Barack Obama's Religion (and Race) Lecture

I would remind readers that last June in Hartford, Connecticut, Barack Obama said that that right-wing evangelical leaders had exploited and politicized religious beliefs. Specifically, Obama said, "Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked," he said. "Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us."

Now, Obama has given his Big Speech on Jeremiah Wright and left-wing religious leaders (also race). In doing so, he has (choose one)
1. Played the race card
2. Delivered his lecture on slavery and religion for his Sociology 201 class
3. Shown himself not ready to be President of the United States
4. All of the above.

As I did last June, again I would recommend this article on the proper place of religion in politics, written by an atheist. While I am a churchgoer, myself, the article concludes by saying "Basing public policy on private religious revelation is [the] best way politicians have found to avoid answering hard questions about or making hard arguments in defense of their proposals. The people deserve better . . ."

Some people think the the speech was about race, but I don't. Highly regarded speeches say something new, something fresh, something different. There wasn't anything new in Obama's speech when it comes to race; its the religion component that was important. We aren't going to mention that and the fact the Rezko trial is in full swing, and Obama's speech certainly took the press off coverage of that. For an exhaustive and excellent analysis of Barack Obama and the Jeremiah Wright controversy, see the posts dated March 14-18, 2008 at Team America.