Defending Obama

While I do not support Barack Obama for President, for reasons of him being a liberal, I also do not support unnecessary mud-slinging to besmirch a man who, to date, has shown himself to be clean as far as politicians go.

One of the recent accusations leveled against him is that he belongs to a church that is a black separatist organization. I see no evidence that this is so.

Allow me to explain.

Yes his church is very ethnocentric toward black people. Yes it has a ten point manifesto emphasizing dedication to black people.

Yes, who really cares?

It is natural that an organization that is predominantly one ethnic group would gravitate toward a sort of ethnocentricity in its goals. So a predominantly black church emphasizing bringing black people up morally and socially is perfectly natural. I would expect something similar in any organization that is predominantly one ethnicity, especially is that ethnicity has an image problem. Yes, thanks to media emphasis on black crime, rap and hip-hop music, and other sources the black community has an undeserved image problem that is being exacerbated as youths actually adopt it in a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. And no, it does not represent a majority of the Black community no matter what anyone may think.

However, there are real problems, just as every group has real problems. So I find it a good thing that there are churches that want to focus on fixing these problems. Barack Obama’s church happens to be one of them. Good.

As for charges of black separatism based on the fact that this church is focusing on supporting positive values and ethics in the Black community . . . whatever. The church is predominantly black, and this means that it is simply serving its constituency. This is natural. And I would much rather have churches promoting positive values to various groups of people that let the Godless secularists continue to promote their destructive form of values unchallenged.

On top of that, the values being promoted in this ten-point manifesto are good ones. If the word “black” was removed from the ten points it would be praised instead of criticized. It isn’t as if this is some pretend church built around anti-Christian hatred like the Westboro Baptist Church.

So to all the critics I say, shut up. If you want to criticize the man criticize his politics, positions, and personal actions if you can find cause to do so. But do not seek to destroy a church just because it focuses on its primary constituency as a means of going after a politician.