People have said that Sen. Obama needed to come forward and explain why he didn’t leave Trinity United Church of Christ. Today he did that in this speech. In so doing, he’s opened up new questions, questions that don’t reflect positively on him. Here’s one such passage:

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely, just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

Actually, I’ve never had a strong disagreement with anything that my pastors have said. That’s because they’ve thought things through before they said anything from the pulpit. From what I’ve seen, it isn’t that Pastor J-Wright hasn’t thought things through. It’s a matter of his letting his violent emotions control him.

That he’s allowed himself to act on these disgustingly ill-informed emotions is testament to his being unfit to be pastor of any congregation, much less of such a large congregation.

It’s also worth noting that Sen. Obama has all but admitted that he’s heard Pastor Wright at his divisive worst. He tiptoed to the edge of doing that but stopped a step short of that. I’m not convinced that he didn’t hear some of these hateful, anti-American diatribes.

Here’s another passage that jumped off the page at me:

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions, the good and the bad, of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

Again, Sen. Obama asks us to believe that a man who’s spewed this awful stuff hasn’t said anything controversial in his presence. Sorry, Sen. Obama, that just isn’t believable at this point. The vile things that Pastor J-Wright aren’t just things that he’s said from time to time. They’re part of who he is. The Bible instructs us that the things that we speak about are the things that fill our heart and head.

Pastor J-Wright didn’t just let a few angry words slip from his mouth; he’s let fly with one hate-filled diatribe after another. What does that say about where his heart was? Sen. Obama wants us to believe that Pastor J-Wright is a virtuous person. That doesn’t fit with what we know about him.

Following that, Sen. Obama launches into a history of discrimination against the black community in which he makes legitimate points. What isn’t legitimate, though, is how he uses a discussion on discrimination to distract us from his pastor. The questions raised this week aren’t being raised because of discrimination. By every measure, Pastor J-Wright has tasted America’s graces. He was a US Marine, something that should’ve given him opportunities to move beyond his anger.

For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

I can’t say that some of Pastor J-Wright’s anger isn’t justified. What I am saying, though, is that he’s supposed to have gotten beyond that by now. At some point, it’s incumbent on Pastor J-Wright to get beyond his hate.

This speech didn’t get rid of Sen. Obama’s Pastor J-Wright problem. It highlighted how TUCC was led by a hate-filled man who bought into every anti-American conspiracy theory that came down the pike.

Obama’s J-Wright didn’t disappear with this speech. He just temporarily distracted people for a day or two.

UPDATE: Jim at Gateway Pundit has a post up titled Barack Throws His Ailing Grandmother Under the Bus to Score Political Points. Consider it today’s must reading.

PS to Obama campaign: Comparing your grandmother with Pastor J-Wright isn’t the way you win white voters over. In fact, it’s a good way to alienate them.

UPDATE II: This was an inartful way of rationalizing Pastor J-Wright’s behavior. What makes it worse is that Sen. Obama said it while reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter. If he won’t stand up to a hate-filled, bigotted man, what makes anyone think that he’ll stand up to anyone?

Technorati: Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Scandals, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative