Rev. Pfleger: "America is the Greatest Sin Against God"

Many of you suffer from the ideology (mystification or spell) of white supremacist capitalism, which has been sustained by a conscious or subconscious belief in black inferiority by folks of all so-called races (the erroneous idea of race was created by white supremacists to justify the slave trade and the European empires in Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, South Pacific, and Asia). The notion of ‘pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps’ articulates the ideology of white supremacist capitalism because it was made famous by Booker T. Washington, the educator and lackey of rich, ruling white supremacists who encouraged ex-slaves to pull themselves up by their bootstraps in order to acquiesce to white supremacy rather than resist it as Washington’s critic W.E.B. DuBois suggested. Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps expresses the ‘all-about-me’ approach of individualist capitalists; the bootstraps ideology pretends that a person’s destiny is shaped only by individual choices and ignores historical and societal realities: in other words, the bootstraps ideology pretends that people live in private bubbles without history, and this pretense helps to deflect attention from injustice and exploitation—placing all responsibility—and blame—on supposedly a-social or isolated individuals. The bootstraps ideology also depends on black people sustaining an inferiority complex when we compare ourselves to so-called ‘whites’: in other words, this ideology requires that we accept that white supremacy is natural and can not be resisted, or that racism is eternal and everywhere, therefore we must acquiesce to its injustice. Remember, white supremacy past and present has depended on the economic and political superiority of so-called ‘white’ folk, domination sustained by the enforced and voluntary inferiority of blacks. Resisting white superiority and black inferiority can not be accomplished by individuals alone, but requires collective efforts.

The social problems that black people endure TODAY require more than Booker T.’s individualist bootstrap approach. These social ills include poverty; disproportionate incarceration; unjust white supremacist laws and legal systems; unequal, dysfunctional and segregated educational systems; unequal and deficient health care; overworked and indebted wage slavery to fickle, outsourcing capitalists (landlords, bankers, employers, creditors, etc.); under- or unemployment; deficient and disproportionate legal representation in government (few blacks in Congress, only one black senator, no Congressional representation for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico), etc. In the tradition of W.E.B. and Martin King mass protest—or getting people in the streets in numbers to demand change—is required not simply to improve the lives of black people TODAY but to create justice for the present and the past, similar to how Jews, Armenians and indigenous Americans have struggled to respond to past injustices.

These past injustices are as recent as 40 years ago and include:

1. The legalized terrorism or pogroms against black families throughout the south and less frequently in the north (See the film Rosewood)

2. The legalized theft (by white supremacist terrorists cells like the KKK) of Black Wealth produced in great quantity from California to New York, Montana to Oklahoma (Read about the Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK) by exceedingly industrious and well skilled though insufficiently educated ex-slaves. This theft robbed black America of its economic base from which it might have prospered; instead, without this economic foundation of wealth, black communities became dependent on the wage slavery of white supremacist industrial capitalism, which in recent decades has drastically cut back employee numbers (outsourcing jobs to other countries). Many black communities suffered greatly from these cutbacks, forcing some into sub-legal and illegal activities.

3. The legalized second and third-class citizenship of all black folk

4. The quasi-legalized removal of black voting rights

5. The legal incarceration of millions of black people without due process (See Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy's "Life"...it might be a comedy, but it's a comedy about past truths.)

...and this doesn't mention non-wage or sharecropper slavery.

In conclusion, you should remember that Dr. Martin Luther King--a man of JESUS--who worshipped JESUS as a defender of social justice--you should remember that Dr. King was murdered soon after he began to instigate mass protest against the ECONOMIC injustices of the capitalists. Capitalists like the health insurance industry, the service industry, the prison-military-industrial complex, the oil industry.

Sharon,
You stated that McCain is refusing to acknowledge that there are problems with health care. That is blatantly false. McCain has a plan to help fix the health care situation. Fortunately, it does not involve nationalizing it, which is what most liberals want. Part of his plan involves allowing individuals to receive the same tax credit that companies receive for supplying health care to their employees instead of creating a whole new bureaucracy. I know that won't be popular with the liberals because it requires individuals to actually take responsibility for themselves rather than letting big government do it.

With the associations that Obama has that are tied to hate, it should scare people that he is at the moment the odds on favorite to win the Presidential election.

