From Huffington Post:

When Senator Obama’s preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father — Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer — denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Left by Pat on March 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Consider a few passages from my father’s immensely influential America-bashing book A Christian Manifesto. It sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books. Nevertheless it sold more than a million copies.

Here’s Dad writing in his chapter on civil disobedience:

If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the US government]… then at a certain point force is justifiable.

And this:

In the United States the materialistic, humanistic world view is being taught exclusively in most state schools… There is an obvious parallel between this and the situation in Russia [the USSR]. And we really must not be blind to the fact that indeed in the public schools in the United States all religious influence is as forcibly forbidden as in the Soviet Union….
Then this:

There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate… A true Christian in Hitler’s Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion… It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God’s law it abrogates it’s authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation…
Was any conservative political leader associated with Dad running for cover? Far from it. Dad was a frequent guest of the Kemps, had lunch with the Fords, stayed in the White House as their guest, he met with Reagan, helped Dr. C. Everett Koop become Surgeon General. (I went on the 700 Club several times to generate support for Koop).

Dad became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator. When Dad died in 1984 everyone from Reagan to Kemp to Billy Graham lamented his passing publicly as the loss of a great American. Not one Republican leader was ever asked to denounce my dad or distanced himself from Dad’s statements.

Take Dad’s words and put them in the mouth of Obama’s preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America white conservative Americans and top political leaders, called our words “godly” and “prophetic” and a “call to repentance.”

We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.

Left by Pat on March 17th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

even if a current presidential candidate called either falwell, robertson, grahm, or schaeffer their spiritual advisor for the past 20 years, one would still struggle to draw comparisons between the ridiculousness in rhetoric… but they haven’t so this is a moot point.

Left by adam on March 17th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

If only they were spiritual advisors. Hagee has met with Bush in the Oval Office on several occasions to advise him on Middle East policy. Hagee, who believes America will usher in the second coming. The double standard here is glaring.

Left by Pat on March 17th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the Middle East political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements I have ever heard. . . . [Rev.] Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West.

Hagee believes that “the president’s support for Israel fulfills a biblical injunction to protect the Jewish state,” which “will play a pivotal role in the second coming.” These views are not unrelated to Hagee’s support for McCain. Quite the contrary; Hagee cited McCain’s so-called “pro-Israel views,” his belligerence towards Iran, and his social conservatism as reasons for the endorsement. And in critical contrast to Obama and Farrakhan, McCain actually seems to share some of Hagee’s more twisted views, as evidenced by McCain’s joyful singing about dropping bombs on Iran.

The GOP has long been given a pass on courting the most warped and twisted religious figures around. George Bush spoke regularly with Pat Robertson — never once forced to “denounce” or “reject” him. In 2006, Rev. Hagee had a private meeting with uber-White House neocon (and convicted criminal) Elliot Abrams, who just happens to run Middle East policy in the Bush administration, and afterwards, Hagee gushed that he and Abrams (like he and Lieberman) shared similar views towards the Middle East: “we felt we were on the right track.”

Left by Pat on March 17th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Pat, your blathering and attempts at moral equivalence are pathetic.
B-HO is the person that is the focus here, the one trying to fool enough people so he can gain higher office. If he can’t deal with this without lying, which he had every opportunity to do for the past twenty years, then he doesn’t deserve the office he is seeking. The office many of us were well aware he wasn’t suited or qualified for, months ago.
If his judgement is so bad, that he would maintain a long and profitable relationship with Rezko, and this hateful Preacher, then why should anyone expect his judgement will improve as President?
He’s already lost numbers to Hillary, since this came to the Lame Stream Medias attention. His attempts at explaining this away have been halting and inadequate, and have served only to expose that he doesn’t speak so well off the cuff, but only when he is rehearsed and has a teleprompter in front of him. I am looking forward to his speech tomorrow, I don’t think he can hit one out of the park with critical eyes watching. Milk Toast might be a more apt description of him now.

Left by no2liberals on March 17th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

I really dislike taking up for a liberal, but being a church going person for as many years as I have been going, a few things come to mind. First, when I came to the Lord, the circumstances were, shall we say, less than ideal. After all, I was a sinner! A run of the mill convert will not know much about, nor will he be picky about, who brings him into a relationship with God. Secondly, after conversion, the convert will hang around for a while, loyal because of his appreciation of what he has just avoided. Thirdly, the convert’s ignorance will contribute in staying a part of a congregation like pastor Wright. Fourthly, after the convert does wise up, and start to see the warts of his spiritual leader, he realizes that none of us are perfect, and rarely does any one agree 100% of the time with any other person in his congregation. People need to lighten up.

Left by Jeff on March 18th, 2008 at 8:31 am

Oh, get real. This isn’t about religion. It’s about a minister and congregation where racist and anti-American speech is the norm. What kind of minister spins around and flaps his arms with glee about Americans dying on 9/11, with the congregation hooting and hollering with him ? Obama isn’t a recent convert and has been a member for 20 years. If Obama lacked the common sense and/or cojones to walk away from this filth, then he is unfit for office. Now, Obama’s chickens have come home to roost.

Left by Anonymous on March 18th, 2008 at 8:45 am

“What kind of minister spins around and flaps his arms with glee about Americans dying on 9/11, with the congregation hooting and hollering with him ?”

Hmmm..

Partial transcript of comments from the
September 13, 2001 telecast of the 700 Club

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we’ve been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters — the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats — what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact — if, in fact — God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system..

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang “God Bless America” and said “let the ACLU be hanged”. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time - calling upon God. ~~~

PAT ROBERTSON: > Amen

Left by Pat on March 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am

“Pat, your blathering and attempts at moral equivalence are pathetic.”

I see you’ve been practicing your Limbaugh impersonation. The term “moral equivalence” occurs no less than 40 times in his first book, which was little more than a re-hashing of WF Buckley essays with a few extra ad-hominems thrown in for cultural relevancy. You dittoheads are so predictably pre-programmed, even an infant could find your easter eggs.

Left by Pat on March 18th, 2008 at 9:45 am

Pat, for once you offer some useful info, I’ve never read any of Rush’s books.
However, based on your continuing attempts to deflect B-HO’s boo-boo, as well as your other silly comments, I doubt you could find the Easter eggs you hid.

Left by no2liberals on March 18th, 2008 at 10:09 am

Hey, jackass! Falwell and Robertson were roundly criticized for their comments. They withdrew them and apologized. Something I have yet to hear Wright do.

Left by Anonymous on March 18th, 2008 at 10:09 am

Well, the mustard and relish antecdotal story caused my remote to jump into my hand.
He not only didn’t hit it out of the park, he was called out on strikes without taking the bat off of his shoulder.
What a dingus.

Left by no2liberals on March 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it.

On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a “strong, true, consistent conservative.” The endorsement was important for McCain, who at the time was trying to put an end to the lingering challenge from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite among Christian evangelicals. A politically influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could also play a key role in McCain’s effort to win this bellwether state in the general election. McCain, with Parsley by his side at the Cincinnati rally, called the evangelical minister a “spiritual guide.”

Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: “It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America.” He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: “We find now we have no choice. The time has come.” And he has bad news: “We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment.”

Left by Pat on March 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am

i’m not sure if you are really bad at spin or you’re just stupid. so you’re now claiming mccain is to parsley what obama is to wright? desperate huh? while i doubt it, you could be at this a while, but i’ll go on record now and tell you, it’s a lost cause.

Left by adam on March 18th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Matthew 12:34 of the Amplified Bible may shed some light
on Rev Wright and Sen Obama, “…out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks”.

[Editor --- I'm sorry. But even though I went to a private Southern Baptist university, I have no idea what the Amplified Bible is.]

Left by libraryman on March 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

Notice the selective quotes in patricia’s comments? They quoted material never quites supports his assertion or should I say the assertion of who ever wrote the crap that patty is copying and pasting without attribution.

Left by Anonymous on March 19th, 2008 at 2:46 am

Irreverend Wright, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama all have something in common.

They dislike Whitey.

Apparent in their statements to date.

Left by Duversant on March 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

i guess you were wrong . . .

Left by Anonymous on November 11th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Umm… oops?

Left by Anonymous on November 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

BTW, I’d love some jelly with that toast if you wouldn’t mind…

Left by Anonymous on November 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm