Wright and Wrong and John McCain

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is wrong, almost everyone agrees.

How could he say all those bad things about our beloved country? How could he imply that maybe the United States has not always given black people a fair shake? How could he possible think that maybe our foreign policy in some perverse way played a part in the 9/11 attacks?

No question, the Rev. Wright was wrong about some things. But perhaps he was right about other things, too.

This essay, however, is not about Wright and wrong per se. Rather it asks the question whether Barack Obama is being held to a higher or different standard by the media and by the voters, than is, say John McCain.

We all know what Wright said, or supposedly said.

However...

Rudy Giuliani is no longer running for president. But is everyone aware that Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of child molestation, as well as hiding the molestation of other people?

Giuliani did not renounce him when he was campaigning for president and this priest is still on Giuliani's staff.

Is everyone aware that the late Jerry Falwell said 9/11 was America's fault because America allowed gay people to have rights as well as liberals and feminists?

That didn't stop John McCain from proudly accepting Falwell's support, nor did it stop McCain from speaking at Falwell's university's commencement.

Is everyone aware that John Hagee has called the Roman Church the "Great Whore," that he claims the anti-Christ will be a Jewish man from the European Union, that all Muslims are trained to kill and will serve as part of Satan's army at Armageddon? Do people know Hagee said that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for the sins of the people of New Orleans?

Hagee thunders that if the U.S. does not pass a constitutional amendment recognizing marriage as only between a man and a woman, all kinds of evils will befall us -- incest, polygamy, "and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

Is all of this too much for John McCain? Not in the least. He solicited Hagee's endorsement and when he got it he said he was glad to have it!

Does anyone even know the fruitcake from Ohio, Rod Parsley? Does anyone know that Parsley believes that the United States was formed, in part, in order to destroy Islam? Islam, says Parsley, is a really bad religion with a "demon spirit," and is anti-Christ. According to Parsley, we are already involved in a war against all Muslims. And Parsley, who claims the mind of god, wishes to set up god's government right here in the United States; a theocracy. That would mean, for one thing, that adulterers would be prosecuted.

Not long ago Parsley likened Planned Parenthood to the Nazis. Parsley has also implied that the U.S. government "was complicit in facilitating black genocide."

Now, what kind of outrage would that have prompted if spoken by the Rev. Wright?

McCain, however, calls Parsley his "spiritual guide."

Why, you wonder, is Barack Obama required to fall all over himself over and over again to deny, renounce, recant, dispute, and disparage the remarks of Rev. Wright and John McCain gets a free pass with regard to all the religious hate-mongers that have gone to bat on his side?

Could it be as simple as racism? Or could it be that our media is so frightened of the power of the religious right, they're cowed into silence?

Whatever, it sure as hell ain't Right!