Barack Obama’s friends of the cloth seem to constantly make things complicated for him. We all know that ministers are not supposed to preach politics from the pulpit. One might, by extension, argue that they shouldn’t involve themselves in public politics – in any way. Obama can’t be responsible for every goofy thing a minister says. No more responsible, anyway, than John McCain can be responsible for what Rev. Hagee says, yes? What’s good for the goose…
In my opinion, which doesn’t count for much, good, well intentioned men, ministers, friends of Obama, who mean to help, just keep hurting him more than they’re helping. Perhaps it’s the innate tendency of ministers to assert themselves into the forefront.
I don’t believe that Fr. Pfleger and Rev. Wright are bad men. Fr. Pfleger, like Rev. Wright, has done a tremendous amount of good work with the poor in Chicago. Any enemy of Jerry Springer’s is a friend of mine. Pfleger does tend toward the dramatic. He has often employed unconventional methods to make his point. Still, his recent antics in church bordered on goofy. Way over the top.
Fr. Pfleger and Rev. Wright should just stop talking about, stop preaching about, stop in any way insinuating themselves into this election. It’s not their place. Again, my opinion. By the way, Archbishop Francis George has apparently given Fr. Pfleger the not-so-subtle “quiet down” sign. No more of that, he told him. When the Archbishop speaks, people listen. Trust me. Good for him. I’d be very surprised if we hear another peep from the good Father. Again, I’m not picking on him. He’s done too much good work for that. I’m pretty confident that the archbishop is not going to have one of his own making a national scene in this election. Here’s a link to an informative piece by the AP.
I finally got up the pic of my friend, the raccoon. I want to do an experiment here and see if anybody is actually reading my blog. The raccoon is from my column about six weeks ago. If anybody reading this has a good name for the raccoon, please let me know. I should add that the beast and I have since made friends. As a matter of fact, against my wife’s advice, I fed the beast a Little Debbie snack cake from my own palm last Sunday. He’s quite unafraid of me, I assure you. He approaches me on the porch as I sit reading and expects food.
I really enjoyed talking with graduates and their parents this week. Cara Depew, who will attend the University of North Alabama, really has an international perspective. She’s a real seeker, curious about world religions and cultures. Anna Lunceford had great things to say about every church having its own character. She said that the recent turn-over in Calvary Baptist’s pastoral staff has helped her ease into the idea of change. Another neat thing Anna’s doing, that didn’t make it into the article, is participating in a Bible study with some of her fellow Tupelo High students who also plan to attend MS State. She said they’ll touch on scriptures about change, growth, and new experiences. Daniel Hoing said that the public transportation system in Taiwan is pretty good. He anticipates no problems getting to Mass. He said a lot of very poetic things about the harmony between science and faith that I didn’t have room to include. Daniel’s graduating class at Ole Miss’s Honors College was a pretty diverse group. He’s ready to travel to the other side of the world, I can tell.
I had a great conversation today with Dr. Ed Holiday and Rev. Anthony Hatch. If you were in McCalister’s Deli around 12:30 Friday, you probably got a good laugh at how many eavesdroppers were listening in. The topic: Faith healing and the big revival taking place in Lakeland, FL. My two friends first alerted me to the goings-on in Florida as we stood in front of City Hall on the National Day of Prayer. I got busy with other things and haven’t watched Lakeland as closely as I should have. Exciting, interesting stuff. To summarize, the Rev. Todd Bentley has been spearheading a huge revival there since April 2. The thing just keeps picking up speed, graduating into larger and larger arenas. I want to do an article about faith healing, using the Lakeland revival as a backdrop. Rev. Hatch just got back from there. He had lots of exciting things to say. I won’t give away all my stuff before the article, though. Maybe next week.
Thanks for your letters and emails. I love to hear from readers. God bless you all.
