The political furor over retired Pastor Jeremiah Wright may accelerate into the fall campaign. Wright revealed the bitterness and bias of the black experience in America in his untimely remarks before national television.
Wright has had an amazing ministry in 36 years on the south side of Chicago bringing a congregation from 87 members to over 8,000. More important he has created models of ministry in one of the poorest sections of Chicago that speaks for itself.
In his Sunday morning sermons he has preached 207,792 minutes for political reasons 20 second video clips have been cropped into sound bits that his now famous parishioner, Barack Obama, has had to comment on as "not only wrong but divisive." Let's see, that is .0000012 percent of his messages.
Despite his six years in the Marine Corps, he is called "unpatriotic" for his "God damns America" in a white culture that affirms "God Bless America." Question: Does God bless America for 400 years of slavery? Does God bless America for unnecessary wars such as Viet Nam and Iraq? Does God bless America for, "authorized torture from the highest level of the White House," as CNN put it?
To paraphrase Lincoln, "God blesses America when it is right but damns it when it is wrong." We have been both historically.
The relationship of politicians to their pastor is confidential but in these days when faith has entered the political arena in a new dimension, it is well to raise questions.
President George Bush was converted from his profligate ways by Billy Graham who later opposed the Iraq War.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was converted to the social gospel by Methodist Pastor Don Jones. She was not taught to pander America's working class by downing a shot of whiskey in a tavern or scrounging for votes in a Las Vegas casino.
If this game is to continue, John McCain may be the most vulnerable. A genuine Navy hero, McCain barely made it out of Annapolis with his demerits. Raised Episcopalian, he had an epiphany in the Hanoi Hilton. He married and became a Baptist.
However, pandering for the right wing religious vote, McCain hooked up with the late Jerry Falwell and "extremist" John Hagee. He accepted Hagee's endorsement. Hagee is the San Antonio Pastor of Cornerstone Church and heads "Christians for Israel," i.e. Christian Zionism. Also he made anti-Catholic statements.
Hagee appeared in Northwest Indiana a year ago. He is on television daily with his message of the need to nuke Iran as part of his biblical eschatology. The other part is that he wants Israel to expand to biblical proportions, including the west bank and adjacent Arab territory. He opposes the two state solution with Palestine of the Bush administration.
Hagee relates to the "prosperity gospel" belief, lives in a gated community and has income reported as over $1 million. Recently reform Rabbi Eric Yoffie urged reform Judaism to disassociate itself from Hagee's Christian Zionism.
The central belief of Christian Zionism is "ancient Israel must be restored to bring about Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. In the second coming, Jews will either convert to Christianity or perish," according to the Christian Century.
McCain should follow Yoffie's leadership. Better yet, as Kent Millard, Methodist Pastor of Indianapolis and Pastor to Senator Richard Luger, put it, "Why is there the assumption that a person in church is expected to agree with everything a pastor says?"
Amen to that - until next Wednesday.
The opinions in this column are solely those of the writer. Wolf is a retired minister and lives in Valparaiso. Write to him c/o The Times, 1111 Glendale Blvd., Valparaiso, IN
