Elizabeth Hasselbeck asks "Can white people go to [Obama's] church?" I just got word that one of my friends started going to Trinity a few months ago. And whadya know, she's white! And she loves it!
It's been sad to see Jeremiah Wright's name dragged through the mud in this campaign. He's a religious giant who built an 8,000 plus congregation from scratch with a progressive and sophisticated theology. No help from the machine, either. Here's a bit from an early 2007 Tribune profile. Wright set out to show young people how other major religions also participated in the slave trade, how many abolitionists were Christians and how Jesus' concern for the oppressed related to the struggles of the black community … "What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice," Obama said. "He's much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking as truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I'm not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that's involved in national politics."
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Adam Doster, a contributing editor at In These Times, is a Chicago-based freelance writer and former reporter-blogger for Progress Illinois.
