Flaws in Obama's Character revealed by Rev. Wright and Scriptural Principles

Last month, my Chetitorial was an open letter to former Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens . THIS month, I'd like to venture my opinions into the realm of POLITICS... but only so far as something happening in politics requires using some Biblical principles. I want to speak about the undying controversy of Barack Obama and his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I am positive that in these last six months leading up to the election, assuming Senator Obama gets the nomination, that this story is NOT going to go away.

You all know the gist of the story by now and have no doubt seen video of Obama's pastor (just retired) of 20 years who made outrageous (false) claims about the United States Government and even suggested that God should D * * N America instead of BLESS her, and so on. Obama himself has not defended the comments but claims he was never physically present when these things were being said. To my knowledge, he has never said he would CONFRONT the pastor if he HAD heard them being preached, or walked out in protest, or anything of the sort. He refused, last I heard from his own lips, to disown the pastor or leave this church.

Let me respond to these things in order. It is indeed possible that Obama was never present when the pastor said hurtful and hateful remarks... though it's UNLIKELY. But ask yourself another question... how could he not have heard FROM OTHERS about the outrageous things said? If your pastor or mine preached such terrible things from the pulpit in our absence, would it not be the TALK OF YOUR CHURCH? And, if YOU are a responsible, spiritually-minded person, would someone have not told YOU of what was done, looking for a SOLUTION, or COMFORT, or PERSPECTIVE? To me if no one told Barack of what was said in his “absence” it just proves these statements were so commonplace he SHOULD have known what's going on……or that maybe he was seen as part of the “problem”, not part of a “solution”.

As for confronting a pastor, Jesus said we are "to call no man master" and if a minister is in grievous, public error we are duty-bound to "confront" him even if that means just ceasing attending his church. About 5 years ago, my pastor was found in a pro-gay statement with a liberal clergy group in a newspaper, I not only spoke to him about this (using Scripture about "light not having fellowship with darkness", etc.) but then withdrew from his fellowship when he refused to amend his ways. It does seem to me that a man aspiring to be PRESIDENT should have the discernment to see Rev. Wright was WRONG and to (at the very least) LEAVE HIS CHURCH... which is something Barack Obama failed to do. He HAS "called a man master", unfortunately. Scripture also teaches that if we can't be trusted with the lesser we shouldn't be entrusted with the greater. If a man or woman cannot act to protect the testimony of his or her own church, how can you ever count on them to defend our NATION?

The Bible talks very clearly about how "bad companions corrupt good morals" and how we are "to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them". We are also warned that "a disciple cannot be greater than his master". It would seem to me that to sit under the suspect “ministry” of someone for 20 years is going to have SOME negative effect on someone spiritually. There are rumors that Obama is a Muslim, but even if he is a CHRISTIAN, the Bible seems to warn that he can never grow beyond the level of the one whose ministry has impacted him so much. We would be very unwise to vote for him for President, while he supports a "minister" such as this because Obama's support of Wright reveals tremendous flaws in his own character.

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