Has Obama picked a new church?
He and family showed up today at the Apostolic Church of God where he gave a "sermon" on fatherhood - hitting Bill Cosby's themes. Should have belonged to a church like this to begin with. I think it may be too late to repair the PR damage TUCC and Jeremiah Wright caused him.
Obama tells fathers to meet their responsabilities
June 15, 2008Recommend
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com
White House hopeful Barack Obama gave a tough-love but optimistic Father's Day sermon at the Apostolic Church of God Sunday, exhorting other fathers, especially African-Americans, to meet their responsibilities.
"Any fool can have a child -- that doesn't make you a father," Obama said to cheers of agreement. "Too many fathers are missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities. They are acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families have suffered because of it.
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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speaks at the Apostolic Church of God service about fatherhood on Sunday.
(AP)
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"You and I know this is true everywhere but nowhere is it more true than in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households. Half. There's a reason why our families are in disrepair and some of it has to do with a tragic history, but we can't keep on using that as an excuse."
Obama knows the problem of fatherlessness first-hand. His father left when he was two years old, leaving him to be raised largely by his white grandparents in Honolulu.
"I know the toll it took on me not having a father in the house -- the hole in your heart when you don't have a male figure in the home that can guide you and lead you and set a good example for you," Obama said. "So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle -- if I could do anything in life, I would be a good father to my children."
Obama gave the same advice to this congregation that he has to largely African-American audiences he has spoken to around the country from Texas to Indiana: turn off the television set.
"It's a wonderful thing if you are married and living in a home with your children, but don't just sit in the house watching 'SportsCenter' all weekend long," Obama said. "As fathers and parents, we've got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and turn of the TV set once in a while. Turn off the video game and the remote control and read a book to your child."
Obama chose this 20,000-member mega church in Woodlawn because its legendary pastor, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, who retired two weeks ago after 48 years at the helm, is a friend and former law client.
"I'm the same young lawyer that helped you get a parking lot, that's all I am, I haven't changed," Obama told Brazier as he took the pulpit Sunday.
Obama has taken a lot of heat for doing legal work for now convicted developer and businessman Tony Rezko. Technically, Obama and his former law partners have argued that Obama did not work for Rezko, but for Brazier and his church groups that were partnering with Rezko to build low income housing on the South Side.
Obama's former law partner Allison Davis, who left Obama's old firm to become a developer and play a major role in putting together many of those housing projects, sat in the audience Sunday.
"I am very happy to see my dear friend Allison Davis," Brazier called out to Davis, having him stand.
Obama and his family recently quit the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, created national controversy when his sermons criticizing Hillary Clinton and blasting American foreign policy as playing a role in the 9-11 attacks.
Obama brought his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Melia with him to Sunday's service but did not announce whether he was considering making this congregation their new church.
Obama mentioned Jesus Christ many times during his sermon and said people ask him how he puts up with the rigors of the campaign.
"[They ask] How do you manage all this, folks talking about you on cable??226-130? I say, 'Trust the Lord.' I trust in the Lord. He looks after me. I also trust in the best wife that anybody could have, and the best daughters anybody could have: Melia and Sasha, who put up with me every day. They gave me some wonderful Father's Day gifts. Sasha wrote me a poem that was beautiful."
Obama said he asked his how wife why it seems to be that Mother's Day is a more highly-celebrated holiday than Father's Day and she replied, "Let me tell you: Every day is Father's Day. Every day you're getting away with something," Obama recalled, laughing.
Donald Wayne, 51, sitting with his wife and daughter, listened to Obama's sermon shouting agreement and saying, "Yes you have," when Brazier said Obama had changed the course of America.
"We need someone like Obama to tell us what fathers should be doing," he said. "You don't find Bush coming here to talk about the problems in the Black community, You don't hear Cheney."
suntimes.com
No Hamas in the church bulletin.
Bishops book pick is Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis:
acog-chicago.org
acog-chicago.org
"Bishop Brazier received his Bible training at Moody Bible Institute." A conservative evangelical Christian institution. No black liberation theology there.
acog-chicago.org
acog-chicago.org |
