A Baptist pastor in Florida removed the American flag from the church's sanctuary because he thought members should be focused on the cross of Christ instead of on the flag.  

What happened?  He received veiled death threats both at church and at his home.

Wealth is not always how much you make or save, but the peace of mind acquired through the understanding of our world, our attitude towards it, and our attitude towards each other.  One of the most ignorant and closed-minded entity ever formed by man is the Church.  They always used their misunderstanding of the Bible to satisfy their greed.  It is amazing that the Church that once believed that the earth was the center of the universe, actually admitted to its ignorance in 1992.  Now, they believe in aliens.  How wonderful!!!!  

At every turn OPEC is twisting and turning any attempt at lowering the cost of Oil, America has to set in motion a MOON PROGRAM, too get America off MIDDLE EAST OIL and pandering too a gas tax, is OLD POLITICS and is exactly what has added to America’s poor and middle classes woes, we’re blinded by the short term pandering and vote for the person who says, "I’ll give you money... TODAY" and then don’t deliver.

"I’ll give you money... TODAY"

Last night the Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart devoted a large amount of their headline coverage to how the news media is devoting a large amount of their coverage to Reverend Jeremiah Wright day-in and day-out.

It's a pretty well done segment complete with priceless phrases like "Wright... who has been dominating cable news like a missing white girl." While some might wish the Daily Show would focus their attentions elsewhere I disagree - this is what the Daily Show is, a mockery of the news networks. This is precisely why the Daily Show exists - to call out the news media for their stupidity, obsession and shallow coverage.

I've been watching so much Wright nonsense on TV over the past week or so that I find this kind of spoofing very cathartic.

The campaign that won’t die has the controversy that wont die, "The Sermons of Reverend Wright".  Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard at least one of the sound bytes from Barack Obama’s former Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.  The clip of Rev. Wright in a traditional African Dress at the pulpit delivering a "controversial" sermon after 9/11 has been played adnasuem.

My Letter to Barack Obama and I was tender

First, I'm glad he wants to see the good in all of us. He wants to give the benefit of the doubt that we are people of our word and will work for the common good.

Unfortunately, that's not how the Hillary Clinton supporters (Bill Moyers and Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds) think. Did you miss that Hillary Clinton connection? A supporter of Hillary got Rev. Wright into the Nat'l Press Club. So perhaps we now know why she did not issue a statement yesterday - she was behind this media circus. It's time for democrats of sound mind to defeat Hillary and Bill Clinton for President. It's not just that Wright wanted to respond. It's that the Clinton's put him up to it.

In case you went looking for this today, you reached a dead link. Or a blank page. Or maybe you got crafty.

I do, I think the guy is hilarious.  I watched his speeches yesterday and I thought he was incredibly funny and entertaining, nothing controversial at all.

I don't know why everyone is freaking out about these speeches, but I suspect a number of these diaries are concern trolls trying to divide us or disillusion us.  Maybe it's even the Clinton strikers coming back as trolls.

But, I totally don't understand why anybody is offended by him or his very recent speeches.  I'm not offended at all by him.  In my opinion, with these speeches, Rev. Wright did exactly what he had Every right to do a month ago but didn't out of respect for Senator Obama.

More conspiracy theories below and detailed analysis of what makes Rev. Wright a total asset.

Earlier today Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke at the Press Club where he touched on many different issues. The role of the black church, racism, Barack Obama, sound bites in the media etc. etc.

For those who had never seen Jeremiah Wright outside of his sound bites it was probably an interesting and eye-opening experience. The guy actually holds his own quite well, even when being asked some pretty hard questions about past statements and so forth.

I've decided to share the Question and Answer segment of the coverage to let everyone here see for themselves. While I may not agree with everything that Wright does, I respect him for his honesty and conviction. The only thing is that this will probably hurt Obama who I am supporting for President. Hmmm

I am writing this at the behest of a couple of Kossacks I respect a good deal.  I am usually anxious about writing on deeply personal topics, but I'm taking a dive here.  I only ask that you please hear from whence I come, as this is a sincere plea for compassion and understanding.

Let me begin this diary with the request that I made of another diarist who wrote about Rev. Wright’s NAACP speech:

Please be careful with how you proceed [with your attacks of Reverend Wright.]

While some of my fellow democrats continue to attempt to use Wright as a knife to stab Obama with, bear in mind that for many in the African American community, this [Wright issue] is not about Obama.  This is about our church and our culture.

Please allow me to explain.

This is just my thoughts and reactions to Barack's appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. I am an avid supporter, donor, and true convert of Sen. Obama, but I think he missed several opportunities.

So a Pentecostal Church in South Carolina has put up a sign asking if Obama and Osama are brothers, and our outrage has caused it to be taken down.

Story:

The sign in front of a small church in a small town is causing a big controversy in Jonesville, S.C.
Pastor Roger Byrd said that he just wanted to get people thinking. So last Thursday, he put a new message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God.
It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

The pastor took the sign to his congregation who unanimously approved it, Fox news has reported.

UPDATE II: Push-back works, folks.  Thanks.  Ken Bell of the Central Church:

We, too, deeply regret such a disgraceful display. . . As soon as we found out about it, the pastor was instructed to take it down immediately.  Unfortunately, the hurt had already been done.

The Democratic Party is in danger of losing a coalition partner that has been among it's most loyal if it nominates Hillary Clinton. Her surrogates have injected race into this contest in a very negative fashion with Geraldine Ferraro, and more recently Bob Johnson, and now she re-iterates to Black Americans of faith  how she really feels.

I just saw this at the CNN blog under the story Clinton: 'Not relevant' last time I went to church, fired gun.

   Clinton described the furor surrounding Obama’s remarks as "about how people look at the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party leadership."

   "We have been working very hard to make it clear that we have millions of Democrats who are church going and gun-owning," she said. "And we are tired of having Republicans, or frankly our own Democrats, give any ammunition to Republicans because what happens then is Republicans take advantage of the situation."

Unbelievable!

This is an important read for anyone concerned with the seperation that should exist between Government and religion, this is reported in the April 6th Chicago Tribune and what I find most disturbubing is not that this incident happened but how under reported this sort of thing is. Now while this may be state and not federal government it's still important since it reflects how the wall between church and state is further eroding and how the "Main Stream Media" seldom cover this, Illinois afterall is a highly populace state one would think this might be noteworthy to many millions of Americans.
From the Tribune

Originally posted at Howard-Empowered People

The latest from Hillary Clinton...

"You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

(Shakes head)

Oh, Hillary, what are we going to do with you? You have been saying for months that you're "ready on day one". But, you remember that saying about how "everything I needed to know, I learned in kindergarten"? I think maybe you were absent for a pretty important lesson...

Here is the church, and here is the steeple

Open the door and see all the people.

All the people, Hillary. Not just the pastor. Setting aside for a moment the concepts of forgiveness and redemption, and, oh, I don't know, choosing to stay with someone who's made a mistake of some sort, disagreeing with one's pastor is not necessarily reason enough to leave one's church home.

Obama's church is one of the most main-stream, popular, normal, good, safe black churches in Chicago and in the nation. It breaks my heart to see it torn apart in media like this. The idea that by going to church, being good, and doing what's right as a black person you'll still get torn down for it is absurd. You'll get torn down just because your church is BLACK.

There's a post I spotted today at MSNBC which if it's true, presents another problem brewing for Hillary. Especially since she's revisiting the whole Wright issue.

It ranks with not knowing if she corkscrewed her way to just taking that cute little girl's "stuff" and then leaving back there in Bosnia.