Well, there you have it, remarkably counterintuitive, and you are reading it right. Gary McCullough, who runs the Christian Newswire, a press release service whose clients (and proprietor) are conservative, sent out a release of his own this morning, arguing that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "God damn America" statement is not different from the statements of pro-life pastors who claim that God's judgment will come down on America for allowing abortion:
As a strident anti-abortion activist, I have listened to countless sermons that have included the speakers commenting on God's judgment of America for the destruction of innocent life. So when I first heard Wright's "most popular" quote, "God bless America ... No! ... God damn America ... for killing innocent people ... for treating her citizens as less than human," I said to myself, "Obama's pastor sounds like he is pro-life."
Monday at the National Press Club Rev. Wright pointed out an indispensable foundation for the attacks he is receiving -- the misunderstanding of the style of prayer and preaching used in black churches today.
Can I hear an Amen?
I caught up with McCullough this afternoon, and he told me that although he has issues with other statements Wright has made, and realizes that Wright was not talking about abortion in the damning sermon, he has found himself defending Wright for the "God damn America" comment, and also defending Barack Obama's "bitter" comment to his conservative friends. "Never," said McCullough, "did I think that he [Wright] was anti-American. ... God, who is the creator of the world, has the right to punish the world if he wants to, or to judge the world, or to damn the world. Most white guy Protestants don't use that word, but he was saying something that I've heard so many times, just with a little different phrasing."
As far as Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" remark, McCullough characterized it as Obama being descriptive of people's "condition and their soul. About them and their attitude about society . . . . I didn't think of it at all as a put-down of middle America or Joe Religious Person." How did his conservative friends and colleagues react when he defended Obama? "Nobody argues with me. I think people have come to realize that's just the way it goes. You say something that can be used against you, and you're going to get hit over the head, and that's just the way it goes. If it happens to someone on the other side, you figure, what the heck, it's not my guy."
--Sarah Posner
