One-degree of separation: Klein: Christians copy Christ killers, says Obama pastor's magazine

"White Christians are 'make pretend' believers while conservative Christians emulate those who killed Jesus," according to articles in Trumpet Magazine, which "paints traditional Christianity as false and racist," Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for World Net Daily, wrote May 20, 2008. The "controversial magazine" is run by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)'s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Stanley Kurtz, a National Review Online contributor, concluded after reviewing two years of Rev. Wright's Trumpet Magazine that the Trinity United Church of Christ pastor practices a black liberation theology brand of Christianity that "sees his own form of Christianity as profoundly different from Christianity as typically practiced by most American whites and blacks."

"The findings," Klein wrote, "raise new questions about the Christian views of Sen. Barack Obama, a longtime Trinity member who graced the cover of Wright's Trumpet magazine several times and last year granted an exclusive, lengthy interview to the publication," particularly since Sen. Obama "has spoken frequently of his Christian faith in his campaign for the White House."

"Echoing Trumpet's depiction of Jesus as 'African'," Klein wrote, Sen. Obama's "church website stresses in its mission section, Trinity United Church of Christ was 'called by God' to be a congregation that is 'not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that does not apologize for its African roots!'"

Although Sen. Obama has "spoken generally in multiple interviews about his Christianity [he] has not broached the topic of black liberation theology," Klein wrote.

Additionally, Sen. Obama's "campaign did not return a WND call and e-mail seeking comment on whether the politician subscribes to black liberation theology," Klein wrote.

"But Kurtz found a 2006 speech Obama delivered at a conference in which the presidential candidate spoke of how he came to his faith due to the political and black-focus of his church," Klein wrote:

"But as the months passed in Chicago, I found myself drawn to the church," said Obama.

"For one thing, I believed and still believe in the power of African-American religious tradition to spur social change. . . . the black church understands in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and cloth the naked and challenge the powers and principalities. . . . I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; it is an active, palpable agent in the world. It is a source of hope. . . ."

"It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and affirm my Christian faith."

Read the rest of Klein's article here.

Also see

Stanley Kurtz, Left in Church. Deep inside the Wright Trumpet, National Review Online, May 20, 2008.

NR: The God of Black Power, RezkoWatch, May 10, 2008, about Kurtz's article. Includes numerous links.