« Hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow | Main | All SEIU'd up »

Thunder from the pulpit

By Al Schumann on Monday June 2, 2008 04:55 AM

Just as he tries to begin uniting a fractured Democratic Party, Senator Barack Obama is suffering from another damaging outburst from the pulpit of his longtime church, where outspoken Chicago priest Michael L. Pfleger said in a guest sermon last Sunday that Senator Hillary Clinton was a "white" and "entitled" politician staggered to see "a black man stealing my show."

Story

The Lord shall not be denied, apparently. His servants are kicking over the traces right and left.

From his bio, Father Pfleger appears to be a very good man. He has defied his church superior sin order to adopt children and has a long career in social activism, often leading to the discomfort and embarrassment of the aforementioned superiors. There's little as inconvenient to a crabbed hierarchy as a Christian who interprets the Good Word compassionately and generously.

In response to the media klaxons and hooting that greeted his relatively innocuous comments, he has published an apology. The media meat grinder has moved on to other efforts in misrepresentation and misinforming. So I doubt it will be much noticed.

Comments (4)

MJS:

Poor Father P. doesn't have anything like the institutional and cultural support that the Rev. Mr. Jeremiah Wright has. American Catholicism doesn't exactly hew to the prophetic tradition as Afro-American Protestantism does. So I for one can't blame him too much for caving in the way he did.

Still, it's a sad spectacle -- a man of God brought low by a few blow-dried journalists; a Samson yoked to the Gaza mill without even Dalila's charms to excuse his degraded state.

Perhaps Pfleger Agonistes will come roaring back and pull down a Philistine temple some day. He seems to have, as Oliver's men used to say, "the heart of the matter in him."

Al Schumann:

Under the circumstances, I can't blame him either. It's infuriating that the serving of gall and wormwood he's been given came from the hands of people who will never do a fraction of the good he's accomplished. But I think he's capable of taking it in stride, and as you say there's some strength in him.

op:

"Father P. doesn't have anything like the institutional and cultural support that the Rev. Mr. Jeremiah Wright has"

i me me i
son of a catholic
convent reared mother
turned apostate
quite effectively and righteously
hold american priests
at bay
with a ten foot pole

thanx to al's links

in a pinch
i'd let this guy
filtch
my silver candle holders

op:

"The flap prompted Cardinal Francis George of the Chicago Archdiocese, who has often clashed with Pfleger, to issue an unusual public condemnation yesterday."

words of cardinal frank :

".....Father Pfleger's remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack .I regret that deeply. To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Father Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests"

crushing support from on high hey ??

however
on a personal note :
the one big church
here displays its leninist like
cadre discipline
and that
of course
always captures my admiration

Post a comment

Note also that comments with three or more links may be held for "moderation" -- a strange term to apply to the ghost in this blog's machine. Seems to be a hard-coded limitation of the blog software, unfortunately.

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on Monday June 2, 2008 04:55 AM.

The previous post in this blog was Hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow.

The next post in this blog is All SEIU'd up.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Creative Commons License

This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Powered by
Movable Type 3.31