Barack Obama‘s spiritual supporters keep causing him headaches!
First, we had Donnie McClurkin, the man who nearly derailed the Senator’s mega church campaign. Then came Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s preacher who damned the United States and spurred that revolutionary race speech.
And now Fox’s ire-inducing Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes have turned their attention to another Obama “spiritual counselor,” Reverend James Meeks, a state Senator who spends his free time blasting the bent boys and girls. Obama’s camp already denounced the remarks, saying:
Obama has appeared at hundreds of churches and served with scores of colleagues and can hardly be expected to be held responsible for all that they say.
While that may be true, Meeks’ history will certainly propel a few news stories this week.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Catch up on all the sensational fun, after the jump…
Meeks, who’s closely associated with anti-gay groups like Americans for Truth and Focus On The Family, told a reporter during his 2006 gubernatorial run that he’s the perfect candidate for conservative white voters: “Theologically, politically, for the white conservative voter, I’m their guy. I have their philosophy.” That philosophy became his common call during that year, when he was swiftly defeated:
Come on with me white churches … Call me and tell me to run for governor. White people who believe in Jesus, call me and tell me to run for governor”
…
If I do run and there are two people in the race who both are not standing for morality, if I don’t have every white Christian vote in the state of Illinois, I will stand on top of the Sears Tower and call every one of ya’ll racist.
Just one year earlier Meeks railed against white Christians:
There’s a fundamental difference between blacks and whites… We would leave a meeting like that and a black person would say, ‘Let’s do something.’ White people leave a meeting saying, ‘Let’s plan something.’ That’s what they want to do. White people want to plan something.
Meanwhile, like Wright, Meeks has come under fire for using the pulpit to dispense racialized opinions, even referring to mayors as “slave masters” and some unnamed politicians as “house niggers, comments for which he’s since apologized. Here’s the video of that report:
Though he’s since apologized for those remarks – and, again, Obama himself has denounced them – we’ve got no doubt Meeks’ Obama connection will be making the rounds this week. Can we expect another speech or will Obama be able to shrug this one aside and start focusing on the task at hand: the campaign. We’re hoping the latter, because the Democrats need to make sure they’re strong enough to fight John McCain. And the past few weeks have not been helping their case.
Michael Bedwell
Gotta give “the Obama camp” credit for one thing: they just get better and better at shameless bald-faced lying. Meeks, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of the “10 leading black religious voices in the antigay movement,” is ANOTHER CLOSE FRIEND of Obama NOT just one of “hundreds†of ministers he’s stumbled across.
The worst aspect of their relationship is not just Obama’s continuing tolerance for the Intolerate, but how it demonstrates that Obama’s claims that he can turn homohating lions into homoloving lambs is all hot air.
[The majority of the following re the bond between Obama and Meeks is thanks to the research of EqualityGiving.org member John Norris.]
Obama describes Meeks as one of his “closest religious advisors.”1
• Meeks appeared in TV ads for Obama’s US Senate campaign2;
• When he ran for US Senate in 2004, Obama campaigned at Meeks’ Salem Baptist church2;
• Meeks’ church was Obama’s last stop on the night he won that primary. According to the Chicago Sun-Times4:
• Obama appointed Meeks to his exploratory committee for the Presidency3;
• Meeks is listed on Obama’s campaign website of influential black supporters.
• “‘I know that he’s a person of prayer,'” Meeks says. ‘The night after the election, he was the hottest thing going from Galesburg to Rockford. He did all the TV shows, and all the morning news, but his last stop at night was for church. He came by to say thank you, and he came by for prayer.'”
• Meeks’ church choir performed at a rally for Obama the night he announced he would run for President;5
• Obama has addressed Meek’s church on several occasions:5
• In May 2006, soon after he announced his candidacy, Obama delivered a fiery speech at Meek’s church: “I’ve had enough of folks not telling the truth. I’ve had enough of people manipulating intelligence, fudging numbers and distorting what’s happening,”
1. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington described Meeks in a May 12th 2003 article8:
“Meeks has said that the bible says that gays should not marry or have sex. He has spoken about not wanting sissies in his church and that the women of his church should protect their men from the sissies.”
2. A spring 2007 newsletter by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) included “10 leading black religious voices in the antigay movement.” According to their profile of Obama’s “spiritual advisor:”9
“As a stalwart antigay activist, Meeks has used his House of Hope mega-church to launch petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a major state-level “family values” pressure group that lauded him last year for leading African Americans in “clearly understanding the threat of gay marriage.”
