The behavior of November voters regarding the TUCC kerfluffle will be interesting.

The Racial Hatred Thing
You believe TUCC kerfluffle is about voters’ concerns about racism (or racial revolution?). I think you are correct about some smallish yet definite number of voters. For myself: I doubt Barack has racial hatred in his heart.

The Racial Assumption Thing
Does Barack have ludicrous, BLT-influenced racial assumption running around in the nooks and crannies of his thinking? I would have more confidence if Barack renounced the racial assumptions of both BLT and TUCC, then asked forgiveness for having the bad judgment to sit in a church preaching a BLT racial message.

The Judgment Thing
B/C Barack – through no fault of his own – has a thin resume by which voters can judge him: the judgment thing is big with him. Voters are looking for evidence of his good judgment. Barack’s having sat in TUCC pews, and listened to racially tinged BLT sermons, definitely hurts him with voters. Of the several factors in this kerfluffle, the judgment thing is the biggest negative Barack faces.

The Repentance Thing
The good news, imo: Americans love a repentant sinner! If Barack has the good judgment to admit he had bad judgment: Americans will love him for it! I think TUCC is both a crisis and an opportunity for Barack.

The Economic Policy Thing
For myself, the racial stuff and the racial bad judgment stuff is not my major TUCC issue. My major issue is the “institutional wealth distribution” part of the BLT message: 1) it goes against what America stands for; 2) it’s a concept which is proven to lead to economic disaster. It seems as if Barack does believe in this aspect of the BLT message – and that’s a deal breaker for me (though there are other deal breakers for me re: Barack). However, the bad policy of “institutional wealth distribution” will sway very few voters. It will sway me, and … maybe 150 other voters! Heh.

Best luck to you.

The problem is: the founder of Black Liberation Theology, James Cone, named TUCC as the church which most embodies his BLT message. McClatchey News quotes Cone from the 1980s:

“Together, black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us the way to build a completely new society.”

and from April 2008:

“I’m not a Marxist. . . . I’m a theologian, and I want to change society. I was searching for my way forward. I want a society in which people have the distribution of wealth, but I don’t know how quite to do that institutionally.”

Here is Cone’s most famous quote:

“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

Barack’s 20 years in the pews disqualifies him from garnering enough votes to become President – unless he 1) renounces BLT and TUCC, then 2) publicly repents from his bad judgment in belonging to a BLT church.

Our nation is not about institutionally distributing wealth, and our nation is not about a “white enemy”. It’s unacceptable that Barack sat and listened to such pap for 20 years.

BLT is – still is – THE theology of TUCC. Voters will not believe Barack was absent when BLT economics and politics and theology was preached. I don’t believe it. I believe Barack was attracted to TUCC because of BLT – as evidenced by his citation (in his book: Dreams of My Father) of this Jeremiah Wright quote as being part of what originally attracted him to TUCC:

“White folks greed runs a world in need.”

I’m uncertain if Christian theology, in and of itself, would’ve had enough appeal to attract Barack. I think Barack was attracted by BLT’s combination of wealth redistribution economics, racial politics, and Christian theology.

I feel for you, b/c this is bad news and you likely have wonderful hopes for Barack. The good news is: Americans love a sinner who confesses. If Barack repents for sitting in those pews, America might love him even more for undertaking such a humble and sincere act. My gut tells me it would save his candidacy.

1) rebuking the church, and
2) repenting from your acceptance of it’s Marxist economics and it’s racist ideology.

No one who endorses Black Liberation Theology can garner enough votes to be President … UNLESS they repent their misguided ways. Barack did not repent. He said TUCC deserves no criticism.

Barack is in a crisis, yet he doesn’t seem to realize it. Many voters who previously did not believe TUCC was racist … will now (correctly) interpret Barack’s leaving as admission that the church espoused some racist ideology. These voters will wonder: Where is Barack’s admission of and apology for his bad judgement in staying 20 years? Barack is in crisis, and he appears blind to it.

Former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myer’s husband has a long and brutal piece in this month’s Vanity Fair about the post-presidential life of Bill Clinton. The most explosive part of it is that it alleges that Bill Clinton carried on an affair with Walter Mondale’s daughter while he was president.

We need to put an end to their dreams once and for all.