While I don’t agree with the method of delivery by Reverend Pfleger, I do agree with the message. Why is no one talking about McCain’s hateful minister? Hmmm?
Rev. Pfleger: ‘They want to kill me…it’s been ugly’
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, who helped reignite Barack Obama’s pastor problems by mocking Hillary Clinton, said this evening he’s received “thousands of hate threats” since his videotaped pulpit rant.
“They want to kill me,” Pfleger told parishioners during a service in a St. Sabina Church chapel on Chicago’s South Side this evening. “It’s been very ugly.”
(AP file)
Sweet: Obama quits Trinity United Church of Christ Churchgoers not mad at Obama Sweet: Priest rants about Hillary at Obama’s church Read more in Lynn Sweet’s blog
The firebrand Catholic Priest made his controversial Clinton comments last Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, home church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor.
Pfleger mocked Clinton for crying on the campaign trail, and suggested it was “white entitlement” leading Clinton to believe the Democratic nomination should go to her — not Obama.
His speech was videotaped, and quickly made the rounds on the Internet and on television, leading Obama to express his “disappointment” in the activist priest, whom he has known for years.
Pfleger’s boss, Cardinal Francis George, on Friday also rebuked Pfleger for his “personal attack” on Clinton, and said he had received assurances from Pfleger that he would no longer campaign for or even mention the names of political candidates.
In his brief comments this evening, Pfleger did not name any candidates, and said he would address the controversy at a Sunday mass at St. Sabina.
“I’m not going to make a statement,” Pfleger told the crowded chapel. “My real statement will be tomorrow.”
But he did say it’s been a difficult week filled with an unspecified surgery on Tuesday and a deluge of threats.
“It’s a very difficult situation,” he said. “I’ve received thousands of hate threats.”
He did not offer any specifics from the pulpit, and declined through an aide to comment further. That included declining a specific request by the Sun-Times for a comment on Obama’s decision to leave Trinity church.
That bombshell revelation came out Saturday. It followed weeks of Trinity-related headaches for the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama was a longtime member of the church. Wright married Obama and his wife, Michelle, and baptized their two daughters. But Obama had to publicly distance himself from Wright after videotaped sermons hit the Internet showing Wright criticizing the U.S. government — including exclaiming “God damn America!”
Pfleger has already apologized for his searing sermonizing, saying in a statement, “I regret the words I chose on Sunday. These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them.”
In his address at Trinity last Sunday, Pfleger began by talking about the need to expose “white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head,” according to a video clip on YouTube. Pfleger speaks of Clinton’s tearing up just before the New Hampshire primary.
“I really don’t believe it was put on,” Pfleger said. “I really believe that she just always thought, “This is mine! I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate.” And then out of nowhere came, “Hey, I’m Barack Obama,” and she said, “Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!'”
Mimicking Clinton mopping tears, Pfleger added, “She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying.”
Cypheroftyr,
You may be right. She certainly wasn’t above making use of the racial fears still run rampant in the country. (Think of her 3am phone call add, subliminally showing “white” babies in danger.) This says to me that she’s an old school politician. Same for her incredible comment about Kennedy, Bosnia lies, war vote — dirty, slimy, underhanded, cut-throat politics. Whether she actually does believe herself to be vastly superior to people of color and therefore entitled to the crown or was simply using white stereotypes, resentments and prejudices is beside the point. In either case, I don’t want her for president.
I read the Kung Fu Monkey post and found it well-reasoned and insightful. We certainly do need to get beyond the narcissism and search for external validation.
Lusofi,
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of Senator Clinton’s remarks during her campaign.
Her not so accidental slip about Kennedy being shot, her lies about Bosnia, and her war vote. I think she is racist and full of white, female entitlement.
Her campaign blatantly has said the black, poor vote doesn’t matter so why try for it.
Read the latest linked post by Kung Fu monkey at the top, then come back here.
Jamie, feel free to link away! thanks
I don’t believe Clinton is a racist in the sense that she believes people of certain races to be in some sense inferior to others, nor do I believe that she wanted to be president out of any sense of white entitlement. She felt entitled, but not because she is white. Having said that, however, I think it is undeniable that she was willing to stoop to using the racial prejudices that are still all too common in the country in a, happily unsuccessful, bid for the nomination. She also used her sex to that end. Fr. Pfleger’s sermon was extraordinarily unhelpful. When you give a sermon, you’re generally trying to get people to do something. What was Fr. Pfleger’s rant and mockery of Clinton trying to get people to do?
You missed the point entirely. Pflegers sermon wasnt about Obama. It was about little miss entitlement. Learn to comprehend and then come back to this discussion like an adult.
Obama is a light-weight. Some Obama advisor said, “Heh! Just do the Trinity press conference off the cuff!! No teleprompter!!” Big Mistake. Obama stumbled on his thoughts and words like a husband trying to explain lipstick on his underwear to his wife. Obama is an IDIOT.
Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
Hello.
I would like to put a link to your site on my blog roll if you want to do the same for mine. It would be a good way to build up both of our readerships.
thank you.