion of some charismatic preachers, of my Church, the Catholic Church, that women are barred from the priesthood, which contains almost all the teaching authority in the Church. It teaches that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.
Should Catholic candidates like John Kerry and Sam Brownback be pressured to publicly reject these teachings? How would growing up in, or in Brownback's case,actively choosing to convert to, a Church that hold these beliefs impact his political decision-making? How would he deal with women in positions of power? How could he fairly govern gays?
Do we really want candidates rejecting their faiths and faith leaders to be a regular feature of our political campaigns?
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What kind of country do we want to live in? Must anyone with political ambitions completely vet any one's views before entering into relationship with him? Do we want leaders who are willing to reject those who have been closest to them in order to win votes? Is a person's value determined by the worst thing he ever said?
It took Nixon to go to China; it may take electing a black president named Barack Hussein Obama to break through the hyper-PC "gotcha" politics that has dominated discourse and made us less free.
If Obama is not elected because his policies and vision are found wanting, that would be one thing. But if Obama is not elected because we decided that he was insufficiently forceful in rejecting his preacher, then we are effectively deciding to continue the current PC hegemony. If you want to be president, you better just join the most milquetoast boring church you can, and make sure all your friends and for heaven's sake your spouse don't have any skeletons in their closets. And even then, it's probably best to not get to attached to them, so you can ditch them if you need to.
I want better than that. I want leaders that might have occasionally loved not wisely but too well. And I think Obama wants that, too.
Banish Reverend Wright, and banish all the world.
John McGuinness is a father and software engineer living in St. Louis, MO. He blogs at Man Bites Blog.