Rev. Wright prophetic?

What’s prophetic and what isn’t in a preacher is nicely covered in this comment on “The role of the American pastor,” posted at The Political Inquirer, in which the writer says Rev. Wright’s comments were “prophetic.”  Not so, says the commenter, blogger at TotalTransformationTest.  Wright’s

primary audience is not the American public, but his predominantly black congregation. Don’t forget that prophets usually are disliked by their own people because they condemn their actions.

What part of blaming the white man for everything from inventing AIDS to commit genocide on black folks to the idea of the government peddling drugs in black communities makes the men and women in his congregation uncomfortable with their own moral failures? Quite frankly, it is exactly the opposite.

It is as if an Old Testament prophet had told the Hebrews to blame the evil in their own hearts on the surrounding nations and not on their own individual inability to remain loyal to God. Rev. Wright certainly doesn’t deserve the application of the term “prophetic” to anything he does. Unless the only requirement for such an appellation is simple demagoguery.

Quite a good point.  When you massage audience sensibilities, as I say below, you are not quite prophetic.

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Pfleger, Wright tell people what they want to hear

It’s been a banner few months for preaching, something that’s not much discussed by daily newspapers but regularly performed for and imposed on worshipers.

What a teaching moment for homiletics professors it has been.  The word is academic for preaching and close to “homily,” which is a Scripture-based sermon of generally shorter length.

This is as opposed to stem-winders for which Fr. Michael Pfleger of Chicago’s St. Sabina — now on leave — has become more famous than ever, not to mention his big brother in the ministry, Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United.  These are neither short nor Scripture-based, except in sound-bite snippets tossed off in entertaining fashion.

But that’s a fine point.  The essence of Pfleger’s and Wright’s better known preaching has been less Scripture-slicing-and-dicing and more bringing of coals to Newcastle.  Preaching against white racism to black people?  Really?  Bold fellows!

The preacher is supposed to do more than massage preconceptions.  When these two reverend gentlemen preach against marital infidelity or cheating in business transactions or telling lies, do their people rise up in joy and holy pandemonium?

Not hardly, to use a popular double negative.  Do they ever preach this way?  Probably not.  Few do.  Do they preach against black racism, except as a throwaway line, saving fervor for condemning whites?  Probably not.

Anyhow, the stuff we read about that makes the news is basically preaching to provide a feel-good experience for people who now and again entertain bitterness in their Christian hearts. 

For a few short hours on Sunday, they can hear their bitterness confirmed by the messenger from God.  It’s a sort of purgative, from which they emerge more convinced than ever that white folks just don’t get it.

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By their friends you get a pretty good idea

Steve Rhodes in the matter of chickens coming home to roost in Big O’s back yard:

Barack Obama officially disowned Trinity Church on Saturday but remains associated with a far more sinister organization with a long record of divisive misdeeds and criminal behavior that is likely to become an issue in the general election: The Cook County Democratic Party.

Among other things, it’s the party of winning one for the Kennedy fellow in 1960.

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It’s Pfleger time — again

Father Pfleger couldn’t give it up, apparently, mocking the Clintons (and McCain) again last Sunday from his own pulpit at St. Sabina’s:

“Hillary and McCain would wish they had a preacher with the integrity of Jeremiah Wright. … They got some old weak preacher…some old Joel Osteen cotton candy preacher.”

The reference is to the preacher the Clintons heard on March 2 in Houston at Rev. Osteen’s Lakewood Church.

Now: Did he assure Cardinal George about no more political talk before or after last Sunday?  Or is he merely comparing preachers?

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Winning in Iraq? If so, what does Obama say?

Deaths plunge, says Chi Trib on page 12:

BAGHDAD – U.S. military deaths plunged in May to the lowest monthly level in more than four years and civilian casualties were down sharply, too, as Iraqi forces assumed the lead in offensives in three cities and a truce with Shiite extremists took hold.

Look closely, thin right-hand column in hard copy, 2/3 of page length.  Then:

But many Iraqis as well as U.S. officials and private security analysts are uncertain whether the current lull signals a long-term trend or is simply a breathing spell like so many others before.

U.S. commanders also warn the relative peace is fragile because no lasting political agreements have been reached among the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

It’s an AP story whose hard-copy head, “U.S. troop deaths in Iraq at 4–year low: Civilian fatalaties also down dramatically,” promised a good deal; the on-line head better fits the story — “Deaths in Iraq plunge, but will it last?”

A skeptic backs this up:

“The security situation is much better than in the past three or four months, and I am making more money now,” said Falih Radhi, who runs a food store in eastern Baghdad. “Despite this, I have a feeling that this positive situation won’t last long and that violence may come back again.”

