Barack Obama - Articles - Zimbio

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

Tue, 21 May 2008 08:15:00 GMT

posted by bmerry
"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.

United Nations Investigating Racism in the Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton U.S. Democratic Presidential Nomination Race:

Mon, 20 May 2008 02:57:58 GMT

posted by MarcChamot
United Nations Investigating Racism in the Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton U.S. Democratic Presidential Nomination Race: Does the United Nations want to Influence American Elections in Obamas' Favor?
By Marc Chamot

Well? What’s happening here? We’ve got more serious world problems in humanity violations for the U.N. to investigate than our own presidential elections. Don’t we?

We’ve got far serious human rights violations in Darfur, North Korea and China over Tibet and Myanmar formerly Burma oppressing its peoples, It’s absolutely ludicrous!

I’m just curious to ask what is the U.N. looking into? It’s obvious that the United Nations want to influence our American elections and leftist anti-American Barack Obama is their man!

Talking about racism?

Are they looking into Barack Obama’s domination of over 90 percent African American voters who are voting for him, or are they looking into “white” voters, mainly rural, Reagan Democrats and the blue-collar voters voting for Hillary Clinton and possibly may vote for John McCain instead of Barack Obama?

Talking about race, take a real long look in the mirror folks? Looks whose calling the kettle black? Yeah, it’s racism all right.

When Barack Obama threw his hat into the presidential ring, he always knew that it would become a racial issue; he made it a racial issue in his campaigns. He surrounded himself with hate America and racists like Bill Ayers, racist Jeremiah Wright, Black Panthers and racist and anti-Jew Louis Farrakhan. So why isn’t his campaign over racial issues?

Now Barack Obama dismisses Fox News of distorting the real truths about his agendas as complete lies and says that criticizing his wife Michelle Obama is out of bounds. In reality his wife made anti-American an issue to voters and the media.

Did Barack Obama invite the U.N. to look into this racial issue, I’m just wondering?

Both Hillary and Barack are guilty of it, but what is the UN going to do about it? Are they just going to embarrass America more in front of the whole world?

Reuters: Dem Presidential Campaign Leads U.N. to Investigate Racism in U.S.

By Noel Sheppard May 17, 2008 - 17:31 ET
Imagine for a moment the race card had been used during the Republican presidential nomination process, and the United Nations was sending an envoy to investigate racism in America. Do you think the media would report it?

Probably 24 hours a day, seven days a week until every person in the country had heard about it, right?

Well, the U.N. announced on Friday that it is sending its "Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" to visit our country from May 19 until June 6.

Although Reuters reported this at 2:48 PM EDT Friday, and strongly suggested the investigation is due to racism in the Democrat presidential campaign, LexisNexis and Google searches identified no other American news outlet covering this story. Not one!
Here was the official U.N. announcement:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓

GENEVA-- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mr. Doudou Diène, will undertake a country visit to the United States of America from 19 May to 6 June 2008 at the invitation of the U.S. Government.

The Special Rapporteur will visit the cities of Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico to gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

He is scheduled to hold meetings with representatives of the Government, both at national and local levels, and with members of the legislative and judiciary branches. Discussions will also be held with non-governmental organizations, community members, representatives of political parties, academics and other organizations and individuals working in the field of racism and discrimination.The Special Rapporteur will submit a final report on the visit for consideration at a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council in 2009.

Here's how Reuters saw it (emphasis added):
A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. [...]

Race has become a central issue in the U.S. election cycle because Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the battle for the Democratic nomination battle, stands to become the country's first African American president.

His campaign has increased turnout among black voters but has also turned off some white voters in a country with a history of slavery and racial segregation.

Seems newsworthy, wouldn't you agree? Yet, besides Reuters, from what I can tell, not one American press outlet reported this annoucement.

Would media have boycotted this if a black candidate had run for the Republican nomination, and race had been so prominent in the campaign?

Yes, that was a rhetorical question.
*****Update: Drudge linked to the Reuters article at 11:11 AM EDT on Friday. I don't know how it did that, as Reuters claims the piece was published 3 1/2 hours later, but there it is.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/05/17/reuters-dem-presidential-campaign-leads-u-n-investigate-racism-u-s

Can Obama use his diverse background to build a better world?

