Professor, except for the brief misstep down the "state terrorism" rabbit trail, this has been your best piece to date. Nice use of simple questions and relevant quotes to focus the discussion!

I think you're a neocon (Scoop Jackson edition) and hence, a Clinton supporter pretending to be objective. Clinton has invoked religion more than Obama, frankly. Also, I suspect the gleeful "there are more skeletons for Obama" gloating you did on Peter B Collins show is about his connections to 60s radicals.

I also think your response about "The Family" proves you're dishonest, all by itself. I'll warn everyone who brings up your writing away from it.

"For can Jesus disown John the Baptist?"

This is approaching creepy.

Sen. Obama is a man running for President--not a Messiah--and Wright a pastor criticized for hate speech.

It is not uncommon for us "mere mortals" to disown those around us who are destructive to what is believed to be right.

Tim,

It's sad that you now appreciate Krauthammer just because he attacked a candidate you obviously dislike.

Obama did not give money to the preacher. He gave money to the Church. They are different. I am Catholic. I don't approve of some of the things the Pope says, and a I certainly don't approve of the way they have handled the molestation issue.

But it is my Church and it will transcend these things. I cannot distance myself from it.

What you advocate is that a man walk away from his friends and his church. I'm sure there are many things you disagree with that our country has done...have you left the US? Probably not.

I remember those bumber stickers during Vietnam. My country wrong or right. Americans are so conflicted on one hand they demand citizens support the country no matter what, on the other they demand a citizen turn his back on those he holds dear but disagrees with.

Very few in America today have faced ills because of slavery, but note also, that Obama is called black because he has black blood. He is not called white. That is a holdover from the days of slavery and shows our bigotry even today. If you don't think that sets him apart then you are not paying attention.

The issue of Rev. Wright is a non-issue that those who disapprove of Obama have seized upon. Those of us more open minded than the Krauthammer types embrace his fidelity and honesty, his strenghts. Those who suffer from Krauthammer's hatred of all things liberal want Obama to sell out his friends. That is the conservative thing to do.

If today's CNN story is accurate, Rev. Wright didn't introduce the idea "state terrorism against the Palestinians" OR the "chickens coming home to roost" comment ..... he was QUOTING a former Ambassador to Iraq who said those things in a Fox News interview.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-rev-jeremiah-wrights-911-sermon/

Israel practices Jim Crow against the Palestinians.

It only took them 60 years to become Nazis.

Funny how Repukes just LOVE Israel and their Apartheit against the Palestinians.

Almost 2000 years ago, an itinerant rabble-rousing preacher was executed by the Roman Empire for crimes against the state.

He didn't get there by being a conservative businessman or a big politician.

He was a hippie commie who wore sandals, long hair and a robe. He turned water into wine and gave out free fish to people. He hung out with 12 dudes, his mom, and a hooker.

Jesus was NOT a Republican and NO Republican can be a true Christian.

Republicans support war and torture. They are not the party of Jesus, no matter what they claim.

Jesus got executed for bucking the system.

In today's Op-Ed: I am so glad that someone in the media finally had the balls to parse Obama's sophistry correctly, unlike the knee-jerk editorials that simply glanced over the issues. I have never been a fan of Charles Krauthammer- a tad too right-wing for me, but now I am.

A point to be noted: Obama himself faced NO ills from America's slavery, yet wants to champion that cause. He wants so much to belong to the black community, to be considered black, and have it replace the father who abandoned him. But these unresolved internal demons, although understandable, make him highly unfit to lead any grand public office.

Krauthammer is right: Obama has NOT transcended the bitterness of America's slavery, and will NEVER be able to for he will always pander to the community that he doesn't really belong with. Anway, anyone who goes around saying, "To know me is to love me", does indeed flatter himself.

At the end, please allow me to repeat Krauthammer's unavoidable and important question: "Senator, why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?"

The real problem here is that so few in the United States, and especially in the American mainstream press, recognize the historical truths that the Rev Wright was expressing. His right anger against the empire is simply calling out the truth. Any criticism of this country immediately brings the media running into the streets screaming, "conspiracy theorist." If journalists spent time actually investigating and educating themselves, this country would be "edified" perhaps to an extent where we would actually have an informed, rational, thoughtful citizenry which could effect real democracy.

Obama grandma's remarks were made several decades ago. He is neither forgiving nor forgetting races relations of the past. Will this bitterness prevent him for being fair ? His speech raises doubts.

Mr. Berlinerblau:

The 4th Geneva Convention defines dispossession and settlement of occupied territory as war crimes. Israel has engaged in systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since 1948. That meets the definition of state terrorism about as perfectly as anything can.

I've been ambivalent about Obama regarding his positions on certain issues, but his "Rev Wright speech" truly revealed his charactor. I agree with Berlinerblau that Obama has shown uncommon courage to speak to Americans as if they were intelligent adults rather than adolescent partisans. The negative responses to his speech truly reveal the callow and small charactor of his critics.

RE: "He may have invoked the absurd phrase, “state terrorism against the Palestinians,.."

Excuse me? That statement is the absurdity.

How would you define 40 years of military occupation, second-class citizenship, bulldozed villages, pass laws, frequent assassinations by the Mossad, and a list of daily indignities too long to list?

Obama, who grew up as a secular person, became a lawyer, and became a Christian as an adult talked to Americans like an adult. He asked us to engage in critical thinking, and made his point through rational discourse. It was daring and it was refreshing. Unfortunately for him, people didn't want that. They wanted the Fox News "quick sound bite" version that would fit into their short attention span. Gods forbid, he asked us to THINK about things, and look at race in America from a different perspective!

He may have lost the nomination with that speech, but he did so without selling his soul to do it.

The prophecy of Rev. Wright is rooted in anger. The prophecy of Obama is rooted in hope. I like Obama's vision better.......
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/03/20/rev-wrights-self-fulfilling-prophecy/

Win or lose, Obama is setting an example of on-point clarity that Democrats desperately need to master.

http://churchstatewall.typepad.com/