Oprah Winfrey ---
Allison Samuels, of NewsWeek, was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren
to talk about Samuels' article about why Oprah left Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church
in Chicago, IL.
(viewed on Fox News - Cable Channel 54 in the east at 10 p.m., Mon., May 5, 2008.)
Notes For future reference:
Allison Samuels has reported that Oprah Winfrey was a member of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago, IL) from 1984-1986 and that Oprah left the church altogether in the 1990s.
As I recall, it was during the 1990s that I wrote to Oprah about the problems
in the Black Baptist Church and the NAACP and asked her to investigate. I never received a response from her show in Chicago, IL.
I am now recalling how, in 1985, I was a Preacher at the First Baptist Church of
Guilford (FBCG), in Columbia, MD. The Pastor is still there -- Rev. John L. Wright.
At that time, Oprah Winfrey was a noted celebrity in Baltimore, MD, at Channel 13, on a television show called, "People Are Talking," with Richard Scherr. And, she also lived in Columbia, MD.
In 1986, just before Oprah had announced she was leaving Maryland to go to Chicago, IL, she was invited to speak at an evening service at FBCG (Columbia, MD). I had never seen anything like it. When she arrived, she was escorted down the center aisle of our church. She had on dark sunglasses and the feathers from her sweater were blowing around her face, as she strutted down the aisle. She was escorted to the pulpit and delivered a message (not a sermon) pretty much in the way she acted in the movies with the "cullod" accent. I don't know how I could have forgotten that, but it just came back to my mind during Greta's interview of the NewsWeek reporter.
I guess my question is ---
How could Oprah Winfrey have been a member of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright's Church in Chicago, IL, since 1984, when she was already living in Maryland and appearing daily on a local television show? Maybe there might be a followup report on this at a later time.
The reporter stated she believes Oprah may have left the Chicago, IL church in the 1990s, because she did not think her tv audience would appreciate her having anything to do with the kind of Preaching that was being done by her Pastor. And, the reporter said that after Oprah left that church, Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright began lambasting her from the pulpit saying that Oprah had left because she didn't want to give up any money. What he did is called, "Preaching on people," and while the congregants laugh, the one "preached on" knows who the Preacher is talking about --- and the congregants do, too.
Over twenty years is a long time to sit under that kind of goings on in the church and not come away without bringing it with you. There's no way Obama could not have known. He was too close to the Pastor and the innerworkings of the church to have missed it. He was in the Pastor's inner circle of the trusted and the "helped along." I saw happening in my church with men and women coming in to be made "Wright's Preachers" for political reasons and for the sake of money and advancement with the noted personalities.
One man came into the church and was close to the Pastor, Rev. John L. Wright, and he was driving him around and going to hospitals periodically with him as if he was a minister. One day, I asked the man who was he and what did he do and why was he there? I knew that he was a local mortician and that his wife ran the funeral home. He haughtily told me that he was "MINISTER OF FINANCE." And right then and there I laid him out, because there is no such thing as that in the church. And, after that, he settled down, at least when he was around me.
God shielded me all these years and the only proof lies between the pages of all my personal journals I've kept since 1983. Too much to tell. Too much to digest. And, yet, it is all as fresh as it was over 20 years ago. It is to prove how God's Word will not return to Him void, as He has said. And, there truly is "nothing new under the sun."
I don't need to take a poll or ask anybody's opinion about it to know that America is worst now than at any time in its history (not withstanding slavery and multiple wars or natural disasters). Even then, Americans had hope of better days. Our faith in God unified us as a nation, whether Christian, Jewish, Catholic and others.
This primary campaign has proved how much America is in serious trouble. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and every other person who believes the God we serve is someone whose name and purpose can be glibly rolled off the end of a forked tongue will surely lift their eyes in Hell. How is it that Democrats speak of faith and, yet, their words belie their belief in God? Who is deceived by that? Only those who do not know God. Why do you suppose they have taken steps to shut up the voice of Christians and snatch the Word of God away from our society? It is because to know God's voice is to fear Him with Godly fear and they do not want to know God. For, then it would be encumbent upon them to obey His will, way, and Word.
WHAT KIND OF CHANGE CAN BARACK GIVE?
WHAT KIND OF CHANGE CAN HILLARY GIVE?
WHAT KIND OF CHANGE CAN McCAIN GIVE?
I want change back to when Americans were not confused about who we are!
Change back to God!
Change back to God in the church, home, school, court, nation.
Change back to family values, morals, mores, respect.
Change back to Bible readings in school.
Change back to Pledge of Allegiance in school.
Change back to Americans making a decent living.