Ah yes, analysis by grocer.

Then details to back up optimism, including impending U.S. troop cuts.  Then non-grocer experts are called on, ranging from skeptical to cautious.  And there we have it.

Meanwhile, Wash Post editorializes on “The Iraqi Upturn,” telling us, “Don’t look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.”

Details are given to support analysts’ “astonishment” at Iraqi government and military success and Al Qaeda failure. 

So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have “never been closer to defeat than they are now.”

The U.S. surge apparently paved the way for Iraqi coming into their own.  “Too early to celebrate,” says the Post, but what we see at this point

ought to mandate an already-overdue rethinking by the “this-war-is-lost” caucus in Washington, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Pullouts are possible but not as surrender, and anti-warriors might have to change their tune.  For instance,  

When Mr. Obama floated his strategy for Iraq last year, the United States appeared doomed to defeat. Now he needs a plan for success.

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Another friend of Father Pfleger

If you want the goods on Father Pfleger, look here, at Discover the Networks, where among other things you will find this near-endorsement of Jihadism which might come as news to many readers:

On another occasion, Pfleger invited Kareem Irfan, former Chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, to speak at Saint Sabina on the fourth anniversary of 9/11. A member of the Islamic Society of North America, Irfan has characterized Islamic beheadings of non-Muslims not as acts of evil, but rather as manifestations of “a primordial sense of retaliation and revenge.”

Endorsement is not too strong a word.  Pfleger’s guests are not people with whom he disagrees.

Unless you think he sharply distinguishes between this, that, and the other:

Rev. Michael Pfleger invited Kareem Irfan, former chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, to speak to his congregation about prejudice against Muslims and Arabs in the wake of Sept. 11.

“In the name of patriotism and the Patriot Act, there was a great rising of prejudice and bigotry against Muslims and Arabs,” Pfleger said. “We cannot allow that under the guise of patriotism.”

Irfan spoke about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the denial of legal representation for those being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We’ve seen a shameful erosion of civil rights and liberties,” he said, referring to the Patriot Act’s power to allow law enforcement to use such measures as secret arrests and unrestricted wiretaps to investigate people since Sept. 11. “There’s been a distressing violation of the privacy of organizations and individuals.”

This is how it’s done, of course.  You make all-purpose bigotry the theme of your 9/11 observance.

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Spiritual counselor wanted

A Long Island monsignor offers himself as Big O.’s pastor, to replace those being thrown under the bus:

Monsignor Jim Lisante of Rockville Centre, LI, praised GOP nominee Sen. John McCain and said, “A lot more of us would be comfortable with [Obama’s] judgment skills if he hadn’t sat for 20 years through the words offered by his preacher of division, bigotry . . . without a word of rejection from Sen. Obama – that is, until the media brought it up. And now he doesn’t want any part of the guy. I’m willing to be his pastor.”

A generous offer, I’d say.

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On the run from us

Can this be true?  Is Harry Reid wrong?

Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaeda, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

That’s WaPo today, citing “major gains . . . an increasingly successful campaign.” 

Al Q has lost its mojo in the Islamic world, two years after The CIA reported “a propaganda and marketing bonanza [in Iraq] for al-Qaeda, generating cash donations and legions of volunteers.”

Thing is, things happen.  Let’s hear it for Bush policies — from the honest people.

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Father Pfleger on Hillary as racist

Hillary looked like a sure thing for president, but

“. . . then out of nowhere came, hey, I’m Barack Obama. And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.’”

That’s Chicago’s own Father Pfleger Sunday in O’s Trinity Church on 95th Street, citing Hillary Clinton as a case of “white entitlement and supremacy” which he felt bound to “expose.”

Addressing Rev. Otis Moss, the Trinity pastor and successor to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he said from the pulpit:

“Reverend Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on. I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate.’

He

then mimicked Clinton crying as the audience erupted into applause and gave [him] a standing ovation.  . . . .  “She wasn’t the only one crying [he added]. There was a whole lot of white people cryin’.”  . . . .  Apparently realizing his remarks might attract media attention, Pfleger stated, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to get you into any more trouble.”

Moss thanked God for Pfleger’s comments.

Pfleger also pitched for reparations, demanding that whites give up their money to make up for slavery:

“Honestly now, to address the one who says, ‘Don’t hold me responsible for what my ancestors did.’ But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did … and unless you are ready to give up the benefits, throw away your 401 fund, throw away your trust fund, throw away all the monies you put away into the company you walked into because your daddy and grand daddy. …”

Shouting, Pfleger continued, “Unless you are willing to give up the benefits then you must be responsible for what was done in your generation, because you are the beneficiaries of this insurance policy.”

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