Our Pastor's Keeper
by sally Quinn
Much has been made in the past week about the words of the Rev. Jeremiah A.Wright, Jr., Barack Obamas former pastor at Chicagos Trinity United Church of Christ.
Over the years the now retired Wright has made a number of incendiary comments. People have reacted most strongly to one he made five years ago. The government, said Wright, gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, No, no. God damn America! Thats in the Bible for killing innocent people.
Obama repudiated the remarks, calling them inflammatory and appalling, and vehemently condemned them. They in no way reflect and directly contradict my profound love for this country. He also added that he did not repudiate the man who had married him and his wife and baptized his two daughters and brought me to Christ.
Both Obama detractors and supporters have been asking how he could not repudiate someone who could talk that way. Do we believe in guilt by association? Do we believe, as the bible says, to blame the sin but not the sinner.
These are all important and relevant questions, questions that have cropped up much too often in this increasingly bitter campaign. This is not a new phenomenon however.
People turn to counselors, ministers, psychiatrists and spiritual advisers in times of despair, often not thinking or realizing that these people have complicated lives as well.
The very same issue came up with Bill and Hillary Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Chelsea Clinton called Jesse Jackson and asked him to come give spiritual guidance to the family. He ultimately became the Clinton familys spiritual adviser, ministering to Hillary, Bill and Chelsea, and at Hillarys urging developed a special counseling relationship with their daughter. Shortly after the Lewinsky story broke Jackson met with the three Clintons at the White House. They reportedly prayed and hugged one another under Jacksons spiritual guidance.
The night before Bill Clinton was to testify before the grand jury about Monica Lewinsky, the president called Jackson and asked him to come watch the Super Bowl with him. At first Jackson begged off, citing a previous engagement, then heeded his wifes advice. According to Jackson My wife said, your first obligation is ministerial. It is morally right.' And he was later quoted as saying that The relationship between a prophet and a president, the priest and the president is a sacred one. Jackson gave Hillary Clinton a framed photograph of himself with Chelsea, which Hillary Clinton hung in her bedroom.
The Clintons did not repudiate Jackson for his earlier comments about Jews, calling them Hymies and referring to New York as Hymietown. Nor did they repudiate him for recognizing the PLO or Yasser Arafat, or for embracing Arafat and Syrian President Hafez Assad, or for accepting Arab money for two of his organizations. (In fact, Hillary Clinton was roundly criticized by her New York constituents for embracing Arafats wife at a meeting.)
Later it was revealed that while Jesse Jackson was acting as the Clintons spiritual adviser during this troubled time, he was having an affair with a California State University professor Karin Stanford, a former staffer, and fathered her child. According to Stanford, Jackson tried to keep it quiet by asking her to sign a confidentiality agreement and by paying money to her from his charity organizations, hardly visiting the child at all. An angry Stanford remarked later that black religious leaders and congregations prayed for him (Jackson) and his family but not for our daughter (Ashley) and me. She then said, Coming at a time when (former) President Bill Clinton was being crucified for lying about his affair with a White House intern, my partner was praised by the media for his honesty.
Im sure Hillary Clinton does not support Jacksons remarks about Jews, his relationship with the PLO or his having a child by a woman other than his wife. But clearly he was able to help her at a time, as she has admitted, of the greatest crisis of her life.
This is all by way of saying that one can get solace and support from others who are mortal and human and who make mistakes like everyone else. One can repudiate their behavior but not the people themselves.
My father, an Army general, was a conservative Republican and the closest friend of Sen. Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was like a surrogate father to me. I called him Uncle Barry. I adored and admired them both. Both were great sources of wisdom and support for me throughout my life. Both were great Americans and great patriots. My father was a genuine war hero. But politically correct they were not. (Both would be over 100 years old now.) Many were the evenings when I would suffer through conversations that I found appalling. Sometimes I would roll my eyes, other times I would remonstrate them. Never, though would I have repudiated them.
I can remember one excruciating dinner at a Jewish friends house years ago where her parents were going on and on about the schwartzes (blacks in Yiddish). I thought she was going to crawl under the table.
And who can forget the Rev. Billy Grahams unfortunate conversations with Richard Nixon and H.R. Haldeman about the Jews? They made anti-Semitic jokes, talked about which reporters were Jewish and how reporting had deteriorated since more Jews had become journalists. Nixon complained (on tape) that the Jews had a stranglehold on the country and Billy Graham responded: If you get elected a second time then we might be able to do something.
Billy Graham has been a spiritual adviser to our presidents for years, including Bill Clinton and our current President Bush but none of them has repudiated him.
The point is, weve all been there, with family, friends, or spiritual advisers.
Thats what makes Jackie Jacksons (Jesses wife) remark to her husband so conflicting and so poignant. Your first obligation is ministerial. It is morally right.
God bless America.
Unaona unafiki wa akina Clinton?