Sun, 19 May 2008 04:53:04 GMT

posted by moinansari

Can Mr. Obama use his diverse background to build a better world?

Mr. Obama will be the Democratic Party’s first bi-racial or black candidate who has had a multireligious background. Barack Obama: USA 1st multiethnic multireligious president?

Many have tried to disparage Barack Obama with various disparaging remarks. It is really a great testament to America and the American people that despite all the negative publicity by the Neocons, he is the Democratic nominee. While he faces an uphill battle in racist states like West Virginia, Americans of all persuasions have voted for Mr. Obama rather then a tried and tested politician who saw almost a decade of peace and prosperity in America.

However, Americans are overwhelmingly voting for a man who is not like any other politician in America. Mr. Obama has a multiethnic background-half black and half white. He was born in Hawaii, and raised in Indonesia and the US. His mother worked for US AID in Pakistan and knew Urdu.

(bottom row, from left: half-sister Auma, her mother Kezia Obama, Obama’s step-grandmother Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama and unknown; top row, from left: unknown, Barack Obama, half-brother Abongo (Roy) Obama, and three unknowns.)

Whether Mr. Obama is a Muslim or not is a bone of contention for many. Many tried to over emphasize his middle name “Husain”. Others added “Muhammad” as part of his name. Some even claimed that he is hiding his Muslim background. Some fundamentalist Americans of the Christian right disingenuously tried to portrayhim as a “hidden Muslim”. On the other hand many fundamentalist Muslims consider him a heretic. Most Americans have rejected the fundamentalist Christian charge by overwhelmingly voting for him, and most Muslims have not supported him just because of his background and most have rejected the heretic charge. Most Muslims will vote or support him based on his record and his actions. His vote against the war in Iraq is a great plus for all Americans and for Muslims also.

To overcome the stigma and the charges, Mr. Obama may be over cautious, and try to prove himself as anti-Muslim to keep his detractors at bay. His earlier statements can be categorized in this compartment. On the other hand his multi-ethnic background may assist him in understanding the complex issues of the world.

The worlds reaction is mixed. In Africa and many parts of the world he is a super hero. Middle Easterners and South Asian are hungry for an American president with a heart, and are hoping against hope that Mr. Obama may be that person. However most Muslim Americans are very cautious about him. Many have taken a wait and see attitude on Mr. Obama, waiting for his words and actions that define him.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama has made some naive and agressive statements about Pakistan. However recently he has shown more maturity and sagacity in discussing Pakistan.

Rupee News is not endorsing his candidacy at this time, but we are seriously considering him on this matter.

The Chicago Sun-Times (Sept 2007) published a story about Barak Obama’s family, with this family photo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnQ50r_3eU

“Barack Obama stands behind Kezia (stepmother) in a Kenyan family shot. Included in the photo is brother Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama who is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must ‘liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture’,” the Gateway Pundit wrote.

The Reality Bytes and Pieces blog has moreon Abongo “Roy” Obama, as does the Chicago Sun-Times here.

As Barack Obama’s candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate’s integrity.Obama asserted in December, “I’ve always been a Christian,” and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. “The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country [Kenya]. But I’ve never practiced Islam.”

In February, he claimed, “I have never been a Muslim…. other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion.”

“Always” and “never” leave little room for equivocation. But many biographical facts, culled mainly from the American press, suggest that, when growing up, the Democratic candidate for president both saw himself and was seen as a Muslim.

• Obama’s Kenyan birth father: In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

• Obama’s Indonesian family: His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also a Muslim. In fact, as Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng explained to Jodi Kantor of The New York Times: “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.” An Indonesian publication, The Banjarmasin Post, reports a former classmate, Rony Amir, recalling that “All the relatives of Barry’s father were very devout Muslims.”

• Obama’s Catholic school in Jakarta: Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports that “documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim” while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. Kim Barker of The Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was “listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school.”

• The public school: Paul Watson of The Los Angeles Times learned from Indonesians familiar with Obama when he lived in Jakarta that he “was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended.” Haroon Siddiqui of The Toronto Star visited the Jakarta public school Obama attended and found that “Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim.” Although Siddiqui cautions that “With the school records missing, eaten by bugs, one has to rely on people’s shifting memories,” he cites only one retired teacher, Tine Hahiyari, retracting her earlier certainty about Obama’s being registered as a Muslim.