“Last year, he ran for governor as a virtual single-issue candidate, drawing national support from Christian fundamentalists by boldly vowing to fight marriage equality at every turn. Meeks eventually dropped out of the race.”
“Meeks and the IFI are partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major antigay organizations of the Christian Right.”
3. Meeks ignored his LGBT constituents and tried to block Illinois’ LGBT non-discrimination bill:
• In 2003, black Illinois LGBT groups formed a protest at his office over his refusal to meet with them to discuss human rights legislation.10
• Meeks insisted the bill would “lead to gay marriage.11”
• Even though he and Meeks were good friends and colleagues in the Illinois senate, Obama was apparently unable or unwilling to convince him to support the bill – which would have failed had it received one less vote.12
• The day after it passed, reporter Rich Miller of Capitolfax asked Meeks why he voted against the “landmark” bill: “I’m the pastor of the largest church in Illinois,” Meeks responded.10
4. In a televised Sunday morning sermon, Meeks blamed “Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain.”10
5. He’s uses his church as a training ground and rallying tool against gays and lesbians:
• A 2006 article in the Chicago Sun-Times said Meeks’ church sponsored a “Halloween fright night” which “consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals.”14
• His church has launched antigay petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute, and is partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major antigay organizations of the Christian Right.9
Giving Obama the benefit of the doubt that he at least tried to get Meeks to vote for the LGBT rights bill in Illinois [which, again, contrary to Obama’s claims, he neither cosponsored nor “passedâ€], his having failed with someone so personally invested in him is proof that Obama’s assertions such as that he made during the South Carolina debate that he, “can go after those folks and get them,” is nothing more than a series of check he’s written that his actual abilities can’t cash.
Any evidence that longtime intimates like Meeks or infamous ingenues like Donnie “gays are trying to kill our children” McClurkin are any less homohating than they were before ever meeting Barack Obama is as nonexistent as any mention of LGBTs in his 64-page “Blueprint for Change.”
References:
1www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0804/0804obamafaith.htm
2 www,illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2004Jan/Demo.html
3 http://www.bilerico.com/2008/01/
4 http://www.suntimes.com/news/falsani/726619,obamafalsani040504.article
5 http://www.nebraskademocrats.org
6 http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/353782,CST-NWS-rezpols23.stng
7 http://www.wctimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=16472 camp 04 at church, sickness
8 http://www.suntimes.com/output/washington/cst-edt-laura12.html
9 http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=410
10 http://www.rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2006/04/im_their_guy.html
11 http://www.wctimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=7141 gay marriage
12 http://www.wctimes.com/gay/lesbian/news
13 http://www.thecapitolfaxblog.com/wp-mobile.php?p=1399&more=1
14 http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/117630,CST-NWS-HELL31.article
rickroberts
We are doomed in November if we nominate Obambi! Republicans will tear him to shreds. Of course, we may also be doomed if we nominate Hillary, for that will cause Obambi’s supporters to make Rodney King day look like an Easter egg hunt in the park. Sweden? Denmark? Canada? Any openings?
John
Oh, this is so tedious.
Yawn.
A massive percentage (unfortunately) of these black churches think like this. Is this news? Is any shocked?
How say we bet that these advisers have been paid by the repub’s to come out of the woodwork?
This is not news. It’s only news if you’re naive enough to not know that politics is the most dirty and corrupted business in the world.
America’s such a mess but Hilary’s a liar! Great.
Michael Bedwell for President!
Why don’t you write about McCain’s crazy spiritual adviser?
Dog eat Cat
Rick Roberts should move to Sweden, Denmark, or Canada.
Michael Bedwell
Yes, John, try to yawn away the rabid homohating head of the biggest churches in the US. Yawn away another example of the homohating, racist pals of the Barack Messiah for the Gays/Above Race Obama.
It is disingenuous, at best, to attempt, either factually or morally, to equate all of the religionist homophobes in the lives of Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain. While one MIGHT be able to make a case that the worst homophobes among each of their followers are equally bad in intent, only Obama supporter the Rev. James Meeks is also an elected politician who has not just been an antigay bully in the pulpit but in a state legislature, too.
Further, neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. McCain have longstanding, close friendships with any of their gay-hostile supporters. In fact, their combined collective time with, e.g., crazy religionist fascists Bishop Eddie Long and Rev. John Hagee, would not come close to the time Obama has spent with Meeks, nor are they as intimately involved in the careers of Clinton and McCain as Meeks is Obama’s.
Did Sen. Clinton go to a prayer meeting with Bishop Long the night she won her Senate primary? Did Sen. McCain celebrate with Rev. Hagee the night he won his? Revs. Meeks, Wright, and McClurkin are just as anti marriage equality as Long and Hagee. Did Long marry the Clintons or baptize Chelsea? Did Hagee marry the McCain’s or baptize their children? Have either of them starred in campaign rallies for Sens. Clinton or McCain where they screeched, “GOD DELIVERED ME FROM HOMOSEXUALITY!”?
Meeks hasn’t been hiding in the woodwork. He’s more notorious in Illinois than Wright. But gays might well ask why the gay press have ignored such a pillar of the antigay industry who is also a “spiritual advisor” and personal friend of the Dali Obama for so long.
SeaFlood
“A massive percentage (unfortunately) of these black churches think like this. Is this news? Is any shocked?”
A massive percentage (unfortunately) of these white churches think like this, too. No, it isn’t news. We know homosexuality is not accepted in *most* Christian circles — regardless of race/ethnicity.
What I want to know is why is it Obama’s “spritual advisors” are so scrutinized while McCain’s have impunity?
DanGOP
SeaFlood,
Sen. McCain gets a pass on these religious advisors because Sen. McCain has not befriended them, has not taken them on as major campaign advisors, and probably will not talk to them again once this campaign is over. Same with Sen. Clinton and the wacky religious folk that attach themselves to her campaign. Obama, on the other hand, is a completely different story. He is close with these people, puts them as his advisors, works with them regularly, and lets them become part of his inner circle. That’s why.
I would expect that if Sen. McCain or Sen. Clinton were to have an intimate relationship with one of the wacky “Christians” attached to their campaign, in the way Obama has these “Christians” as part of his life, that they would be inspected.
In other words, Obama gets burnt because he’s played with fire. Comparing Wright, or Meeks or McClurkin, and their influence with the Obama campaign with the influence of Hagee or Long on Sen. McCain and Sen. Clinton’s campaigns respectively is like comparing apples to oranges.
rickroberts
Hitchens has a new article up on Slate skewering His Holiness.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187277/
Sally Patterson
You guys are all just jealous that Obama has a nicer ass than you do.
Jonathan
If we dismiss the pastor’s hate-mongering as less than a true emblem of his character, however occaisionally it may have appeared as has been claimed by the Obama campaign, we’re just as likely to forego a very close examination of a candidate’s judgement, that is, why has no one aggressively questioned the why Obama has, until distancing himelf became a political necessity, held this man in such glorious & high esteeem, so much so that he’s been his pastor for more than 20 years, his spiritual advisor & counselor, as well as his wedding & baptismal pastor. The very idea that such a closely held alliance is not a reflection of Mr. Obama’s own character seems illogical. Anyone who spends two decades worth of Sunday’s with a raging America-hater at the pulpit is doing so with his or her (& their children’s) eyes wide open. Finally, the good Reverand’s attacks are less aberrant, one might wonder, than have been suggested and more so a clear illustration of his most fundamental ideas, philosophies, & counsel. One might further ask how Obama could allow such a person to baptize his own children, let alone ask the American voter to understand why he never stood up in defiance to such hate speech then, when it mattered most, both loudly & publicly, rather than in an admittedly wonderful speech, though many years later.
Its a good thing Rosa Parks stood up & actually got off the bus…..rather than sit in her row & accept it.
Bob R
Rickroberts: Good article by Hitchens, thanks for the link. I agree with much of what Hitchens says. I have never really trusted Obama and still don’t. Nor do I like, respect or trust the Clintons. Of late I’m becoming more and more disgusted with Bill and wish he would just go away. Of course a vote for Senator McNuts is just out of the question. A vote for Nader is a waste, and I don’t like him much since his 2000 spoiler act. I really don’t know what will happen comes November. I keep hoping that neither of these two get the Democratic nod and we get a really viable candidate who can beat McNuts. By the time this Democratic bloodbath of a primary is over, I cannot see Clinton or Obama winning the national election. As some folks have already observed, I do think comes November, “we’re screwed!”
chadnnocal
I can’t believe I just read a comment from an adult that said :
“You guys are all just jealous that Obama has a nicer ass than you do.” Sally Patterson
I’m sure you think that is funny but it is actually very offensive. It diminishes us as LGBT Americans. Please conduct yourself as an adult or refrain from commenting on subjects of an adult nature.
Joe S.
Pathetic. Just listen to yourselves. You’re all off your rockers.
CT-n-SF
I have African blood running through my veins, I was raised in the Deep (Deep) South, and I have my share of stories to tell of race. But one story I cannot tell is what its like to expreience a black church and hear the thunderous sermon of a black preacher. I plan to correct that one day.
But the one thing that is surprising is to see the reaction to words spoken by black preachers and then for people to condemn Obama for those words. Have any of you gone to Obama’s website and looked at the HRC questionnaire he filled out? The only gay issue he does not support is gay marriage (and neither do I at this time in history). Obama supports all other gay rights issues…most importantly…equal rights based on civil unions (folks that’s the best we can do right now…and we have lost ground on that one!).
I started off this campaign year supporting Hillary. I can no longer do so because I agree with Obama that she is playing the Republican Party’s hand…from the bottom of the deck. Clinton’s behavior is doing more damage to the Democratic party than any black preacher could ever do.
Speaking of black preachers, please tell me the name of any black preacher or church that has ever had the power or influence to pass Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; Defense of Marriage Act; Gay Marriage Bans nationwide; or opposition to AIDS funding or equality in employment, survivor rights, immigration, etc.
All the ranting on this issue of what any black preacher thinks or says is misplaced. The critical issue is what does Obama think and say and what will he do. Frankly, I have no idea. But I certainly would not put my faith in McCain or the Republicans. I think they have proven where they stand on gay (and other) issues.
As for the writer who thinks a defeat of Obama will make “Rodney King Day” look like a day in the park. That comment is small-minded and idiotic.
Johnny Rotten
I whole-heartedly agree with CT-n-SF, right down to the “Rodney King Day†comment being “small-minded and idiotic.â€
Obama has done many positive things for the gay rights and the community that we should all be proud of.
What side are you guys on, anyway? Hillary’s basically in the sack with McCain.
Mr C
All I can say Michael Bedwell, Rick Roberts, Mary Lou Dobbs, Has really proven that Prejudice in the Gay Community is ALIVE AND WELL.
But I’m glad I’m not one who will put up with this SHIT.
POOR SNOW QUEENS WAKE UP and stop making yourselves look stupid.
Like there are no WHITE Pastors who have befriended WHITE candidates that said evil and vile things against LGBT people!
GET A FUCKING GRIP!
rickroberts
Mr C, what have I said that displays negative prejudice. Can you tell me? If Hillary’s personal spiritual mentor of 20 long years were spewing this sort of paranoid, racist tripe, I assure you that I would drop her like a hot potato if she just sat through it and displayed her tacit agreement. You will have to trust me on that one since you do not know me.
This Jeremiah Wright was faulting our country for 9/11 while the bodies were still warm in the rubble. He blamed the government for AIDS as a tool of black genocide. If he believes this – if Barack believes this – it is their duty as patriots to advocate the overthrow of the government.
You are wearing blinders. Your own apparent hate is preventing you from seeing the double standard.
What is a snow queen, by the way?
rickroberts
New Gallup Poll this morning: If McCain vs. Obama, 28% of Clinton Backers Go for McCain
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105691/McCain-vs-Obama-28-Clinton-Backers-McCain.aspx
This is what Mr Obama’s cynical association with homophobic and racist men of the cloth has accomplished.
Mr C
TT
Chris
Mr. Roberts,
Patriots???????? WHAT is Patriotism? my dear STOP looking at snippets if you will and listen to the sermon. The only thing I disagree with is the AIDS in the Black community part which was very stupid. Anything else that was said is fair game to believe, or not to believe.
LET’S BE REAL ABOUT THIS. AMERICA HAS NOT BEEN NICE TO A MANY OF COUNTRIES AS WELL AS MINORITIES. BOTTOM LINE. YOU THINK ABOUT IT WHY DID THOSE MEN FLY THOSE PLANES INTO THE WTC????? JUST BECAUSE???
