Obama's religious hypocrisy

Here we go again: More hypocrisy from Barack Obama, this time on the touchy topic of religion.

From a speech he gave today at the national convention of the United Church of Christ in Connecticut:

Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart.

Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us.

At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design.

There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version.

Hmmm....that's an interesting claim. Obama and his staff will have a hard time backing that one up with facts.

From the Chrisitan Coalition web site:

Our Legislative Agenda
Christian Coalition of America's Agenda
for the 110th Congress, First Session (2007)

(Here is number six):

Ensuring all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts enacted into law and due to expire in 2010 are protected

Christian Coalition of America helped President George W. Bush pass his legislation that would lower federal taxes for virtually every family (emphasis mine) in America by a total of $1.3 trillion, a bill which passed by a large bipartisan margin in the 107th Congress. In the 108th Congress, Christian Coalition helped pass a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives which would make these tax cuts permanent. The Christian Coalition fought in the 108th and 109th Congress to at least extend these tax cuts until Congress voted finally to make these necessary tax cuts permanent. This is a top goal of Christian Coalition in the 110th Congress.

AP notes that the excerpts come from advance copies of the Obama UCC speech. In my opinion, the Christian Coalition at times goes too far in mixing religion and politics, but for Obama to claim the group once had--maybe before 2007 making the Bush tax cuts permanent--could be true. But it is completely beyond belief that the Christian Coalition stated at one time "that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich."

Obama--or his speech writers--have been trolling at Democratic Underground too much, it seems.

Time for a retraction Barack, and don't blame your staff this time. Act like a forty-five year old and take some responsibility.

Now that brings me to the church Obama is a member of, the Trinity United Church of Christ. The Chicago South Side Church has a controversial Afro-centered tenet. While not as overtly poilitical as the Christian Coaltion's agenda, TUCC's covenant can hardly be called apolitical.

Obama is aware of the radical cloud surrounding his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and "The Messiah" rescinded on the night before, his invitation to the clergyman to perform the invocation before Obama's Springfield presidential announcement four months ago.

He did this to the man helped name Obama's best-selling book, The Audacity of Hope. The title comes from a Wright sermon.

Audacity.

To his credit, Wright's church has grown from a few dozen members to several thousand since he took over the helm on the early 1970s. As for the United Church of Christ as a whole, like most mainline Protestant denominations,it continues to hemorrhage membership.

Thanks for the link: This Ain't Hell, But You Can See It From Here

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