Every opinion is accounted for..and I say "You who is without sin cast the first stone" For it has been said throughout the coarse of life..that generations would defame the rights of life..Why! Because to make change be accounted by all..many have opinions to deny the "law" to find against what is "Just and righteous" for every person on the face of this continent..has prejudice..and many take up arms to forge their hate and their extremes..Who are You to blast what is ill and perverse in judgment..to stop what is belittleing to another to gain you own satisfaction..Racism is a fire of evil..and torture and persecution to the soul...it is forged by those who seek to take..for the world is full of bigots and ill fate..and who does the worst..it is seen in our own backyards from those who have made it to the top[....those who find fault to forge what is right for the ills that feel tey worked so hard to prove themselves..and found others who were equal in their own hell..for hell is the ego's of men who discharge the innocent of those who believe in a manner unfitting to them..Opinions..the mark of a solidarity of blindness to make the good move without thorns...the thorn is You who seek to phantom your own existance..and to punch wholes in those who are idfferent..violence and profanity to the one's who store up hate..those who single out mothers, and children and then, say I have done well but sin not for I am better...To whom do you say this too...Not God..For God is above such egotistical whims of women and men who choose to lavish in their purity...and many minorities were not treated as such..for it was by harsh reality and hard rock persecution that many succeeded..and white eyes do not always understand for it is not engrained into them to see...those who are convicted feel threatened of their own existance...To be free..to be of good solid belief..No one is above God's Law..for the law of man still does not hold justice..nd many will perish because of such dung...who disengage others for the good they give..not seeking nothing but humbleness and no fame...just to live in freedom from the perils of the world..that has no God and no sound thought to share with another for many are to busy scorching their brothers! Apache

There is slavery in many countries today in Africa. It is illegal but that does not stop the slave trade and it is seldom addressed by the authorities. They even kidnap children from their parents and sell them into the slave trade. As a white person in the South, I have heard all my life about how I and my fellow white Americans enslaved the blacks in this country. Funny thing, I don't remember ever owning a slave. My grandmother was 94 when she died in 1988 and she never owned a slave. Has anyone on this website ever owned a slave, or more to the point, have any of you ever been a slave or know someone who has? The answer is no. We are not responsible for something that someone in this country did 150 years ago. If any person in this country thinks they would have it better somewhere else, I do not see anyone putting up gates and locking you in. I have read on these chat sites all about the "white guilt" we are supposed to be feeling because there was once slavery in this country. I don't feel any guilt about anything to do with slavery. Why should I? I wasn't alive then, I have no control over what laws were in effect then, I am not even sure that anyone in my family ever owned a slave, as they were from the North. It is not anyone's fault today that there was slavery once in this country. Laws have been passed to ensure that everyone is treated equally. Are they always? No. As a woman, I have been discriminated against. Does it stop me? Do I sit down and quit and throw my hands up and say, I will never be nothing because there are sexist people in this country? No. Do I blame everything that goes wrong in my life on the fact that I am a woman in a male dominated society so all my problems are a result of sexism? No. If the blacks have it so bad in this country, why are there black lawyers, executives, doctors, judges, politicians, etc? As long as there are people like Wright and his ilk preaching this garbage, then people will believe it and live by it and let it take over their lives. The black people need to lose the victim mentality that these men preach. There will always be someone who does not like you because of your race, gender, creed, etc. You cannot legislate human nature. But the examples set by these so called ministers do not help the cause of the black community in this country in the least. Your minister is supposed to be God's representative on earth. These men should be building up their congregations, and be a source of comfort to their people. Instead they spew hate. Everything bad that happens and every missed opportunity for a black person in this country is not a result of racism, just like it is not sexism if you are a woman. When you have the garbage thrown at you regularly that these so-called ministers put out, you could very well come to believe it. When you get down to it, living is hard work. Life isn't fair, and you don't always get what you want out of it. That isn't racism, it's just life.

i was not going to vote,but now i am voting for the republican whatever his name is!!

With friends like these, Obama will never never NEVER get my vote. A man will be judged by the company he keeps -- and has kept, for more than 20 years.

Hoosier wrote: "I seriously doubt Canada and some European countries have a higher standard of living than the US."

Again, it depends on how you define and measure "standard of living." The UN uses a measure called the Human Development Index ("HDI") to measure standard of living arounnd the world. Under this measure, the US is always in the top 15 or so but has not, in the last 20 years, been #1. As I said in an earlier post, Iceland, Norway and Canada have topped this poll most in the last 20 years.

Of course, these measures are very subjective and there are MANY different criteria used in the many different measures of standard of living out there.

I think that if standard of living simply focuses on economic opportunities, personal freedoms, and the availability of high quality (if expensive) health care then the United States has to be near the top if not at the top of any list.

Thanks Jake for covering this.

Too bad the remaining media is so far in Obama's corner that much of this will go uncovered by the morning shows, evening news broadcasts, and newspaper front pages. They are either too busy linking McCain to Bush, swallowing McClellan's new book, or taking Hillary apart piece-by-piece. Also kudos to SNL for making us laugh at the media suck-ups.

In an April, 2004, interview in the "Chicago Sun-Times", Obama said his biggest challenge was maintaining his "moral compass." He went on to say that good friends and advisers like Michael Pfleger and James Meeks help him keep that compass set. Yes, but set in what direction?