I’M NOT MUSLIM NOR AM I A JEW. BUT THAT FACT THAT WE HAVE PARTNERD WITH ISREAL AGAINST THESE PEOPLE FOR YEARS HAS BROUGHT THIS ANOMOSITY FROM THEM. And it’s not a matter of who is right or wrong.
Also what you consider being a damn Patriot. Your views of America is far different from mines and if Barack was under this Man for 20 yrs and he preaches HATE as you call it. What about all of you that sat under your Mothers and Fathers as they called us NIGGERS, and other things. As far as I concerned that’s EVEN WORSE. When it’s bred in your home.
Obviously you’re not aware of the Black Experience at all. But feeling the way you do. You probably won’t and that’s fine with me. Like I said in the previous post: I’m not one who will put up with this SHIT. And I mean it.
Jerry Falwell, and all the rest of WHITE hate preachers that spew venom from across their pulpits for years that’s OK and they all endorsed REPUBLICANS and they have all been friends for years and you don’t fault them.
Remember this Rick All of you that don’t like him is saying he should leave this church.
Well let me ask you this. Would you distance or disassociate yourself from your parents for calling Blacks NIGGERS?????? I don’t think so!
What’s in your heart is in your heart and if you don’t like blacks you will pull everything in your power for excuses. Just face it being prejudice is a BITCH and by the way in reference to your Southern Bell Hillary with religion read this.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html
That chick ain’t slick. It is what it is and you are what you are. YES Once again this community will NOT advance with RACISM and PREJUDICE being a part of it!
I that’s what Gallop said. But I guarantee you this. If it’s Clinton –vs- McCain. NONE and I mean NONE of the Obama supporters will vote for her
AND THEN WHAT???????
EVERYONES LEFT GAGGING LONG LIVE McCain.
NOTHING will be passed for LGBTQ and serves us right! For not unifying…OH WELL WE can hate each other for 4 more years, or act right and get it together.
Mr C
And if it’s Hillary-vs-John come Nov forget Gallop. I can guarantee you this mostly none of the Obama supporters will vote for her.
AND THEN WHAT???????
EVERYONES LEFT GAGGING LONG LIVE McCain.
NOTHING will be passed for LGBTQ and serves us right! For not unifying…OH WELL WE can hate each other for 4 more years, or act right and get it together.
Mr C
Mr. Roberts,
Patriots???????? WHAT is Patriotism? my dear STOP looking at snippets if you will and listen to the sermon. The only thing I disagree with is the AIDS in the Black community part which was very stupid. Anything else that was said is fair game to believe, or not to believe.
LET’S BE REAL ABOUT THIS. AMERICA HAS NOT BEEN NICE TO A MANY OF COUNTRIES AS WELL AS MINORITIES. BOTTOM LINE. YOU THINK ABOUT IT WHY DID THOSE MEN FLY THOSE PLANES INTO THE WTC????? JUST BECAUSE???
I’M NOT MUSLIM NOR AM I A JEW. BUT THAT FACT THAT WE HAVE PARTNERD WITH ISREAL AGAINST THESE PEOPLE FOR YEARS HAS BROUGHT THIS ANOMOSITY FROM THEM. And it’s not a matter of who is right or wrong.
Also what you consider being a damn Patriot. Your views of America is far different from mines and if Barack was under this Man for 20 yrs and he preaches HATE as you call it. What about all of you that sat under your Mothers and Fathers as they called us NIGGERS, and other things. As far as I concerned that’s EVEN WORSE. When it’s bred in your home.
Mr C
Also what you consider being a damn Patriot. Your views of America is far different from mines and if Barack was under this Man for 20 yrs and he preaches HATE as you call it. What about all of you that sat under your Mothers and Fathers as they called us NIGGERS, and other things. As far as I concerned that’s EVEN WORSE. When it’s bred in your home.
Obviously you’re not aware of the Black Experience at all. But feeling the way you do. You probably won’t and that’s fine with me. Like I said in the previous post: I’m not one who will put up with this SHIT. And I mean it.
Jerry Falwell, and all the rest of WHITE hate preachers that spew venom from across their pulpits for years that’s OK and they all endorsed REPUBLICANS and they have all been friends for years and you don’t fault them.
Remember this Rick All of you that don’t like him is saying he should leave this church.
Well let me ask you this. Would you distance or disassociate yourself from your parents for calling Blacks NIGGERS?????? I don’t think so!
