Is Barack Obama's decades-long silent consent of his pastor Jeremiah Wright's racist and incendiary words
indicative of the larger problem of racism in our society, as he recently contended? Is it solely a race issue?
Or is it tacit acknowledgement that a United States Presidential candidate must express deep religious convictions in order to carry certain segments of our population who are only capable of associating virtue, morality and values with strong religious faith?
Is an agnostic morality based solely upon a deep, rational evaluation of right and wrong
somehow less valid than a morality based upon fear of reprisal from a higher power? If so, why?
To hold Mr. Obama responsible for the words of another would be wrong, despite his numerous past public support for Pastor Wright as his spiritual advisor. However, isn't it equally wrong for Obama to dismiss this entire issue so quickly as being an allegory for the greater problem in our society, thereby freeing him as an individual from personal responsibility for his choices?
That he is a leading presidential contender within the lifetimes of black Americans who witnessed first-hand our history of lynching and segregation should be an inspiration to all who are oppressed.
However, denouncing Pastor Wright's offensive remarks only after sufficient public outcry is hardly noble. That the Pastor of a Christian Church could speak to applause with such an openly anti-Christian message has been overlooked by many, and with good reason.
Christianity has historically favored its own self interests over Jesus's basic tenets of peacefulness and nonviolent behavior, but this is hardly unique to the Christian religions. Religious faith is itself a contradiction, a professed absolute certainty of what is truly unknowable.
Religions, like governments, are controlled by people, and all people are deeply flawed by default.
The brevity of the human life span serves us poorly in this regard, excluding the perspectives of time in favor of historical interpretations by the ruling powers at our times of birth.
We find it desirable, even necessary, to substitute complacency and peace of mind for the world of uncertainty and misery around us. Hope is the currency of humanity, and great gains can be made by those providing it.
