As the North Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary nears, the frontrunner for the party’s nomination continues to draw fire for his former religious advisor’s controversial views.

The NC GOP began running an ad Monday — one week before the state’s Democratic nominating contest — which denounces Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as “just too extreme for North Carolina,” because his pastor of two decades, Jeremiah Wright, holds beliefs that are on the far fringes of public opinion, including the theory that AIDS was born out of a plot by the U.S. government to kill minorities.

Implicit in the ad’s message is the idea that Obama shares at least some of Wright’s radical views because “For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew, listing to his pastor,” the ad says.

During a news conference before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., last week, Wright implied he agreed with that claim, saying Obama has only distanced himself from the pastor’s views for the sake of political expediency.

“If Sen. Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability,” Wright said.

Yet, nothing in Obama’s personal history suggests anything but the kind of respect and pride for America with which any flag-waiving Republican could identify. In his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the Illinois senator proclaimed, “I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.” Similar sentiments can be found within either of Obama’s books and the texts of his many speeches.

Notwithstanding the wealth of evidence that Obama is a patriot, many people who have and/or continue to support him wonder: how could he stomach Wright’s anti-American diatribes for most of his adult life unless he agreed with them. Moreover, how could the senator attend a Christian church — Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago — where views so contrary to the teachings of Jesus are advocated? After all, Wright implored God to bring damnation upon this country for what he alleged to be its sins, while Jesus pleaded on behalf of his killers “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Alternatively, however, one could ask how Obama could possibly leave a church and a pastor who transformed him from religious neutrality to faithful member of a Protestant denomination.

Obama was drawn to Wright’s black liberation theology, a form of teaching which highlights Biblical parallels to the historical African-American experience. Obama also admired Wright’s social outreach efforts to better the lives of inner-city blacks.

Although the senator may have disagreed with many of Wright’s assertions of an America steeped in racism that had the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks coming to it, Obama very likely opted to stay in the polarizing preacher’s church because he felt that Wright had a wealth of redeemable qualities that outweighed his faults. This is similar to the way many Catholics continued to attend churches that failed to forcefully deal with the pedophilia problem among its priests. Even in the midst of the crisis, many Catholics felt their churches were still, on balance, forces of good in their communities. If Catholics were so dedicated to their churches that they would continue to attend them in spite of the priest scandal, how could anyone question why Obama would turn a deaf ear to mere inflammatory words?

When the media unearthed video of Wright’s post-9/11 rants against his own country, the outrage over his remarks prompted Obama to deliver a stirring speech about race in America. Perhaps he should have given a separate address about faith, religion and culture in the U.S. He should have spoken about the profound role churches play in many of our lives, and how the bonds formed there are difficult to sever for any reason.

Those who ask why Obama didn’t leave Trinity United are asking a question to which the answer is evident. Absent his association with Wright, Obama would not be the man he is today — the same man Americans embraced so readily before his pastor’s beliefs became public.



Raymond Billy is assistant editor of the Jacksonville Daily Progress. He may be reached at rbilly@jacksonvilleprogress.com