Barack Obama had some explaining to do. There were some troubling spiritual questions that have been raised. Very legitimate, very fair questions. And I think Mr. Obama has answered those questions. And now, maybe — just maybe — we can put this race thing to rest in our presidential campaign.
My goodness, how I had wished that we were past all of this. But I see that we are not. The blacks among us are not past it yet, and the whites among us are not past it yet. Not totally. No completely. Some are, but not all of us. Maybe this extraordinary speech by Barack Obama will help. Pray God, let it help.

I know that you are all aware of Sen. Obama’s speech Tuesday in Philadelphia in which he once again condemned the more incendiary remarks of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. I am proud of the Senator for his ability to put Rev. Wright’s comments into a context within which we can all understand them, as well as Mr. Obama’s own reaction to Rev. Wright at the time.
Said Barack Obama: “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.”
That put it all into context for me. You don’t get up and walk out of your house of worship because the person in the pulpit says something with which you disagree. The whole point of sermons is to get people to think. Not necessarily to agree, but to begin to think…Do I agree? Do I disagree? Why?
If we run for elective office, are we to be branded with the words and thoughts of the person who took the pulpit in the house of worship we attended? Yet, the public has a right to know where we stand on the thoughts expressed there. In the present instance, Barack Obama has made it clear that he repudiates and rejects in whole the radical statements made by Rev. Wright.
Yet the senator refused to step away from his 20-year friendship with the minister. “I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother,” he said, “a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
But in his remarkable speech on Tuesday Mr. Obama spoke not only of the Rev. Wright matter, but of the larger issue of race relations in America. He spoke on that topic eloquently and calmly, but passionately, in what has been termed by many journalists and commentators one of the most extraordinary political speeches of all time – on the subject of incendiary qualities.
I urge and encourage you to find a copy of the speech someone on the internet. Watch the video version. Read the transcript. And if this does not convince you, not that Mr. Obama should be the next President of the United States, but that, at least, he is qualified and appropriate to be considered a serious candidate, and not someone to be written off as merely a political novice with insufficient judgment or experience—then nothing will.
I, for one, am impressed with all of the candidates in this year’s election. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. McCain, and Mr. Obama are all wonderfully qualified, highly intelligent candidates – for a change. We have not always been able to say that. This year we can. That much, at least, we can say.
Thank you, God, for this trio of exceptionally talented, capable, able people from which we may now select the next leader of this nation. We may not agree with all of their views, but surely we see their value as exceptional human beings.