Mr C
What’s in your heart is in your heart and if you don’t like blacks you will pull everything in your power for excuses. Just face it being prejudice is a BITCH and by the way in reference to your Southern Bell Hillary with religion read this.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html
That chick ain’t slick. It is what it is and you are what you are. YES Once again this community will NOT advance with RACISM and PREJUDICE being a part of it!
Mr C
What’s in your heart is in your heart and if you don’t like blacks you will pull everything in your power for excuses. Just face it being prejudice is a BITCH
rickroberts
Mr C, I don’t think you’re capable of civil discourse. Your writing is hard for me to follow and understand. Good luck in life.
Rick 🙂
Mr C
I don’t need luck and I’m fine. Thanks! I’m just telling it the way it is and the TRUTH about some folks is just what it is.
And if Barack is going down because of Clinton supporters so is Hillary because of Obama supporters. And it will all be a BIG BUST!
PERIOD!
rickroberts
Chris, patriotism is working to overthrow the government if you believe and are preaching to your people that your government is perpetrating genocide against a race of people. That’s a pretty easy one to answer. Are you a dimwit?
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and blaming others for your problems. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and do something with your life.
Roger Racher
Obama’s Bible Study Class
James Meeks – an Illinois state senator, pastor of one of the largest churches in the state and a declared Spiritual Adviser for Obama – came under fire for comments rebroadcast last week calling white American mayors “slave masters” and referring to black preachers and politicians who “protect” the “white man” as “house n-ggers.”
“We don’t have slave masters, we got mayors,” Meeks said in an August 2006 sermon broadcast on a Chicago community television channel.
Aside from his senatorial duties, Meeks is an Illinois Superdelegate pledged to Obama and also presides over Salem Baptist Church, described as the largest church in Illinois.
In 2006, Meeks informed his church during a sermon he may run for Illinois governor. He was recorded telling the mostly black congregation any “white Christian” who doesn’t vote for him is a “racist.” Speaking from his pulpit Meeks said, “if I don’t have every white Christian vote in the state of Illinois, I will stand on top of the Sears Tower and call every one of y’all racist.”
Meeks is also notorious for his strong anti-homosexual platform, although Obama is campaigning for the “gay” vote. Meeks has routinely voted against pro-homosexual legislation and has been quoted during sermons referring to same-sex attraction “an evil sickness.”
Obama told the Sun-Times that he is an attendee of Meeks’ Salem Baptist Church for Wednesday night Bible Study.
According to Illinois State Board of Elections records, Rezko’s businesses, Rezmar Corp. and Rezko Concession, contributed to Meeks’ campaign funds.
A recent Meeks endorsement is touted on Obama’s campaign website.
Here is how James Meeks and his relationship with Obama were described in a 2004 Men’s News Daily report during Obama’s 2004 US Senate campaign:
Obama’s closest religious advisers — Fr. (Michael) Pfleger, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, and Illinois State Sen. James Meeks, who moonlights as the pastor of Chicago’s Salem Baptist Church – may have quotes from Scripture always handy, but are theologically closer to Karl Marx and black nationalism, than to Christianity.
Rob Moore
This has to stop. I know a number of black Americans who also vote. Some of them will still vote in November even if Obama loses the nomination, but a large number will simply stay home and pout. It becomes tiresome to listen to folks like Wright and Meeks who maintain their positions by pushing black people to believe in the hopelessness of their victimhood. There are millions of black Americans who don’t buy into it completely and do something in their own lives such as finish school, such as not getting pregnant before they are old enough to vote, such as taking responsibility for their choices, such as not becoming drug addicts or alcoholics. Unfortunately, there are millions of other black Americans who swallow the bait of victimhood hook, line, and sinker because it takes away the responsibility.
Barrack Obama is no more black than I am. He might have black skin, but he wasn’t raised to think of himself as a victim by his white mother. He didn’t become a professor in a prestigious law school by taking the route of victimhood, and he certainly didn’t become a successful politician by walking on heads bowed to victimhood. So why does he attract these jerks? I think the answer does lie in racism. These preachers and the sheep who follow them cannot see beyond the color of his skin. Many whites are having that same problem and every time they hear one of these bloody preachers, it reenforces their fears and superstitions.
In January, when we see the inaugaration of President McCain, I want all of you who attacked Obama and Clinton with such spite and venom to remember what you did. You did the work of Karl Rove. I will curse you as I cursed those who reelected Bush in 2004.