This weekend, Barack and Michelle Obama resigned their membership at Trinity United Church of Christ. I was initially disappointed in the Obamas, thinking that the media has now made Barack into the kind of politician he had thus far avoided becoming.
I see now that their decision is also related to the way the media treated Trinity, Dr. Wright and their current pastor, Rev. Otis Moss. No church member anywhere would want their church to come under the kind of scrutiny to which Trinity has been subjected by a ruthless media. Members who are dying in hospice care have received phone calls from heartless reporters trying to dig up dirt on TUCC and Obama. This is despicable.
As a letter on the UCC website points out, it is getting increasingly difficult for public figures to be active members of churches. That is, churches that make any statements about the gospel of justice. A church is okay so long as it descriminates against gays and lesbians, promotes sexism and patriarchy, is pro-gun and anti-abortion. This fits into the overly simplified view of what the media expects a 'church' to be. But a pastor better keep their mouth shut on issues about racism, homophobia, systemic oppression of the poor and the sick, sexism, xenophobia and American fascism. The media are being complicit in the anti-intellectual, conservative agenda that church is the place where people's prejudices are justified, not where they are called to love one another.
I realize the media have no religious obligations, and they have proven in their treatment of Obama that they have no moral obligations either. In a world where George W. Bush got a free pass to start an unnecessary war, Barack Obama gets humiliated into resigning his church membership. Something is terribly wrong here.
Remember friends that you have a choice. Every time you click on MSNBC, Fox News or CNN, their advertisers know it, and buy advertising accordingly. The more you choose other media outlets like NPR, or even foreign sources, like the BBC, the less power is given to the American corporate media.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
NPR and the BBC over such bastions of journalism like CNN, MSNBC, and FOX? Surely you jest my friend. Why would any right-thinking, red-blooded American prefer intelligent, detailed reports on current events when they can watch the disrespectful shouting matches and agenda driven reporting that is 21st century mainstream American journalism. All true Americans know that folks like Sean Hannity are the greatest of all Americans and the likes of Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers are nothing more than Communist dupes. You better be careful because making comments like this because someday a politician might have to leave the church your are pastoring as Obama had to leave his. It would politically dangerous to be associated with a pastor that says such things![sarcasm button now off]
Seriously, excellent post and good luck in your pastoral studies.
Post a Comment