Recently, I was eating dinner at a fast-food restaurant with a friend and discussing the campaign between Senators McCain and Obama. I was describing to my friend some of the outrageous things said by one of McCain’s most prominent supporters, the Rev. John Hagee, one of which was that New Orleans was destroyed because God was angry with the city over it’s sinful behavior, when a man sitting at one of the other tables stood up to leave. As he was passing our table, he angrily declared, “Yeah, but McCain wasn’t a member of his church for twenty years, you moron!”
Storming out the door with his wife, this rural Southerner continued to make hateful and furious remarks about Obama and my own stupidity in supporting him, while my friend and I simply stared at each other, not accustomed to such public displays of anger. And, his aren’t the only remarks I’ve heard from people around me who I assume are Christian, Republican, Southern, and not-very-well-educated. A report on one of the cable news channels showed an interview with a woman from West Virginia who defended her vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary by declaring that Obama is a Muslim, that his middle name is Hussein, and that she had had enough of Husseins.
Well, I’ve had enough of ignorance.
First, Senator Obama is NOT a Muslim and never has been. His father, who abandoned Barack and his mother when the boy was quite young, had been a Muslim at one time, but abandoned that religion, as well. Second, despite what Fox News claims, (and has never retracted), Obama did NOT attend a Muslim school, or madras, when he lived in Indonesia. The school has been shown by many reputable journalists and news organizations to be a multi-cultural school that did not teach religion, but which enrolled students from a variety of faiths and social groups.
Just because there are viral emails slithering around the Internet, (or, as our President says, “the Internets”), claiming that Obama is part of some Muslim conspiracy to destroy our Christian society, doesn’t mean this is reality. After all, there are still Southern Fundamentalists who believe Proctor and Gamble is run by Satan because their logo contains symbols that they claim are Satanic.
It is true that John McCain was not a member of John Hagee’s congregation for twenty years as Hagee was declaring the Roman Catholic Church to be the “Great Whore.” Nor was he a member when Hagee blamed homosexuals for the demise of New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina, or when Hagee, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, blamed the destruction of the World Trade Center on liberals, homosexuals, and abortion supporters. But, even though he dismissed as outlandish some of Hagee’s pronouncements, (in language not nearly as strong as Barack Obama’s criticism and rejection of Jeremiah Wright’s hate-filled nonsense), John McCain has actively pursued the endorsement, support, and, most importantly, the money of John Hagee and others of his ilk. During his previous campaign for President, McCain was highly critical of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance.” Today, he courts their support as sycophantically as any fundamentalist.
John McCain actively pursues the support of intolerant bigots and encourages the lies being told in his name by only weakly complaining that they don’t represent his views. In 2000, when George W. Bush’s supporters in South Carolina were falsely accusing John McCain of fathering a black child and of selling out his fellow POW’s while in captivity in North Vietnam, McCain angrily accused Bush of hypocrisy and cowardice for not ending the outrages being committed by his supporters. Today, he shakes hands with these same people, praises them, and happily brags of their support. Read Frank Rich’s column from the New York Times of May 4, 2008 for more on this.
The American people aren’t stupid. They know hypocrisy when they see it and that is why John McCain will lose in November and why the Republicans will suffer their worst Congressional loses since 1974. I only wish that on November 4, I could see the face of that angry man who called me a moron. I suspect he will be even angrier.
3 Comments
May 19, 2008 at 12:26 am
Chris, I used to be shocked that Christians are so judgemental and conveniently ignorant. People make a choice to be ignorant — they hide behind ‘not knowing the facts’ i.e. that Obama is a Christian so that they can fool themselves and believ that the are not prejuidice or racist or whatever. It is a choice. In todays society if someone doesn’t have a computer at home, once they leave home they can choose to visit a library for computer access. Three minutes of research will make the uninformed informed about all aspects of Sen Obama. It can take one minute of research if the person visits Senator Obama’s website. As so him being in the church for 20 years. Rev Wright himself stated that Obama did not attend church much. From what I have heard from members of the congregation the Rev did not have bombastic sermons weekly — so maybe Obama didn’t hear the controversial services for himself. Maybe he knew that the Rev coud be over the top but because of everything else the Rev had taught him and because of everything else the Rev had done for the community he didn’t think it was necessary to leave the church. I am a Christian but have visited Mosques, Synagogues, Catholic churches, Baptist churches, etc. That doesn’t I beleive anyone of their teachings 100% — no, the world isn’t black and white. Sometimes it shades of grey and blue and green, etc. So I visit different religious houses but I take what I need and leave the garbage I might hear. Plain and simple. So like you, I am so over those people who choose to be ignornant — they are just being who they want to be.
It is this same type of ignorant christian thinking that created and sustained slavery. Sorry for writing such a long reply.
You might find http://www.letustalk.wordpress.com to be of interest to you.
Best,
P
May 19, 2008 at 1:17 am
You just don’t get it, do you.
There are MILLIONS of idiots like the one you wrote about. I agree completely with you that the logic and reasoning skills of these folks is suspect; that’s not the point.
Look, morons like this voted for Bush… TWICE.
May 19, 2008 at 6:19 am
Thanks to both of you for your comments! I appreciate the interest and the input. I am afraid that those who believe the rumors about Senator Obama choose to because they feel it is more legitimate to oppose someone because they are perceived to be a Muslim than because they are black. These bigots don’t want to support a black candidate, but need an excuse other than race so that they don’t feel so guilty or racist. And, I find hypocrisy among the religion right grows more as people are challenged to think and not to simply accept the spoon-fed delusions they are given by those who exploit them, i.e. Hagee, Robertson, Dollar, Hinn, Roberts, etc.
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