Thursday, May 29, 2008

Obama-Supporting Catholic Priest Thinks White People Should Give Up 401(k) Accounts to Make Amends for Slavery [UPDATED]

(Hat tip: The Cranky Conservative)

We all remember the Catholic priest who Sharptonesquely called for the "snuffing out" of Chicago gun shop owners, right? Well, "Fr. Flakey" is back in the news, this time doing his best Jeremiah Wright impersonation:


This YouTube is now being sent to me by many readers. I'll have a transcript in a moment, but it features one of Obama's close friends, Fr. Michael Pfleger, preaching at Trinity United. This seems like an oddly-timed sequel to the Wright brouhaha, as we now have another Obama mentor giving a strikingly similar message.

UPDATE: Much like written words don't do justice to Jeremiah Wright's sermons, the video must be watched to be believed...

I must now to address the one who says, 'don't hold me responsible for what my ancestors did.' But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did! And unless you are ready to give up the benefitsThrow away your 401 fund! [sic] Throw away your trust fund! Throw away all the money that been put away in the company you walked into 'cause your daddy and your granddaddy and your great grandaddy —
(emphasis added)
Sound like many white people you know? Yeah, me either.

But wait, there's more:
... [garbled] expose white entitlement. And supremacy, wherever it raises its head. I said before, I really don't want ot make this political, because you know I'm really very unpolitical...

***
Imitating Hillary's response, screaming at the top of his lungs again, he continues, 'Ah, damn! Where did you come from? I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!'

(mocks crying)

She wasn't the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying!


[read the whole thing and watch the video].
(emphasis added)

As Jim Geraghty notes, "The argument that 401(k) accounts are inherent representations of white supremacy will be news to many, many Americans."

Uhhh, Cardinal George, I'm certainly not here to tell you how to do your job; but at some point you really ought to do something about this nutcase.


UPDATE
Elizabeth Scalia (aka The Anchoress) also has a post on this subject over at InsideCatholic.


UPDATE #2
Also at Creative Minority Report.


UPDATE #3
Obama “disappointed,” Pfleger “deeply sorry” for comments about Hillary
Wouldn’t you know it, not only is Obama surprised to find his friend of 20 years spouting the sort of rhetoric for which he’s famous in Chicago for spouting, but Pfleger himself sounds surprised. Amazing how much he and his circle of confidants managed to miss about their own behavior over the past few, er, decades.

[Read the whole thing]
Obama is, once again, shocked, shocked. I can't say it any better than this:

Funny how these longtime acquaintances of [Obama's] keep “surprising” him with incendiary racial rhetoric.
And here's the Pfleger endorsement of Obama that has apparently been "disappeared" from the Obama website:



UPDATE #4 (30 May)
Fr. James Martin, S.J., writing at the America Magazine group blog In All Things, reflects on what was most offensive about Pfleger's remarks:
... But there is a much simpler reason why the sermon was so unchristian: because it was uncharitable. Even when confronted the most unrepentant of sinners, Jesus of Nazareth never mocked, but only showed compassion, and gave people the benefit of the doubt. Or, as St. Ignatius of Loyola said in his sixteenth-century classic, the Spiritual Exercises, "Every good Christian is to be more ready to save his neighbor's proposition than to condemn it." That includes Hillary Clinton. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Seeing a Catholic priest belittle another human being, and publicly impugn her motives, from a pulpit was shocking to many people. It seemed fundamentally wrong. And it is, for contempt has no place in Christian discourse...
Certainly Pfleger's comments about Hillary! were deeply uncharitable. But she wasn't the only person treated uncharitably.

Pfleger's remarks basically accused ALL white people of piggybacking through life on the efforts of black people who were enslaved by our white slave-holding ancestors (as if we all have a slavedriver somewhere in our family tree - never mind that many of our ancestors may have arrived on these shores AFTER slavery had been abolished; or as if none of us have ancestors who paid the ultimate price in the War that ultimately freed the slaves).

And the notion that those of us who have been able to put back a portion of our own hard-earned dollars for our retirement are somehow obligated to give that "back" (to whom are we to give it, by the way?) in order to be "absolved" from our "sin" of just happening to be "white" is not only completely lacking in charity, but is racist. And racism, as we all know, was recently listed as an intrinsic evil by the USCCB in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.

Fr. Pfleger owes an apology to more people than just Hillary! He owes an apology to ALL those he impugned as guilty of white supremacy for the mere crime of being white.

And this is the sort of "religious" figures with whom Obama has chosen to surround himself. "Post-racial", indeed.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Proposed Legislation Would Protect Access to Gun Stores

Catholic Priest Calls for "Snuffing" of Gun Shop Owner and Politicos Who Support 2nd Amendment

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9 Comments:

At 5/29/2008 4:27 PM, Blogger Sir Galen of Bristol said...

Uhhh, Cardinal George, I'm certainly not here to tell you how to do your job; but at some point you really ought to do something about this nutcase.

Let's not hold our breaths on that, shall we? This is far from Fr. Pfleger at his most outrageous.

 
At 5/29/2008 4:43 PM, Blogger Mark_McNally said...

Maybe I should cash in my 401-k and blow it all in Vegas before the socialists get it.

 
At 5/29/2008 6:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why do black people (and people who wish they were black) act like that?

What am I supposed to call that anyways, when they act like that?

Is it too politically incorrect to call it "acting retarded"? Because those are the only words I can come up with.

Is there a better term I could use? Someone please tell me.

 
At 5/30/2008 12:17 AM, Blogger Tito Edwards said...

This is my two cents worth but I've stopped reading Hot Air since they Allah Pundit starting castigating the Church in a poor light a year ago. I certainly enjoy reading your blog Jay, just thought you should know and do your own investigation.

Keep up the great blogging though, I've made many mistakes such as reading New Oxford Review and taking what they say as correct POV.

Hot Air has many good postings, but Allah Pundit's attitude towards the Church is too much for my stomach.

 
At 5/30/2008 7:18 AM, Blogger Fr Martin Fox said...

Father Pfleger showed up several years ago at a Catholic Mens Conference in Cincinnati; he gave a very different impression on that occasion, but then he may have been "growing" since then.

A visit to his parish's web site raises a lot of questions; it goes to extensive lengths to tone down anything distinctively Catholic; if he has a daily Mass for the people, I didn't find it listed; Mass is listed this way "worship service (Mass)."

 
At 5/30/2008 9:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Father,
Do you remember about when Pfleger was at a Cinci mens conference? I've attended most of the conferences up until the past three or so and don't remember Pfleger. I do remember a very animated priest from western Penn. who had a somewhat similar preaching style though he was very orhodox.

I have been reading about Pfleger for a number of years in The Wanderer, Concerned Catholics of Illinois website, Tom Roeser etc.

His adoption of two children and a ruckus he made about his parish school's problems with a catholic basketball league got a lot of coverage in the mainstream Chicago media. His public threats of schism if Cdl. George reassigned him also got a lot of press.

Tim Lang

 
At 5/30/2008 7:26 PM, Blogger Fr Martin Fox said...

Tim:

You know, I could be wrong, so maybe I should back off of that. All I can say is I thought I remembered him coming down, and he was celebrated at that time because he picked a fight with Jerry Springer over his show. But again, my memory may be misleading me.

 
At 5/31/2008 7:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought we already made amends many times over via trillions in social welfare programs during the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. time for more "capillary action via the Holy Spirit" vs. big dopey big brother. The government has made a mess of people's lives by trying to assuage white guilt.

 
At 6/08/2008 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for this

 

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