Obama's Newest Homophobic Pastor Problem

[kneelin]

From Gaywired.com

Barack Obama’s Latest Pastor Problem: Anti-Gay Rev. James T. Meeks

Article Date: 03/31/2008

By Duane Wells

Just as the dust surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s long-term association with controversial minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright has begun to settle comes new reports of the democratic presidential hopeful’s connection to another racially divisive public figure—the stridently homophobic Rev. James T. Meeks, an Illinois state senator who also serves as the pastor of Chicago’s 22,000 member strong Salem Baptist Church.
Described in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times article as someone Barack Obama regularly seeks out for “spiritual counsel”, James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.

When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2003, he frequently campaigned at Salem Baptist Church while Rev. Meeks appeared in television ads supporting the Illinois senator’s campaign. Later, according to the same Chicago Sun Times article, on the night after he won the Democratic primary, Sen. Obama attended bible study at Meeks’ church ‘for prayer’ and ‘to say thank you.’

Since that time, not only has Meeks himself served on Obama’s exploratory committee for the presidency and been listed on the Obama's campaign website as one of the senator’s ‘influential black supporters’, but his church choir was called on to raise their voices in praise at a rally the night Obama announced his run for the White House back in 2007.

Interestingly, the Chicago Sun Times has also reported that both Meeks and Obama share a history of substantial campaign contributions from indicted real estate magnate Tony Rezko.

The problem for Obama is that Rev. James Meeks, like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, preaches a message that appears to be directly at odds with the promise of hope, unity and bridging social, racial and political divisions upon which his campaign is built.

Over the years, Rev. Meeks has garnered significant media attention as a result of a number of racially charged remarks he's made from both behind and out in front of the pulpit. Most notably, in 2006, Meeks came under fire for an inflammatory sermon he gave in which he savaged Chicago mayor Richard Daley and others, including African-Americans who were Daley allies.

http://www.gaywired.com/NewsArticle.cfm?Section=132&id=18614&CFID=21558806&CFTOKEN=72180070

 

[kneelin]

You'll be hard pressed to find someone outside the gay community that gives a shit about a homophobic religious figure...get back to us if he starts cursing America or picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers.

I posted it HERE because this concerns most of us.

 

[JackFTwist]

Fuck it, damn

Obama has a pro-gay minister and belongs to the only marriage equality pro gay mainline denomination and you attack him

now because Obama as an Illinois politician has a friendship with an Illinois politician - both state senators - not even belonging to the same church body - with very separate views - especially on gay issues

damn it, you guys whine about any damn fucking thing - is this to take the attention off of Hillary's truth problems?

Meeks is a major player in Illinois politics because he has been around a long time - so they know each other and you use that to attack Obama?

Hey Hillary got experience sleeping with the guy who signed the DOM act and instituted don;t ask don;t tell - you think everyone Hiullary knows has the same views as she does?

you guys know shit about Illinois politics, you have no clue what you are talking about, but you keep talking

you note that the Rezko trial is in its fourth week right now? You know you dont know that? Because it has nothignt o do with Obama - it does with the Illinois governor - and you throw the word Rezko around like it means something

some look for anyone Obama ever knew and atatck them -

you guys are priceless, you are insults to our own candidate, why not support her by supporting her - or are we to believe that you have nothing good to say about Clinton so int he same veina s attacking Obama's kindegarden papers you know attack him for being an Illinois politician and knowing other Illinois politicians

gees how pathetic, how weak, how desparate, how revealing that you have nothing

 

[iman]

From the site, this was interesting:

"We don't have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated." "You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect this white man," Meeks said in a sermon tape which he later defended in an interview with Chicago CBS2 reporter, Mike Flannery.
And this:

On a more personal level, Meeks has reportedly blamed "Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain" and actively campaigned to defeat SB3186, an Illinois LGBT non-discrimination bill, while serving in the Illinois state legislature alongside Obama. According to a 2006 Chicago Sun Times article, his church sponsored a "Halloween fright night" which "consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals." [/quote]


If this is who Obama is going to bring us together with, leave me out.

