Sometimes we are fortunate enough to know where outright lies and smears come from. The latest seems to come from a man named J. R. Dunn who is an active or primary contributer to a magazine named the American thinker. What is particularly appalling however is that I recently received This article in the form of a chain e-mail from someone who until recently was an ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ (yes, Jeremiah Write is an ordained minister on the UCC and Barack Obama is still a member of the the UCC, but no longer of Wright's church). Why is this particularly suprising?
This article contains the following misinformation:
And what does he do when he reaches the city? Why, he joins a cult. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church has been turned inside out since the videotaped sermons appeared early this year, without anyone ever quite explaining exactly what Obama was thinking of when he joined up in the first place. Street creed, so it's claimed. But there are a plethora of black churches that would have provided him that without the taint of demented racism that Wright's church offered.
Obama apparently had to swear an oath of belief in "black liberation theology" when he joined the church. (It is the little touches of that sort that make it a "cult", and not simply a "church".)
I have posted before about My views on Wright so I won't repost them now. But the bottom line is that Trinity United Church of Christ is a recognized member of theUnited Church of Christ. One might disagree, or agree with Wright (I disagree) but that does not change the fact that to call Trinity UCC a "cult" is an outright lie. Now, Mr. Dunn may be unaware of this (though I doubt it)but the minister who sent this to me could not possibly be. This particular minister did recently break with the UCC in a typical fundamentalist split from the UCC with an organization known by its acronym of EARACC (sorry, I could not find a link-if anyone knows anything, chime in). Now, one may disagree with the UCC's liberal theology or with the "social gospel" but there is no way that any one who knows could call the UCC a "cult" or believe that to join the UCC one must swear an "oath of allegiance" to black liberation theology (whatever that might mean).
What do we learn from this and why am I posting it?
- It shows that good people, who really should and do know better actively participate in the internet smearing of Barack Obama;
- It shows that a significant portion of the base of the Republican Party are not interested in significant dialogue on the issues at all;
- I think it gives us some insight into how and why these rumors spread and the types of operations that lie behind them.