Mr. McCain's pastor would have us make war on 2 billion muslims.........to "destroy Islam" ... and how would that happen? Nuclear bombs on three continents? I think prescribing nuclear war is a far more serious enterprise than someone going off on America..........and telling us that it needs to search its soul, which I agree with.

And amazingly, while some are actually defending Wright's words

Someone explain how after someone (or multiple someones) posts part of an article and asks a question about it's logic it makes sense to just post the entire article?

And, you're still deflecting. When ya gonna answer?

There is little left to say to you, Violet. Seriously. And I know when not to waste my time. I think we're both clear on one another's perspectives. Further discussion upon this particular topic with you is futile.

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it.

Why would McCain court Parsley? He has long had trouble figuring out how to deal with Christian fundamentalists, an important bloc for the Republican Party. During his 2000 presidential bid, he referred to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance." But six years later, as he readied himself for another White House run, McCain repudiated that remark. More recently, his campaign hit a rough patch when he accepted the endorsement of the Reverend John Hagee, a Texas televangelist who has called the Catholic Church "the great whore" and a "false cult system." After the Catholic League protested and called on McCain to renounce Hagee's support, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee praised Hagee's spiritual leadership and support of Israel and said that "when [Hagee] endorses me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for or believes in." After being further criticized for his Hagee connection, McCain backed off slightly, saying, "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics." But McCain did not renounce Hagee's endorsement.

McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state. Considering that the Ohio Republican Party has been decimated by various political scandals and that a popular Democrat, Ted Strickland, is now the state's governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding Parsley and his anti-Islam writings. Parsley did not return a call seeking comment.

"The last thing I want to be is another screaming voice moving people to extremes and provoking them to folly in the name of patriotism," Parsley writes in Silent No More. Provoking people to holy war is another matter. About that, McCain so far is silent.

Ron Parsely is not McCain's personal pastor. Ron Parsely is not McCain's spiritual advisor. McCain stated that Ron Parsely is "a spiritual advisor."

McCain has merely accepted an endorsement from this person.

McCain is like any other professional politician, including Obama; he is not above accepting dubious political endorsements. None of them are. Don't delude yourself to the contrary.

Bush praises baptists despite leading pastor's anti-muslim rant

Church & State, Jul/Aug 2002

President George W. Bush addressed a national meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) June 11, one day after a denominational leader bitterly attacked Islam and told pastors attending the convention that many of America's problems can be blamed on religious pluralism.

The Rev. Jerry Vines, a former SBC president, blasted pluralism at a pastors' meeting June 10, telling attendees that people who believe in religious diversity "would have us believe that Islam is just as good as Christianity, but I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Islam is not just as good as Christianity."

Vines, currently pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., went on to say, "Christianity was founded by the virgin-born Jesus Christ. Islam was founded by Mohammed, a demonpossessed pedophile who had 12 wives and his last one was a 9-year-old girl. And I will tell you, Allah is not Jehovah either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people."

The Rev. Jack Graham, the newly elected SBC president, endorsed Vines' comments, calling them "accurate." Muslim groups were outraged.

"It's really unfortunate that a top leader in a mainstream Christian church... would use such hate-filled and bigoted language in describing the faith of one-fifth of the world's population," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations in Washington. "This is the level of bigotry that requires a clear statement from the top leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200207/ai_n9101237

Bush Spiritual Confidante Backs Obama

January 23, 2008 12:16 PM

ABC News' Jennifer Parker Reports: A longtime spiritual confidante of President George W. Bush is backing Sen. Barack Obama in the '08 race.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor of Winsor Village United Methodist Church in Texas, plans to campaign for Obama, and says the Illinois senator may even pay a visit to his 15,000 -member church.

Caldwell, a highly influential black pastor in Texas, advocates taking "sanctuary" to the streets.The endorsement comes as Obama is engaged in a pitched primary battle in South Carolina, where black voters make up about half of the state's registered Democrats.

He told the Houston Chronicle's Ruth Rendon that he's endorsing Obama because of the senator's "character, confidence and courage."

The pastor said he called President Bush to tell him about his decision and Bush was "okay" with it, reports the Houston Chronicle.

In an interview posted to the spiritual website Beliefnet.com, Caldwell said he has prayed with Bush over the phone several times, and believes the president is comfortable with him because both are "known as straight-shooting CEO-types who don't get tangles up in a lot of introspection."