• Barack Obama’s public school in Jakarta, Koran class: In his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, Obama relates how he got into trouble for making faces during Koran studies. Indeed, Obama still retains knowledge from that class: Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times reports that Obama “recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them [to Kristof] with a first-rate accent.”

• Mosque attendance: Obama’s half-sister recalled that the family attended the mosque “for big communal events.” Watson learned from childhood friends that “Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque.” Barker found that “Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers.” One Indonesia friend, Zulfin Adi, states that Obama “was Muslim. He went to the mosque. I remember him wearing a sarong” (a garment associated with Muslims).

• Piety: Obama himself says that while living in Indonesia, a Muslim country, he “didn’t practice [Islam].” Indonesians differ in their memories of him. One, Rony Amir, describes Obama as “previously quite religious in Islam.”

OBAMA’S HAVING been born and raised a Muslim and having left the faith to become a Christian make him neither more nor less qualified to become president of the United States. But if he was born and raised a Muslim and is now hiding that fact, this points to a major deceit, a fundamental misrepresentation about himself that has profound implications about his character and his suitability as president.

The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and is the Taube/Diller distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. Dr. Daniel Pipes

Politics

Fri, 17 May 2008 17:25:00 GMT

posted by soflynmythirties

“My Journey with Barack Obama”

“You know, they said this day would never come,” Barack Obama stated in his speech when he won Iowa earlier this month. This morning, the Senator from Chicago has won South Carolina by 55% of the vote--BLACK. I have dedicated this year to learning more about this man, that Caroline Kennedy-the Kennedy’s have endorsed this morning. I now interpret that opening quote as The Day Has Finally Come!

I went out and bought the first book written by Sen. Obama, Dreams From My Father, began reading it while traveling the past two weeks, and I’m literally smitten by the young democrat who is changing the face of my generation. As I read about his trials of learning his own fate, identity, and place in the world, I see myself doing the same thing.

I believe that The United States is ready for a Black President. I have to recant on my earlier statements in past entries that he could be hurt if he took office (which still haunts me). I believe that Black people would be his shield just as they were for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. –The shield that I’m referring to is the support that is swarming the country and the budding fact that we actually believe in his ideals, and the need for change in the White House. In addition, he is waking up a new generation of leaders to take a stand.

I can’t put his book down; I can't stop thinking about his intelligence, his brilliance, his tenacity, and realness. He is definitely the truth. I can’t say how he compares to John F. Kennedy because I was born in 1976... However, I do believe that he is the first person that I have watched bring an entire country together in the last four presidencies that include Regan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush. Hope has been a big word in his campaign speeches, and I believe that is appropriate. If we are not to believe that things can change then what are we really doing for our own country and livelihood as a people?

I know experience matters as a leader of the masses. Sen. Barack Obama does have that experience he has lived life, been up and down. He has climbed just as many mountains as the next man. If elected the Senator states that he will be, “...a President who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face; who will listen to you and learn from you even when we disagree; who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know.”

I will end this brief excerpt this morning with a quote from Ralph Bunch, “I have a bias against war, a bias for peace. I have a bias which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble.” Senator Barack Obama is the first man that I can say in my history who has created a revolution, a bias for peace, a bias against war, and believes that Human Relations is ever insoluble. Go. Obama. Go!

Holla.Black

RezkoWatch FactChecker: Klein: Obama, Farrakhan grace cover of Wright's magazine

Tue, 14 May 2008 15:33:00 GMT

posted by bmerry
Several times, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)'s face has graced the cover the Trumpet, an "anti-American magazine" run by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for World Net Daily, wrote May 14, 2008. On one cover, Sen. Obama appears "alongside Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan."

Issues of Wright's Trumpet magazine reportedly have suggested America was guilty of genocide in Africa, decried the Fourth of July as the "national holiday of the dominant culture," referred to America as a "Diaspora" for blacks, repudiated American patriotism, and celebrated suggestions the Bush administration knew about the 9-11 attacks before they were carried out.

