Now, it's only natural that Obama's supporters would like to change the subject from All-Wright-All-The-Time, and talk about, you know, important stuff_{MR SUBLIMINAL Ponies for everybody!!!!!} (at least when they're not imagining Hillary's death as the solution to all their problems). Kevin Drum, quoting John Cole, is typical:

Maybe it is because I am totally and unrepentantly in the tank for Obama, but I just can't get worked up over what his pastor said ... Or maybe I just refuse to spend any more time and energy getting worked up over and denouncing, distancing, and rejecting the wrong people — people who really don't matter in the big scheme of things.

What he said.

Nice try.

To begin with, it was Obama himself, all on his own, who decided to make his religious choices part of his political appeal. Here's Obama in October 2007 on religion in politics:

Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama told Sunday worshippers.

The senator from Illinois delivered his campaign message to a multiracial evangelical congregation in traditionally conservative Greenville, South Carolina. "I think it's important, particularly for those of us in the Democratic Party, to not cede values and faith to any one party," Obama told reporters outside the Redemption World Outreach Center where he attended services.

"I think that what you're seeing is a breaking down of the sharp divisions that existed maybe during the '90s," said Obama. "At least in politics, the perception was that the Democrats were fearful of talking about faith, and on the other hand you had the Republicans who had a particular brand of faith that oftentimes seemed intolerant or pushed people away."

He finished his brief remarks by saying, "We're going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."

Obama's South Carolina campaign is in the midst of promoting Obama's values through a grass-roots effort called "40 Days of Faith and Family," which is reaching out to primary voters through gospel concerts and a series of faith forums.

So, I think it's entirely righteous that Obama's choice to use religion as a political tool should have consequences, and I hope those consequences are very, very bad indeed for Obama, because I'm sick of politicians pimping out their Gods to the voters. It's disgusting, and the public square needs a lot less of this behavior, and not more. (Matthew 6:2). It's even more disgusting when Democrats do this, because when they do, they're ripping out and re-using one of the uglier pages from Rove's playbook.

Yes, Obama made his bed; now let him lie in it. If people look seriously at the religious commitments that Obama made and then ran on -- and let's remember that Obama gave Wright's church $22,500 in just one year, so his commitment was very solid -- and reject Obama on the basis of his choice, is there any reason that's not an entirely legitimate decision? Apparently, not everyone thinks as highly of Wright as Obama does did. So what? Obama's the one who put his own religious practice in play as a reason to vote for him, so turnabout is fair play: His religious practice can also be used as a reason to vote against him. Why not?

Finally, the relation between religion and politics is important. Arguably, the people Cole wants to talk about -- the people who "matter" in the "big scheme of things" -- got to where they mattered exactly because they exploited religion for political gain. Obama tried, and his effort blew up in his face. None of this "matters"?*

O felix culpa!

Ok, yes I saw the Wright speech on CNN tonight. I know I saw it because I just saw another thread on corrente where Wright talked about the right-brained creative black child vs the wrong brained who-gives-a-damn white child. I thought that I had fallen asleep on the couch and dreamed that. Now I have to reconcile reality with um reality. Yes, Virginia this is 2008 not 1846.
Letting that sink in.
Wright went on to say in a tone that was as if all whites during desegregation ran and met in a big assembly room and said "we know what to do, they are right-brained creative AFRICAN children, we will desegregate thus keeping them down forever and ever!"