Thursday, March 27, 2008
This might actually help Obama:In the news (Reuters): (excerpts) Obama weathers Wright storm as new details emerge
... Trumpet Newsmagazine, of which Wright is the chief executive officer, published an article written by Wright in which he described the crucifixion of Jesus as "public lynching Italian style."
"(Jesus') enemies had their opinion about Him," Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue, according to CNSNews.com. "The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans." First things first. CNSNews.com is not the place you want to go for news. However, this is a Reuters story and it's presumably been checked out, although confirmation would be helpful. UPDATE: It has. Second, and more important, is the fact that the more that Rev. Wright looks like a nutcase, which he does here, the less attention is given to his hostile-to-whites rhetoric. Wright is also historically ignorant. The Roman Empire was not a purely "Italian" concern. Many of the emperors and high officials came from the East (present day Syria and Greece). Some were from North Africa. Etc.
posted by Quiddity at 3/27/2008 03:37:00 PM
5 comments
At least the emperors and high officials at the time were still core Italians. Roman citizenship (necessary for the high offices) was only given on a case-to-case base to non-Italians up to the reign of Caracalla and his Constitutio Antoniniana (AD 212)(and the Italians themselves got it only 89 BC and had to start a civil war to get it).
Btw, at the time of Jesus "Galilean" was almost synonymous with troublemaker (or even terrorist), so the insistence by the Jewish establishment to present Jesus as one (if we can believe the gospel)is not coincidental.
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This is not meant as a defence of Wright. The use of "Italians" in the modern sense is ahistoric in any case, the same as translating "Helvetii" as "the Swiss" or "Galli" as "the French".
HB
No, this is worse for Obama. If Wright were just a "nutcase", then he could be dismissed. But he isn't. His racist ravings are exactly 100% in line with black liberation theology, which preaches that Jesus is only for the oppressed, Jesus was anything but white, blacks are the true chosen people, and whites are evil.
The one thing that black liberation theology can never accept is the idea that blacks have succeeded in becoming liberated. If that were the case, then they would no longer be oppressed victims, and Jesus would turn his back on them.
Wright's church is the incubator of black self loathing. Obama is a product of that incubator. That's why his wife is so emotionally invested in feeling like a victim. She has been taught that being a victim of racism makes her one of Jesus' chosen people. That's how one of the most privileged black people in America can feel ashamed of her country.
And that's why Obama is so hard to parse. Quite simply, he is not being himself.
Still looks like a lynching, but it's was state sponsored so it doesn't count?
Wright is absolutely a lunatic, a total nut... He's the black Pat Robertson.
Wright's church is the incubator of black self loathing. Obama is a product of that incubator.
Here we go again with the guilt by association charge. If you want to engage in that kind of garbage, travel back in time about 55 years and introduce yourself to a man named McCarthy. He'll school you on the finer points of character assassination.
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