By Brent Childers, Executive Director

Lou Dobbs on Friday stated it made him sick to hear Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s so-called hateful words against America coming from a pulpit. 

What’s truly sickening is to see the most blatant attempt yet to interject racial division into the presidential campaign being spoon-fed to Americans under the guise of religion.

That truly is damnable.

Rev. Wright commented that God damns America for immoral acts such as policies that sanctioned apartheid and other foreign policy he says benefit corporate profit rather than humanity. This has received an enormous amount of airtime.

Over and over again, listeners have heard Wright’s words; God damns America. At first it is reasonable to assume most Americans would recoil from such words coming from the pulpit. The particular interest in this pulpit is that a presidential candidate sits in front of it.

Only in recent memory, consider how many times the Religious Right, from its pulpits, has stated that America is damned because of policies aimed at protecting gay and lesbian Americans from hate crimes and discrimination? How long have Americans, former presidential contenders and presidents sat in front of that pulpit?

It is not mere coincidence that this story was brought to our attention by the Fox News network, a media outlet that is perceived by many to carry water for the Religious Right. What is indeed shocking is how the mainstream media seemed blindsided by the story by first trying to ignore it and then falling right in line with Fox News in reporting on this as a story that has grave consequences for Obama and the Democrats.

This shows how far out of touch the mainstream media is with mainstream America. Even more disappointing is how far out of touch the mainstream media is when it comes to confronting the Religious Right’s spin machine and thinly veiled bigotry.

It may also be of no coincidence that the story broke just ahead of the weekend so that there would be a lag in the news analysis on this story. Were there sufficient time to analyze the story, the media may have had time to understand how this story is nothing more than an effort to energize the Religious Right.

How?

First, it is the most brazen attempt yet to interject racial division into the campaign. There is no doubt that a focus group somewhere has shown that nothing reviles the conservative base more than believing an African-American is preaching traitorous things about this great country.

To state that this story isn’t racially charged is utter nonsense. What is also utter nonsense is the manner in which some network commentators appear to recoil from Wright’s statement.

“It makes me sick”, Dobbs said.

How many talking heads are made sick when the Religious Right, day after day, condemns America for its anti-discrimination laws for gay and lesbian Americans or its policy on abortion?

Week after week, right-wing religious organizations work to shore up the Republican Party base and use America’s pulpits to condemn not only America but good, decent patriotic Americans. It’s not just religious leaders spreading a message of religion-based bigotry. Many elected officials and candidates are doing the same.

No one sought to give any context that Wright’s words were spoken from an interpretation of Holy Scripture. Poor presentation of the story, indeed. Even less context.

A nation where corporate greed holds sway over hard-working Americans? A nation that goes to war under false pretense? A nation in which political forces cater to prejudice and racial division? A nation in which gay and lesbian teenagers are being sacrificed on the alter of religion-based bigotry.

Would Wright’s God frown on such practices?

Surely, it would make him sick.