 

[JackFTwist]

Hey iman, you want to hang out with who GHillary hangs out with?

You guys are traitors to all gaydom for advancing a candidate like Hilary who is close to people who hate like this

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/142811/index.php

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate
by Barbara Ehrenreich

There's a reason why Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" -- their term -- and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, writer Jeff Sharlet joined the Family's home for young men, foreswearing sex, drugs, and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners -- alone.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes -- knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:

During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.

At the heart of the Family's American branch is a collection of powerful rightwing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe, and Rick Santorum. They get to use the Family's spacious estate on the Potomac, the Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by the Family's young women's group. And, at the Family's frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already-powerful.

Clinton fell in with the Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, the Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."

Furthermore, the Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.

What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including new age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal Rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.

Sharlet generously attributes Clinton's involvement to the underappreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define the Family's theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worship Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as the Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power -- cultivating it, building it, and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe has said, and "build new power where we can't."

Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity Unity Church of Christ. Now it's up to Clinton to explain -- or, better yet, renounce -- her longstanding connection with the fascist-leaning Family.

 

[spiderhead]

Obama's two highest financial advisors are a gay couple.

 

[JackFTwist]

Sen. Obama's Dept of Faith should be an interesting one.

He won't have one, but cute cheap shot

your Clinton and her religious associates are the ones who want that

read my prior post

 

[seamusnewwest]

Fuck it, damn

Obama has a pro-gay minister and belongs to the only marriage equality pro gay mainline denomination and you attack him

now because Obama as an Illinois politician has a friendship with an Illinois politician - both state senators - not even belonging to the same church body - with very separate views - especially on gay issues

damn it, you guys whine about any damn fucking thing - is this to take the attention off of Hillary's truth problems?

Meeks is a major player in Illinois politics because he has been around a long time - so they know each other and you use that to attack Obama?

Hey Hillary got experience sleeping with the guy who signed the DOM act and instituted don;t ask don;t tell - you think everyone Hiullary knows has the same views as she does?

you guys know shit about Illinois politics, you have no clue what you are talking about, but you keep talking

you note that the Rezko trial is in its fourth week right now? You know you dont know that? Because it has nothignt o do with Obama - it does with the Illinois governor - and you throw the word Rezko around like it means something

some look for anyone Obama ever knew and atatck them -

you guys are priceless, you are insults to our own candidate, why not support her by supporting her - or are we to believe that you have nothing good to say about Clinton so int he same veina s attacking Obama's kindegarden papers you know attack him for being an Illinois politician and knowing other Illinois politicians

gees how pathetic, how weak, how desparate, how revealing that you have nothing

Emotional, profane, and completely undeserved regarding the original post. I hope you don't object to gay people letting other gay people know when politicians coddle and maintain homophobic allies. You are so angry, you've lost your ability to read a simple post, and you attribute everyone who has a concern as being part of the vast conspiracy.

"why not support her by supporting her". I've never actually seen you do that with your own candidate. I mean, you claim to be a preacher yourself, but you apparently have no spiritual standards to abide by. You come on here and swear at people - real ministry there. Really, I hope you are not at all representative of the preachers of your church. You also consistently raise red herrings in threads that have nothing to do with the original post, which in this case is about homophobia in political campaigns. That's been a legitimate issue for a while, my friend....for those of us who are not interested in being the house faggot for ANY politician. When it comes to gay rights, it's gay rights first. The pro gay rights candidates are already out of this race - and we as a community really didn't do much to support them. Let's not pretend we don't have a battle no matter who gets elected.

Let's not be hypocritical. If there were someone on a committee - not just a "friend" - for a conservative politician, or even Clinton, you would be outraged. There are no standards here, except to support Obama. I've said before, it's entirely possible to support him and still demand something from him, but I know that charismatic evangelical movements don't work that way. Why not demand that he ditch every hate-monger around him? Why not insist that no one be allowed to affiliate with his campaign who is going to espouse anti-gay hatred? That would be a reaction that makes sense. It wouldn't hurt your candidate now to do so. He's used those people for what they were worth to launch his political career, and he knows he doesn't really need them now.

