I have been going to the same church since 1998. Before that, I was an atheist. I did study Buddhism for a while, but that is neither here nor there. I have found a new church that I am thinking about joining.

It is a decent church, based on the Bible and involved in the community. There are a few things about it that make me wonder though. They ask you to live a Biblical life, and ask that I make a commitment to God, which I’m cool with. But they go beyond the Bible. It’s these other commitments that make me think twice about joining the church.

The pastor also asks every member of the church to make a commitment to the white community, along with the white family. He preaches adherence to the white work ethic and wants me to, in essence, tithe a portion of my money to strengthening and supporting white institutions. Oh, and I have to make my skills available to the white community, when they need them. Finally, I have to make a personal commitment to the white value system, and pledge allegiance to leadership that espouse the white value system.

As you can imagine, I am a little hesitant to join a church that asks this of me. It seems to me to be a little, oh, ethnocentric.

Also, the pastor recently awarded a lifetime achievement award to David Duke. While I was in attendance at the award ceremony, I reject what David Duke stands for, even when I attend a church that praises him.

So, what do you think? Should I be a member of this church or not?

Before you answer, I think you should know that I am not serious. I am trying to make a point.

Barack Obama chose a church with a similar outlook, but with a photo negative tone. Instead of making a commitment to the white community, members make a commitment to the black community. Instead of committing to the white family, pledges are made to the black family. Instead of the white value system, members make a commitment to the black value system.

While you cannot find it there now, at one time the website for the Trinity United Church of Christ, where Barack Obama attended church for over 20 years, used to have the following posted:

“Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the Black Community
3. Commitment to the Black Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.”

Rev. Dr. Wright also gave racist, Jew-hating Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan aka, “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the ‘Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer’ Award at the 2007 Trumpet Gala held on November 2, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.” You can see the professionally produced video here.

In the November/December 2007 edition (pdf) of the church’s magazine, Pastor Wright was quoted:

“When Minister Farrakhan speaks, Black America listens,” says the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, likening the Minister’s influence to the E. F. Hutton commercials of old. “Everybody may not agree with him, but they listen…His depth on analysis when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.

“Minister Farrakhan will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience,” continues Wright. “His integrity and honesty have secured him a place in history as one of the nation’s most powerful critics. His love for Africa and African American people has made him an unforgettable force, a catalyst for change and a religious leader who is sincere about his faith and his purpose.”

Here is the perspective that Rev. Dr. Wright calls “helpful and honest.” Farrakhan said all of the following:

• The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man.
• They call them terrorists, I call them freedom fighters.
• Many of the Jews who owned the homes, the apartments in the black community, we considered them bloodsuckers because they took from our community and built their community but didn’t offer anything back to our community.
• “White people are potential humans – they haven’t evolved yet.”
• Do you mean to tell me that Jews have never done any evil to black people? …
  “Were they not involved in the slave trade? Yes, they were … and to the extent that they were involved, somebody has to bring them to account. And I believe that has fallen on me.”
• “Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET?… Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television. And they make us look like we’re the murders; we look like we’re the gangsters, but we’re punk stuff.”
• “I’m not into integration. I ain’t for that. God told the Jews, he didn’t want you intermarrying with others. But you disobeyed him. He don’t want us uniting into this that he’s come to judge… You can’t integrate with wickedness if you want righteousness.”
• Farrakhan: “Is the Federal Reserve owned by the government?”
  Audience: “No.”
  Farrakhan: “Who owns the federal reserve?”
  Audience: “Jews.”

Louis Farrakhan has endorsed Barack Obama for president. The standard line from the ObamaNation is that Barack has rejected his endorsement.

Not so fast. Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright thinks Louis Farrakhan is a great man, and called him “one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience…”

Barack Obama called Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright his “moral compass.”

Obama says that rather than advising him on strategy, Wright helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated.

“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.”

The same spiritual mentor who said:

“Fact number three: America is still the number one killer in the world.

We invaded Grenada for no other reason than to get Maurice Bishop. We destroyed Panama because Noriega would no longer dance to our tune anymore.

We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training professional killers.

We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children, while trying to turn public opinion against Castro and Qaddafi.

Fact number four: we put Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there.

We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority. And believe it more than we believe in God.

Fact number five: we supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians, and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic.”

Dr. Wright, the spiritual mentor of Barack, ended this sermon with “We pray at church and do not try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked about a reality. And, and, and… in light of these in fact God has got to be sick of this shit!”

If you thought the church I talked about joining was racist, how do you classify the church Barack Obama has attended for years? How do you classify the pastor who preaches divisive sermons, pitting race against race, and who writes praises for a racist leader?

The fact is the church and the pastor are both ethnocentric and exclusionary. And if a white candidate were to be a member of the church I talked about “joining,” they wouldn’t have a chance at being a third tier candidate. Yet Barack Obama is going to be the Democrat’s candidate in November. How is that justified? There is one possibility.

Geraldine Ferraro is being crucified by the media for saying, “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position… He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

When you look at what is written above, how can you honestly deny her point?