News Week Wrap Up – May 6, 2008

By Andrea Lafferty, TVC Executive Director

May 6, 2008 – Did Senator Barack Obama use a disrespectful gesture when he was discussing Senator Hillary Clinton on April 17? The YouTube video shows Obama putting a finger to his face while giving a speech – and the audience certainly seemed to have recognized the disrespectful gesture because they burst out laughing. He then smiled and laughed as if to acknowledge that he’d deliberately made an obscene gesture. Watch the video and make up your own mind: Did Obama give Hillary the finger?***
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Defends His Views. Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on September 28, and defended his controversial views on a wide variety of issues. The video of his entire speech and the Q&A afterward, is available on the C-Span web site. The full transcript of his speech is also available.

During the Q&A session, Rev. Wright defended comparing our American military to the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. He compared our military presence around the world to 1st Century Roman tyranny, referring to America as imperialistic.

He also:

Defended his belief that the American government created AIDS as a way of destroying African-Americans;
Defended his long-time friendship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan;
Stated that belief in Islam was a way of gaining entrance into heaven. He justified this by quoting Jesus discussing “other sheep not of this fold.”

TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon reacted to Wright’s answer about Islam and heaven:

Rev. Wright’s answer to the question fell far short of stating that the Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose origin is without beginning and without end. His words completely denied the Saviorhood and Redeemership of our Lord Jesus Christ. It appears that both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed have little, if any, place in his understanding of who Jesus Christ is to the Body of Christ.

Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life – and that no man comes to the Father except through him. The Bible doesn’t say there are many paths to God.

During the Q&A, he also claimed that Sen. Obama had distanced himself from some of Wright’s statements in order to be elected President.

In the speech, Wright stated his support for black liberation theology and the chief advocate of this theology, James Cone, whom he referred to as his friend.

Cone has written: “This country was founded for whites and everything that has happened in it has emerged from the white perspective….What we need is the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.”

Obama Now Disavows Wright’s Statements. After remaining in Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years, Senator Obama went public yesterday to disavow the statements Wright made at the National Press Club.

According to Obama, “The person I saw yesterday was not the person I had come to know over 20 years. He was pained and angered about what had happened previously during the first stage of this controversy. I think he felt vilified and attacked, and I understand he wanted to defend himself. I understand that he's gone through difficult times of late and that he's leaving his ministry after many years. That may account for the change. But the insensitivity and the outrageousness of his statements and his performance in the question and answer period yesterday I think shocked me; it surprised me.”

The statements Wright made at the National Press Club are views he has long held and preached on in his church for decades.

***

A lesbian living in Vermont is seeking custody of a child from a broken relationship. The other woman, who lives in Virginia, became a Christian and is the biological mother of the six-year-old girl. The case is now before the Virginia Supreme Court. The lesbian claims that because the mother became a Christian, she is no longer fit to be the mother of her child.

The case pits the state marriage laws of Virginia and Vermont against each other – which is probably the real reason behind the lesbian’s efforts. The Virginia Constitution forbids the state from recognizing homosexual unions from other states; Vermont recognizes homosexual civil unions. The Vermont Supreme Court has granted the lesbian parental visitation rights to the child even though the child and her biological mother live in Virginia.

TVC long ago exposed the real agenda behind the effort to legalize homosexual marriage. The goal is to destroy the concept of marriage altogether!

The issue of marriage between a man and a woman is a federal issue, not a state issue. There can’t be 50 different laws on marriage. There should be one standard for all states. This is why a federal marriage amendment is important. Such an amendment, however, should ban homosexual civil unions, domestic partnerships or any other relationship that fakes traditional marriage.

***

United Methodists uphold traditional marriage. On April 30, the United Methodist General Conference voted down a proposal that would change the Book of Discipline to condone homosexual marriage. The Minority Report that was passed affirms marriage between a man and a woman and says that marriage is a “covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.” African and over-seas delegates provided the margin for victory in preserving marriage as a heterosexual institution.

***

‘Basic Instinct’ Producer Paul Verhoeven claims Jesus was son of Mary and a Roman rapist. Verhoeven is publishing a book in September that claims Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the result of a rape.

Verhoeven has been a regular attendee at the Jesus Seminar, where liberal scholars gather to debunk the miracles of the Bible and to question the divinity of Jesus Christ.

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Check out the latest TVC comics! The latest is on F.I.B.S., Fact Immune Bias Syndrome, a virus that has spread among politicians this election year. It makes political leaders unable to tell the truth or determine fact from fiction.

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