Um, by the way, I have been involved in politics a lot. I'm not from Illinois. I'm also not from Oklahoma, but I don't need to be to decide I didn't like what homophobe Sally Kearns had to say. Personally, there's no candidate I have ever worked for who has had this kind of hate-mongering among his committee members, and if there had been, I would have resigned. It's all part of the Obama bait and switch. Vote for who you will, but on a gay site, don't swear at a gay man who makes people aware of hatred in Obama's ranks. The only thing you need to be worrying about is to hold your candidate, and his campaign, to the standards he claims to represent and uphold. End his hypocrisy - that is, after all, what Christ called the greatest sin. Yes, you can.

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[iman]

Pretty scary stuff!


http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/green-hillary

Though it still sponsors what is now called the National Prayer Breakfast, the Fellowship scrupulously avoids publicity, as Vereide insisted it must. “If you want to help people, Jesus said, you don’t do your alms in public,” Douglas Coe, the group’s leader since the late 1960s, said in a rare interview several years ago.

He (Brownback) confessed to having hated Clinton and having said derogatory things about her. Through God, he now recognized his sin. Then he turned to her and asked, “Mrs. Clinton, will you forgive me?” Clinton replied that she would, and that she appreciated the apology.

“It was an extraordinary moment,” the member told me.

This repentance fostered an unlikely relationship that has yielded political bounty. Clinton and Brownback went on to cosponsor one measure protecting refugees fleeing sexual abuse, and another to study the effects on children of violent video games and television shows. “That morning helped make our working relationship,” Brownback told me recently. “It brought me close to someone I did not ever imagine I would become close to.” Since then, Clinton has teamed up on legislation with many members of the prayer group.

 

[seamusnewwest]

I've seen that already and it's been debunked....it's a total tinhat with a kool-aid chaser cluster fuck...a lot like the "Obama is a Muslim" article that dives his supporters batshit crazy. "Secret Society", "Adolph Hitler", "sinister heart of the international right"...I cannot wait for the movie!

Jack, any idiot...well, almost...could see that the article you posted is consipiracy theory baloney. Any person who thought about it for half a minute with half a brain. But I'll tell you what. If there is any homophobic person, proven and on the record, in any official function in Clinton's campaign, I will personally write a letter demanding that person be forced to resign for their homophobic comments. And I challenge you, in return and fairness, to do that in this case regarding Obama.
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[sentirpromesas]

As much as I don't like Obama, I must say one should not judge him by who he knows. If that were true, I should be in prison for treason and conspiracy to overthrow the US government

 

[JackFTwist]

seamus writes:

"why not support her by supporting her". I've never actually seen you do that with your own candidate. I mean, you claim to be a preacher yourself, but you apparently have no spiritual standards to abide by. You come on here and swear at people - real ministry there. Really, I hope you are not at all representative of the preachers of your church. You also consistently raise red herrings in threads that have nothing to do with the original post, which in this case is about homophobia in political campaigns. That's been a legitimate issue for a while, my friend....for those of us who are not interested in being the house faggot for ANY politician. When it comes to gay rights, it's gay rights first. The pro gay rights candidates are already out of this race - and we as a community really didn't do much to support them. Let's not pretend we don't have a battle no matter who gets elected.

Friend, yes, I am a colleague of Jeremiah Wright's. You may decide in your own mid who is representative of what. Frankly, I always love non church people judging what clergy should say and do. There is a long tradition of calling shit "shit." The commandment is not use use God's name in vain, and you would look in vain for me to use God's name that way, and I do not swear at people, I would not say, "fuck you seamus" although I might say "fuck that, seamus" - very different thing from swearing at you.

I am not responsible for what you have seen and not seen at JUB. I have many threads here where I presented Obama's speeches, biography, video clips, etc etc etc. Almost always a Clinton supporter would blast me saying "we know all that stuff." But its all here, if you look.

