Rev. Michael Pfleger continues to take heat from the comments he made about Hillary Clinton last week at Trinity United Church of Christ. Rev. Pfleger, who helped reignite Barack Obama’s pastor problems by mocking Hillary Clinton, said that he has 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.”
I was glad when Pfleger’s boss, Cardinal Francis George, intervened and 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.
Separately, I was very glad to hear the bombshell revelation that Obama had decided to leave the church. He should have done it a long time ago. While I don’t believe that the gist of Pfleger’s rant was wrong–the fact that Hillary Clinton felt she was entitled to the nomination–nonetheless, the way he said it and what he added to it were wrong.
Barack Obama should have left that church when he caught a whiff that the pastor was overly controversial. Key to that is the real reason why Oprah Winfrey left. Oprah is a smart woman who, in my opinion, was savvy enough to see that Rev. Wright’s message just didn’t jive with her image and what she was about. So, while Obama did not decide to run for the presidency 20 years ago, it is worth stating that he recognized a problem with Wright when he disinvited him to his invocation ceremony. I am not sure if his decision to cut ties with this church will quell the right-wing media and many voters who were turned off by this, but it will put to rest any other issues that emanate from this church. He clearly does not need this type of distraction.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rev. Michael Pfleger, Trinity United Church of Christ
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