Rod Dreher Dallas Morning News column latest of many efforts to de-Christianize Obama

The Dallas Morning News began Rod Dreher's column tagged with the following question:

Do Christian conservatives tempted by (Obama) know what they're supporting?

Mr. Dreher's column is exactly what one would expect from America's so-called conservatives.  

Please read Rod Dreher's article by clicking here so that you may get the full context of his column and my post.  Here are a few lines from his article.

• Mr. Obama is not a preacher, but he gives awesome sermons. He is comfortable using religious language in his speeches, and it's easy for conservative Christians to imagine that, despite profound policy differences with the liberal Democrat, he and they share common ground.

• If so, it's probably less than they think. Mr. Obama's church is a member of the United Church of Christ, one of the more liberal mainline Protestant denominations…. Moreover, Mr. Obama has called his conversion to Christianity "a choice and not an epiphany." He writes of his experience at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ as an opening up to the social power of religion.

• The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who serves as Mr. Obama's pastor and whose sermons brought Mr. Obama to the altar for baptism, is a big fan of the black Muslim minister (Minister Louis Farrakhan). Trinity UCC's magazine gave Mr. Farrakhan, infamous for his white-bashing, anti-Semitic sermons, an award last year for his "greatness." Mr. Wright bases his own appeal on explicitly racial lines.

• Scripture says faith is evidence of things unseen. Mr. Obama's conservative admirers, in whose number I count myself, should bear in mind that he's merely a secular politician. Before putting faith in Mr. Obama, we need to see more evidence that he's not merely old liberal wine poured into an attractive new wineskin.

I have had the opportunity to hear Dr. Jerimiah Wright speak on many occasions.  Dr. Wright is an annual visitor at our church, Friendship-West in Dallas.  

Dreher refers to "anti-white" statements by Dr. Wright along with "white-bashing" statements by Min. Farrakhan. 

Is anti-racist the same as anti-white?

Is anti-white privilege anti-white?

Is anti-discrimination anti-white? 

Is anti-Bush the same as anti-white? 

I hope not, I'd have to tell all of my Anglo friends and acquaintances that I too am anti-white. 

And while Mr. Dreher was making a list of Dr. Wright's friends to include "the black Muslim minister," why didn't he include Father Michael Pfleger, the white Catholic pastor of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina in Chicago?  Oh yeah, Christian conservatives don't care much for Catholics either.

Dreher quotes a 2007 Rolling Stone article that refers to Obama having "…as openly radical a background as any significant American political figure has ever emerged from, as much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King Jr."  On the eve of the King holiday, Mr. Dreher reminds us that Dr. Martin Luther King was seen as radical his day.  The Great Debaters' Melvin Tolson rightly suggests Jesus was a radical in his times as well. 

Lumping Obama in with statements that Farrakhan made 20+ years ago and Dr. Wright's anti-white privilege message can make conservatives feel better about bypassing Obama.  What better way to clear one's conscience than to believe that the Senator has underlying hate issues. 

Mr. Dreher says Obama is merely a secular politician.  What was Sunday School teacher Bull Conner?  The Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner ordered dogs and fire hydrants on peaceful protesters.  

What was Trent Lott?  Lott was a big hit with Christian conservatives but said "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him." 

Lott went on to say "We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

What would that make George W. Bush? 

Mr. Dreher can have his conservative religion and I'll take the radical one.  I'll take the religion criticized for healing a lame man on the Sabbath.  I'll take the one that fed those who were hungry.  I'll take the one that urges us to visit those who are in prison.  Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and visiting prisoners are liberal social issues in today's America.

I assume these are the issues that drew Sen. Obama to Dr. Jerimiah Wright and Trinity.  They are what drew my pastor, his son in the ministry, to his teaching.  They are also what have drawn me to his message as well.

Mr. Dreher's column is more old wine poured in more old wineskin, stale with no hope of stretching beyond where it's always been.