Caldwell introduced Bush at the 2000 Republican nomination and gave the benediction at both of Bush's inaugurations.

He said Obama "would do a wonderful job to bring people together to pursue a common vision we all have," reports the Chronicle.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/bush-spiritual.html

Black Pastors White House Visits On Blast
Posted December 18, 2007

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Polticial Producer

Posted Dec. 18, 2007 – Black ministers who have quietly met with the Bush administration at the White House regarding faith-based incentive dollars may now find politics from the pulpit risky business. Their names and visits will now become part of the public record.

A federal judge’s ruling Monday was a blow to the Bush administration, which had hoped to keep records private showing visits by prominent conservative religious leaders.

The judge rejected the White House’s argument and ordered the information be turned over to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the liberal watchdog group that made the request.

Early in the Bush administration, senior adviser to the president, Karl Rove, arranged several meetings with Bush and religious leaders to develop a “buy-in strategy” for Bush’s new faith-based incentives.

Some folks agreed to meet because the meetings were behind closed doors and their attendance and the topics discussed were not available for public consumption.

Several well-known African-American pastors were included in one of the first such meetings in March 2001. After the meeting, Bush told reporters, the ministers are “very crucial for helping change” their communities.

“Many of those preachers are bishops over churches that have got great programs and change people’s hearts and provide hope in neighborhoods where there is no hope,” Bush said at the time. “So I view them not as agents of politics; I view them as agents of change.”

Claude Allen, Bush’s former domestic policy adviser, along with Rove, arranged meetings with Black ministers, including the Rev. T. D. Jakes, of Dallas; the Rev. Kirby John Caldwell of Houston; and Bishop Eddie Long, of Atlanta.

Some Black pastors were more public about their support: Caldwell delivered the prayer at Bush’s inaugural in 2005. But others were more low key and had hoped to keep their attendance at these pow-wows, hush-hush.

That’s why Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wanted to know who was meeting with the administration. They went to court to get the Secret Service to turn over visitor logs about nine conservative religious commentators, including James Dobson, Gary Bauer and Jerry Falwell, with whom the president met.

Anne L. Weismann, the watchdog group’s chief counsel, told The Associate Press. “The judge saw their arguments for what they were.”

It will be interesting to see exactly which Black religious leaders met with the Bush administration over the last six years.

http://blogs.bet.com/news/pamela/category/president-bush/

President and Mrs. Bush Saddened by Death of Jerry Falwell


RSS Feed White House News

Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Jerry Falwell, a man who cherished faith, family, and freedom. As the founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jerry lived a life of faith and called upon men and women of all backgrounds to believe in God and serve their communities. One of his lasting contributions was the establishment of Liberty University, where he taught young people to remain true to their convictions and rely upon God's word throughout each stage of their lives.

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Macel and the rest of the Falwell family.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070515-8.html

Dobson, a psychologist by training with a Ph.D from the University of Southern California, nurtured the FOF ministry while largely staying out of the political limelight. Instead, he published reams of books, pamphlets, news­letters on parenting advice, albeit with evangelical underpinnings, and increasingly bashed gays as dangerous to children and Americans’ well-being in general.

His first book, Dare to Dis­cipline, sold more than 3 million copies, according to FOF’s website, and was a call for parents to be sterner in the rearing of children. His latest book, Marriage Under Fire, warns of a nation “Hurtling Toward Gomorrah.” According to Dobson, gays, “radical feminists,” “liberal lawmakers” and Hollywood filmmakers have gone unchallenged in their zeal to bury values Americans celebrated in the 1950s with calls for civil rights for gays, gender equality and too much sex and violence in music and movies.

http://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7195&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=cs_

Obama denounced and rejected Farrakhan's endorsement several weeks ago

and those wagging their finger because Mr.Obama is closely associated with him.

There seems to be a growing segment of society that is more concerned with a candidates religious affiliations than their political ideology.

Theocracy here we come!

How come a serving President, with a guy like Falwell VISITING the White House (and being officially mourned by the President) raised ZERO eyebrows ?

He was already elected, and not one of the people I'm seeing here expressing such outrage probably even gave it a second thought.

Maybe a few of Jerry's videotaped rants should have been posted on YouTube and tied to Bush.

We all must keep in mind this context, too, that churches like Trinity are not all that unique in their radicalism. Many popular black-centered churches are vociferously anti-Bush, anti-White, and pro-African-American

Any Christ centered Church is not anti-anything.