March 21, 2008
by Robert W. Barker
US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's preacher Reverend J. Wright came out with his dire words of pain directed at the USA and it sounded so low and mean that the media picked it up like it was news and had never happened previously.
We rail against him for his words of displeasure with the racist and bigoted ways of the USA, yet his allegorical call for Americas demise is not unique among preachers; nor is it new.
Barack Obama has been trying to disassociate himself from the stinging commentary of his minister Rev. Wright, a man that has now retired, and the political impact of the Reverend's words has been devastating to his campaign and image. Yet why is it that the evangelic preachers and far right ministers can damn America to Hell and are ignored, in fact they are rewarded here in the land of mixed dichotomies.
Pat Robertson has claimed we deserved the 9\11 catastrophe for our stand on gay unions, and he was never called un-American. When Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr. This was reported by his son the reformed minister Frank Schaeffer in an article for Huffington web site.
Rev John Hagee said: "God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin."
Pat Robertson proclaimed that "carping criticism" of President Bush "amounts to treason."
Death from terror in America is our fault, death from American troops is their fault and sanctified.
Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the latter 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the vain of later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and were anti-American when they said God withdrew his blessing from the USA on 9/11, because America tolerated gays.
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve." Jerry Falwell
This is just a small portion of the America hate the far right ministers spew every Sunday in America yet they are praised and promoted as truth seekers but when an African American minister does that same thing he is tagged a traitor and damages his followers reputation.
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There exist a double standard in the USA and it is obvious to all that can remain objective, and it is not for the left, it is an eschewed privilege for the right only. The far right can claim America is corrupt and doomed but if a left leaning minister does that he or she is a traitor. How is it that we have come so far from our roots as yeoman democratic lovers of freedom and purveyors of truth? The double standards are in your face, they are not hidden or subtle they are adamant and belligerent yet we never seem to notice this irony of great proportions.
Today we are witness to a merge of tolerating opposites brought together to kill Obama's forward progress, it is between the right wing fundamentalists who hate Obama, and the progressive Clinton's who are dealing the race card through their own smear tactics. While I admire Hillary she has sunk to the depts of Rovian politics to gain a lead, and for that she should be ashamed.
Both the far right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clinton's are using the "scandal"of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency.
Are we so blind that we cannot see this double standard in our midst?
Sad it is to see the two sides ganging up on the leading candidate to have a chance, and as a Democrat I feel the pain of division is killing us for the future.
Let us display the truth, and the two differing standards for the candidates and the double standard of the media and our own innate blindness all laid bare for the world to see.
Mr. McCain the Republican candidate has embraced these same controversial preachers and no one claimed he was tainted by it, but our media sucks up to the double standard and they become nothing more than parrots for the right.
Yes, we have a double standard in the USA today and it is disheartening and anti egalitarian, worst of all it plays into the hands of the great manipulators of our world.
Perhaps someday we will awaken to the truth and it is secular, or perhaps we will swallow the poison pill of apathy and become the robot citizens they desire.
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Robert W. Barker [send him email] is a writer, professional photographer and travel aficionado from Eureka Ca. His work is carried on many web sites around the globe, a first novel recently copyrighted in the library of Congress, is soon to be published.
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