"It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. ...Obama himself graced the cover...There can be no mistaking it. What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it? Everything. Always," writes Stanley Kurtz in a lengthy expose of Wright's magazine at The Weekly Standard.

Bizzyblog, a blog focusing on the business world, found three cover images of TRUMPET MAGAZINE THAT FEATURE Obama. One featured Obama WITH HIS HAND AROUND WRIGHT'S SHOULDERS. Another was a montage of faces, including Obama, Wright, Farrakhan, Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and other black notables, such as Rosa Parks and even O.J. Simpson attorney Johnny Cochran.

"Notice who's missing? Martin Luther King, Jr," posted the Little Green Footballs blog.

Wright founded Trumpet magazine and serves as the publication's CEO with his daughter, Jeri, in the position of publisher/editor-in-chief. Trumpet went national in 2006 and reportedly has an audience larger than 100,000.

"Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere--in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves," writes Kurtz, who is also a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Kurtz went through one-years worth of Trumpet issues and said he found in the 2006 archives that controversial views expressed by Wright in sound-bytes from his sermons were reinforced in detail throughout the magazine.

Many of Wright's defenders had claimed some of the pastor's anti-American, anti-Israel, black supremacist statements were taken out of context.

Obama himself previously numerous times stated he was not aware of some of Wright's ideology when he attended the Trinity United Church of Christ for nearly twenty years. Wright served as Obama's spiritual adviser.

"Obama must have long been aware of his pastor's political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year's worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise," writes Kurtz.

Kurtz points to Obama's expressed outrage after last month's National Press Club address when Wright defended Farrakhan and praised him as "one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century ... that's what I think about him."

Aside from gracing one cover of Wright's magazine alongside Obama, Farrakhan's face was also on the cover of a special November/December 2007 double issue announcing Wright's Empowerment Award which had been given that year to the Nation of Islam head. The magazine also praised Farrakhan as a 20th- and 21st-century "giant."

Kurtz writes Trumpet preaches a black liberation theology, typically refering to American blacks as "Africans living in the Western Diaspora." The magazine opposes black "assimilation." Articles have expressed displeasure with Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and Colin Powell.

The magazine in which Obama was repeatedly featured abhors American patriotism.

"Columbus Day is a day of rage for Wright. Calling Columbus a racist slave trader, Wright excoriates the holiday as 'a national act of amnesia and denial,' part of the 'sick and myopic arrogance called Western History,'" notes Kurtz.

Trumpet featured an article by Wright that claimed Africans really discovered America, citing as evidence a book that has been largely discredited.

The July, 2006 issue of Trumpet slams the Fourth of July as "the national holiday of the dominant culture."

Kurtz notes that issue featured an article by a Rev. Reginald Williams Jr. that called July 4th "nothing more than a day off work and a time for some good barbeque to the millions of African Americans who suffer and have suffered under the policies of this government and this country."

One issue of Trumpet defended former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's claim the Bush administration was aware of the 9/11 plot before it was perpetuated.

A column in the magazine, titled, "The Beloved Cynthia McKinney" complains McKinney was "tarred and feathered in the press" for raising questions about possible government foreknowledge of 9/11, Kurtz found.

That column stated the "crimes of 9/11," are "not only unsolved, but covered up by both Democrats and Republicans."

A central theme of Trumpet seems to be that the U.S. is a racist, criminal country.

"Do you see God as a God who approves of Americans taking other people's countries? Taking other people's women? Raping teenage girls and calling it love (as in Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings)?" rages one article discovered by Kurtz.

Another blames Africa's problems on the U.S. and the West, claiming they are withholding aid. Screams one piece: "Some analysts would go so far as to even call what [the United States, the G-8, and multinational corporations] are doing [in Africa] genocide!"

The Obama campaign did not immediately return a WND request for comment about whether Obama read any issues of Trumpet or was aware his face was featured on several of the magazine's covers, including once with Farrakhan.

Kurtz is convinced Obama realized Wright's ideology long ago.

"It is simply inconceivable that in 20 years' time someone as sharp as Obama did not grasp the intensely political themes repeated in so much of what Wright says and does," wrote Kurtz.

Rev. Louis Farrakhan on Sen. Barack Obama, March 4, 2008

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