Race, religion, and hypocrisy

In a strange, but somewhat expected turn of events, Sen. Obama is set to address has addressed the nation regarding race relations tonight. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect in this speech, though he’s at least hinted that he will address some of the controversial statements made by his fiery preacher Jeremiah Wright regarding this country’s lingering history (and consequences) of social injustice. Hopefully this damage control will be adequate enough to dissipate some of the backlash Obama has been receiving during this presidential campaign. But I’m not holding my breath.

Similarly, I’m not counting on hypocritical right-wingers to turn the spotlight on themselves while they attempt to smear Obama for his association with Rev. Wright.

Week after week, hoards of GOP supporting, white ministers unleash heavy assaults on this country because of its “wrongdoing”. They preach of our impending 'Sodom and Gomorrah'-type doom for embracing homosexuals. They label the country as murderers for legalizing abortion. They preach that AIDS is God’s way of condemning this country for its ‘immoral’ sexual practices. Hell, even one of my old colleagues (conservative, if you didn’t already know) said that God allowed 9/11 to happen because the nation “turned our back” on Him. This sentiment, I should note, was also proclaimed by both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell; two preeminent conservative ministers. Yeah -- thousands of people (whose only sin was to report to work that day) died because our country turned our back on God. Gotcha.

Despite all of these clearly inflammatory statements from white, conservative ministers; Rev. Wright’s messages are the most scrutinized. When Rev. Falwell died last year, I clearly recall conservative leaders, pundits, and average GOP subscribers conspicuously remembering him as a ‘great American’, a ‘man of God’, and a ‘prophetic leader’. But not ONCE did I hear anyone mention his hateful and ignorant statements. Not once did I hear any of the aforementioned fans of Falwell being asked to “reject or denouce” any of his anti-America statements.

In a scene from the movie “A Time To Kill”, Matthew McConaughey’s character gives his closing arguments in a racially-charged case involving Samuel L. Jackson (on trial for killing two men who raped and brutalized his young daughter). In the summation, McConaughey has the all-white jury imagine the gruesome details of the crime. At the end, he then asks them to imagine the victim being white. I’m challenging the GOP to do the same thing. I’m challenging conservatives RIGHT NOW to take all of the controversial, hateful, scornful messages being allowed to run free from evangelical pulpits and imagine those messages being delivered by Rev. Wright. All hell would break loose. Before he could say “Oops, my bad”, Wright would be crucified with old rusty nails. He’d be labeled un-American, un-patriotic, treasonous, and any number of other bullshit labels we use for people who don’t buy into the flag-waving, anthem singing, American pie eating duties to which we all apparently have to subscribe. White conservative ministers in the Bible Belt say this kind of stuff and they’re calling for the nation to repent. Wright does it and he’s number two on America’s Most Wanted list; only proceeded by Osama bin Laden.

I can only hope that enough people will wise up to this nonsense before the conservative media can capitalize too quickly. Likewise, I hope that Obama’s attempts at assuaging this situation (though he shouldn’t have to) will be successful. But, as I stated before, I’m not holding my breath.

While all this is going on, I can imagine how the Hillary camp is salivating. It's no secret that Hill has been pulling out all the stops to smear Obama; most predominantly using race as the stimulus. Their attempts to undermine Obama's campaign are only fueled by the virtual marriage they're in with right-wingers who devote every ounce of their being to also smear Obama. But I wonder what naughty little sermons can get dug up from some of these peoples' ministers. Would the onslaught cease at that point? I'm not so sure. But if I were Obama, I'd at least pose the question. What's the harm in that?

***UPDATE***

My illustrious blogging buddy has informed me that I'm late. Sen. Obama has already given his speech. Transcripts can be found here.

***UPDATE (Again!)***

The video of the speech has been posted on YouTube. Here it is:

H/T to Carmen over at All About Race for the video.

-ACL