House faggot? How odd a phrase for someone supporting a candidate who has been playing us for years and never done a thing, always an excuse... I know where Obama stands because I have been following him for 12 years and I am very comfortable with where he is for us as gay men.

I sense the tremendous dissapointment of those who felt that their dynasty was on the cusp, but elections are interesting things - sometimes the other person wins. Clinton's campaign shows why she deserves to lose, she has earned her blowing her huge lead to be unable to catch up now and just be a spoiler. How sas for her followers, but that does not excuse the most juvenile ranting and raving, infantile arguments, repeated lies and misstatements, that we have had here from the Clinton crowd. I am not thrilled with everything every Obama supporter has said, but % wise, I am comfortable there,

By the way, somewhere I picked up that you are Canadian. As they say, some of my best friends are... are you?

 

[JackFTwist]

Jack, any idiot...well, almost...could see that the article you posted is consipiracy theory baloney. Any person who thought about it for half a minute with half a brain.
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By he way, thanks for the role modeling of mature, non personal assaultive attacks.

The last book by that author was very well received. She has a good reputation. When I first spotted the article, my initial reaction was close to yours. And then I checked into it more. I am not prepared to vouch for everything that it says, but there is a lot of reason for concern there. One thing about Obama and Trinity UCC - the whole world (that cared) has always known where he goes to church. He gave the keynote speech at our last general synod where we ratified marriage equality, a gutsy move by a candidate in my opinion. This "family" thing takes on many of the characteristics of a secret society, which in fundie church terms is not the equivilant of some DiVinci Code fantasies, but the same type of clandestine operation as what spawned Moral Majority, etc, and with many of the same cast of characters. Brownbeck does not hang out with anyone, he is very careful and pragmatic and always has an end game. What is it here.

That story has been out there a while. It just seemed natural to use it tonight when we have an attack Obama thread title for a thread that is about Rev Wright, we have an attack Obama thread title (this one) because an Illinois politican knows another one. Wow. And yet you go along with two people knowing each other politically as acceptable grounds for "Obama's Newest Homophobic Pastor Problem" but you tell me that I have "half a brain" for telling about who Clinton spends a lot of time with. Hmm.. Double standard there, seamus?

You know what I think? You don;t know, but I will tell you: the obsession with defending the purity of the Lady Hillary and the viciousness of the attacks on Obama are scary. Is it she represents the Queen? Perhaps because she is the lesbian dyke icon we can all love (Bill made plain they have no sex life, Gennifer Flowers, et al). Does hse have a Margaret Thatcher thing going? Is it the image of a forbidding mother, or a favorite teacher? Any criticisms of her or her campaign is treated as if the Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven was being raped. She is defended as if she is Queen of All Purity of the Church of the Holy Perfection. There is something it seems that is scary when people forget she is just another politician. She carries no hopes - what vision does she have other than she'll be more competent than Bush. That's it, that is all she has to sell, and that is why she has rejected by the voters. Yeah, the voters took a black guy over her. In this country, that means something. And you can't figure out what it is so you attack.

I have never said of you, or anyone, about "half a brain" or other insults. I am supposed to be the bad guy but I am very straight out. I maintain my candidate's campaign with passion, but, I have tried to never go over the top or be personal in my attacks. Yes, seamus, you must be right that I have half a brain. You are right in another post that I swear (but never at people). I am a campaigner, a politician, a person with a small tolerance for slash and burn attacks. I may have not have been perfect in all things related to this campaign, but I shall sleep tonight. And I shall awake without all the rancor that we will see here tomorrow, as tonight, as every day in waves, of attack threads on Senator Obama for increasingly ridiculous and overblown things.

Lay your nickel down and choose your side.

 

[Sammie13]

Emotional, profane, and completely undeserved regarding the original post. I hope you don't object to gay people letting other gay people know when politicians coddle and maintain homophobic allies. You are so angry, you've lost your ability to read a simple post, and you attribute everyone who has a concern as being part of the vast conspiracy.

"why not support her by supporting her". I've never actually seen you do that with your own candidate. I mean, you claim to be a preacher yourself, but you apparently have no spiritual standards to abide by. You come on here and swear at people - real ministry there. Really, I hope you are not at all representative of the preachers of your church.

Thank you, seamusnewwest, that needed to be said...some of this stuff gets 'way over the top'...it's why some people don't contribute on the current events board.

 

[seamusnewwest]

Jack,

"I always love non Church people judging what clergy say and do."

There you go. I AM church people. A progressive, loving church, always consciously creating a welcoming and healing atmosphere. Is there a church where you preach and swear like that from the pulpit, fuck this, shit that? Is that the language of the loving message of Christ?

And it wasn't a comment on Obama. That's one of those red herrings I mentioned. It was a comment on how you represent him. Unless you've heard him swearing like that, but I think he would see it as inconsistent with his message of inclusion.

"By the way, somewhere I picked up that you are Canadian. As they say, some of my best friends are... are you?"

I didn't get what you are saying there. Does anyone get it?

 

[seamusnewwest]

Folks, I'd like to take the time to make an apology to Jack Twist.

We've had some back and forth here, Jack and I, but in one of my posts I publicly questioned Jack's spirituality and faith. I think that was hurtful, and it didn't stick to the issues, so I'd just like to say that I'm sorry about that, and I'll try to keep from getting personal next time.

Seamus.

 

[Kulindahr]

Homophobia in the church should be a concern of ours...but this is not Sen. Obama's newest pastor problem...it's kinda old and mostly a rehash of stuff that has already been talked about -- especially in the gay community. When Sen. Obama did his southern Bible Beaters tour he had Donnie McClurkin (ex-gay, religious fraud) and Meeks was discussed then.

But then I guess I can see why it's being called "new"...there's a video of Meeks that's been uncovered and the straight media has a non-gay angle to approach it at.

PS - I think that was a well written article.

That was a pretty good article. As with Wright, though, I'd like to know more than just the derogatory parts -- though in this case the statements don't seem exaggeration or rhetoric.

Jack, any idiot...well, almost...could see that the article you posted is consipiracy theory baloney. Any person who thought about it for half a minute with half a brain. But I'll tell you what. If there is any homophobic person, proven and on the record, in any official function in Clinton's campaign, I will personally write a letter demanding that person be forced to resign for their homophobic comments. And I challenge you, in return and fairness, to do that in this case regarding Obama.
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While a member of a neo-Pentecostal church, I heard a lot about the National Prayer Breakfast and the other things discussed in the article Jack posted. They were always mentioned as tools for getting rigid 'Christian' laws in place and rigid 'Christians' in power in Washington.
Yet there's nothing "secret" about any of it. The fact that it was mentioned in a church in COrvallis, Oregon indicated that no one was hiding anything. They just don't go out of their way to seek publicity.

How can people say Sen. Clinton won't work well with Republicans? She's in a secret society with them.

So says the article -- but as I said, there's nothing secret about it.

 

[Shafted]

I posted it HERE because this concerns most of us.

Is this reverend running for President of the United States?

No? Why the hell should we care? As if he's the first reverend to speak out against gays.

 

[kneelin]

Is this reverend running for President of the United States?

No? Why the hell should we care? As if he's the first reverend to speak out against gays.

BECAUSE as the story states - "Described in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times article as someone Barack Obama regularly seeks out for “spiritual counsel”, James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.

Would you feel equally indifferent if Obama sought "spiritual counsel" from a mass-murderer or pedophile?? IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH WHOM WE ASSOCIATE. That's "Why the hell we should care."

 

[kneelin]

^ Well, the Democratic Party is associating with him and Wright, Meeks is an elected Democratic representative AND a Democratic delegate. Your bad argument is enough to condemn the whole party.

your calling my argument "bad" doesn't make it bad
try again.