Sorry, Barack, but you can't walk away from 20 year's association with these men (not to mention Jeremiah Wright and his Trinity church with it's liberation theology and approving congregant) with only a lame call to national unity and some crapola about your deep disappointment and expect it all to just go away. Those people, that place helped shape you into the man we see today. You sought their advice and counsel. You found them worthy as spiritual guides. To suggest now that you're shocked, SHOCKED, to learn what's in their hearts and minds is ludicrous. You, sir, are damaged goods...and deservedly so.

What I find interesting is that this sort of ranting is going on at CHURCH. I've been to many churches, of all faiths, races, etc. and I've never been subjected to a political tirade on Sunday at a worship service. What I've seen from Trinity (so far) appears to be a combination of Obama-worship and race-baiting. I don't recall God being mentioned.

You have to question the judgment, character, and motives of anyone who would subject his young children to such a performance on Sunday under the guise of worship. Would Jesus go to Trinity? I think not.

I seriously doubt Canada and some European countries have a higher standard of living than the US. Seriously! It is nice that all of Europe takes off for six weeks in the summer all at the same time for vacation, but it is also true those countries are much less productive and accomplish less on many levels than the US.

To have someone who hates America wanting to run it is appalling. It is truly frightening what Obama and his leftist/marxist friends might want to do to this country. Gut the military and defense for one thing. Make us open to attack. Nope, I'm not voting for this guy, no matter what!

“He didn’t distance himself,” Wright announced, “He had to distance himself, because he’s a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American.” Rev. Wright's quote at the National Press Club just before he went on to praise the communist Sandinista party in Nicaragua and Louis Farrakhan.

In Senator Obama's resignation letter, he went on to praise Rev. Otis Moss III as a man who will be a fine pastor for years to come. Then Moss invited Pfleger to speak.

Mr. Obama, the Democrats of this country have a right to sit down in town halls with Senator McCain and find out if his policies can be moved to the center. If they can, there is no question he makes a far better President than you will.

I think it's sad that the media is giving more space to a rumor about Bill Clinton -- written by the husband of Dee Dee Myers -- than they are focusing on all of the radical elements that have been around this candidate all of his life. Where is the MO video from the pulpit???

Do we really understand our history as Americans or we just want to forget all that happened in our past? Why will someone criticize America and suddenly they become unpatriotic? Times are changing and some just want to continue in their old ways. We should embrace the changing times and see these changes as positive and good for the country. Same people have been in government far too long; it is time to bring in new faces to reflect our diversity.

Surely folks realize you're talking about a CATHOLIC priest? He is Father Pfleger, not Reverend. They must really think White people are stupid. Pathetic.

To make a long story short, considering all of Obama's positions plus the people he hangs around with casting a vote for him is nothing more than an overt wish for national suicide!

As a LAPSED Catholic(the church lapped me and I can't catch up but here in NASCAR country I need a caution flag or something like that), I study the church as a worlwide body and find it quite intriguing. It has provided the world with great education schools, many in the USA, and very liberal activists for the poor and sick who gave their lives to horrible regimes and dictators, many at the monied and manpower support of the USA. It has also provided very horrible fascists that participated in torture, one priest who recently was convicted in Argentina, I think, who deserves his own death. In the 2004 election, some Catholic churches joined the Baptist ones from the pulpit as they preached for republican votes, in grave error it now is obvious. The Catholic church, as others, tailor their message to the countries politics they reside in, which is a difficult task, at best. The end-time lunatic fringe of the Baptist regime is full throttle for the republican side and the fact that Franklin Graham hides behind his kind charity while extoling mass murder of Muslims by weapons of mass destruction should surprise nobody. Many people should read books such as Reagans Reign of Error by Mark Green or Prince of War(about Billy Graham) by Cecil Bothwell to learn more about the powers that operate behind the scenes to shape your country.

How could Obama give $225,000 toward Pfleger's church from taxpayer's money just because Pfleger contributed money to Obama's campaigns? Isn't there something wrong here? And to my Catholic friends: I am not a Catholic myself; however, I have always enjoyed going with a friend to Catholic services; and I just don't quite understand why the Catholic church would allow someone like Pfleger to continue preaching such anti-American vitriole and hatred that has nothing to do with the gospel? Is there a reason the Catholic church allows this? Thank you.

Mr Obama disavows himself from these preachers and this church because a media spotlight has been placed on it and it is politically inconvenient for him. While he separates himself now, what has he been doing all these twenty or so years? He counted Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger among his closest friends. I have a difficult time believing that he has disagreed with their messages all these years and still remained close to them. If I disagreed with the message my church put forth, I would find a new church. Too many unknowns with Obama, and now it is too late to get answers...