About
Michael L. Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. I live in Louisville, KY USA with my wife, Kate, and our two wonderful daughters. My wife, Kate, is a Baptist minister. Our daughters are Molly (’95) and Miriam (’99). I am a former soldier converted to gospel nonviolence and a once (and future?) academic theologian turned peace activist, author, and peace educator. Contact me at mlw-w@insightbb.com
The Levellers were a 17th C. movement during the English Civil War. They were a religiously-inspired political movement for democracy, human rights, justice for the poor, and peace. Their strongest leader was Richard Overton, a pacifist General Baptist influenced by Dutch Mennonites. In the spirit of Overton and the Levellers, this is a series of “Leveller Manifestos” for 21st C. U.S. life.
Rules for commenting on this blog: 1) Respect everyone, even when you disagree strongly. 2) Keep comments relatively short. If you need a long post on your own blog, I’ll follow you there to see what more you have to say. 3) Stay on topic, please. 4) Don’t hog the conversation; let others have a turn. Failure to follow these simple rules could lead me to removing your comment(s).
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Recent Comments
Michael,
In your posting this, does this mean you consider it fair game to go after Obama and his Wright position?
You wrote in one piece you are concerned about the issues and we should get away from the Wright stuff and bowling, etc., but now you are posting this. So are ministers and acquaintances issues or not? Is Ayers an issue? Is Rezko an issue? If not, why is Hagee an issue? Because McCain is running against Obama, so now it matters?
Do you consider Obama’s twenty year relationship with Wright the same as Hagee and McCain?
From a previous post, I guess you consider Wright’s views despicable now that Obama does. But what did he say that he hadn’t said before? All he did was confirm that no one was taking his sound bites out of context. That is what he believes.
Do you view Hagee as a reason to vote against McCain and consequently is everyone else justified in viewing Wright as reason for not voting Obama?
BTW, are you aware that McCain is not a member of Hagee’s church nor has he ever been mentored by Hagee?
Excuse me, but sentence one in post #1 should read “Obama and his Wright relationship?” Sorry.
Michael,
I have to agree with Yvette here, you seem to suggest by posting this that it is fair to criticize McCain for statements made by pastors he is associated with, yet you seemed very clear that you believed it was inappropriate for people to do the same to Obama.
I just don’t think you can have it both ways - either it’s appropriate or inappropriate across the board. There shouldn’t be any double standard on this issue, which is exactly the reason why I had the reaction I did to the Rev. Wright affair.
Yvette,
Whether or not Obama’s relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright should be fair game, it has dominated media discourse, as you no doubt have noticed. Since this “issue” has been used to question his judgment, and by extension his fitness for the presidency, it is now only fair that other candidates be subjected to the same kind of scrutiny. Anything less would, in my mind, be racist.
As for McCain and Hagee, you are of course right that McCain is not a member of Hagee’s church. And I suspect you know that Michael is aware of this as well. However, McCain actively pursued Hagee’s endorsement. This is significant, and if Obama must answer questions ad nauseum about his relationship with the now retired pastor of his church - the largest congregation in the UCC, a predominantly white denomination - then McCain should be asked at least once about his relationship with Hagee; a relationship which he voluntarily initiated for political reasons when he sought Hagee’s endorsement.
Sandalstraps,
“then McCain should be asked at least once about his relationship with Hagee”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/20/mccain-struggles-to-expla_n_97639.html
There’s your at least once.
Yvette as Chris (Sandalstraps) says, I just want the same standard applied to other candidates as applied to Obama. Neither McCain nor H. Clinton wears flag lapel pins, either, but only Obama is attacked for being unpatriotic for not wearing one!
It is true that McCain is not a member of Hagee’s church, but he ACTIVELY SOUGHT his endorsement when Hagee was considering endorsing other (then-viable) GOP candidates.
D. R., I think there was some legitimacy to asking Obama SOME questions about Wright, but not the media feeding frenzy to the exclusion of legitimate campaign issues–and NOT with a double-standard of not looking at radical preachers associated with OTHER campaigns. As Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) rightly reprimanded the talking heads as MSNBC, “You people need to let this go. What began as a legitimate news story has long since ceased to be more than a distraction from the real issues of the campaign.”
When we have the FBI director saying that didn’t investigate illegal torture by the CIA when he knew they were engaging in such acts…
When the Secretary of State is caught in a blatant lie to Congress about torture…
When the General in charge of post-invasion Iraq is criticizing Rumsfeld for lying about what he knew of the failed post-invasion plans…
The media focuses on Rev. Wright.