Change back to Gender meaning male or female -- period!
Change back to Marriage between one man and one woman -- period!
Change back to Making abortions illegal.
Change back to Patriotism with love of God, Self, Fellowman, Country.
Change back to Personal Integrity, Accountability, Credibility.
Change back to Truth, Liberty, and Justice for all!
Change back to English as the national language of America.
Change back to Godly Leaders who led with dignity and Godly fear.
Change back to [fill in the blanks with positive solutions]
A CALL TO MY MINISTRY COLLEAGUES --
You come together but you fail to speak with one voice. Why?
When you are confused as leaders who say you are called by God (if you are), then you create confusion rather than unify. You, as Clergy, have yet to come to terms among you about who God is, much less that God is. In God, there is no confusion. Therefore, why do you spend a lot of money and take time to build bigger churches relocated far from your parishioners? Why do you preach prosperity to the rich in houses and land but the poor in spirit you have turned out, except to take their meager possessions? Why do you stammer and stutter when uttering prayers in public events being afraid to say the name of Jesus, while applauding Muslims, especially, who from beginning to ending pray in the name of Allah? Why do you fear to call a halt to the blatant lies that politicians and church folk tell about our nation? If America is so bad and if our God is so dreadful, then why are so many from other countries dying to get in but Americans are not dying to get out?
Dear Clergy Colleagues --
DO NOT INCLUDE ME ON YOUR "NEWSLETTER LIST," IF YOU ALSO FAIL TO INCLUDE A CALL BACK NUMBER! IF YOU ARE TOO BUSY TO RECEIVE A RESPONSE FROM YOUR LIST RECIPIENTS, THEN YOU ARE TOO BUSY, PERIOD!! BESIDES, "THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN."
Whatever you might believe is your new and innovative Godly plan is already lying in place waiting for you to pick it up and run with it. It did not just start! And, you do not have to reinvent the wheel in God's House. Let God be God. Lead His people. Stop being followers. LEAD WHERE GOD GUIDES!
I welcome all prayerful responses.
Remember - I am humble, but I am not a door mat. Be respectful or be reminded.
Contact: Clergywomen@comcast.net
"The more things change the more things stay the same."
"What goes around comes around."
And it is STILL only the tip of the iceberg.
If you are so led, I would greatly appreciate if you could send this around. As a black Baptist Preacher over the past 20 years, I learned first hand how dangerous the black church really is. However, too many white officials and black lawyers and officials, too, have looked the other way and still do. Many parishioners who don't like what they are seeing and hearing in the church, do get up and leave to go elsewhere. But, they just won't speak out to do anything about it to hold the leadership accountable.
I know first-hand that black Preachers could have people investigated by FBI parishioners (and have done so). And, in my case, nothing happens in our community (MD), except that it first goes past the desk of the black Preacher. Why and how so? Because of the political influence of the Pastor and other church affiliations, many parishioners are also county and state employees who are privvy to personal information about the citizens in the community, especially the parishioners.
TV channels and radio stations are all abuzz trying to figure out why Barack Obama (I call him, "BARAMA") has stayed in the same church for over 20 years. I know that it had to do with the religious and political influence and mentorship of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Chicago, IL.). And it was a deliberate move on Obama's part to garner black votes, when he (Obama) decided to make his move to campaign for political office. During his speech on race, he threw his grandmother under the bus. And, if given more time to explore what he tries to keep hidden from public view, we'll find out there's more to prove why he would not be acceptable to become President of the U.S. And that has nothing to do with his race.
I began to speak out about the same kinds of rhetoric that the press now holds over Obama's Pastor, as though it was something new. Not so.
I stood up and spoke out against that same kind of hate-filled speech over 20 years ago. I was all alone and I was ignored, except that my pastor had me arrested falsely inside of the church for privately rejecting his sermons and for publicly exposing those kinds of double standards within the black community churches all across this nation. Therefore, I know that, being a black Baptist preacher, if I could stand up and speak out against it, then why couldn't Obama have done the same thing 20 years ago (i.e., speak out against his Pastor)? It was because he did not want to lose his place in his Pastor's good graces and miss out on "just such a time as this." But he has done just that.
By speaking out publicly about the black Baptist church rhetoric and the NAACP, they made me outcast. In other words, I believe I am the only one alive today who can speak directly to the race issues today exactly as they were 20 years ago, at the time Obama said he first joined Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Church (Chicago, IL.) And anything else reported by pundits and others is mere conjecture, speculation, supposition, and a mixture of everything else but context.
I spoke out against it and, at that time, I also witnessed men and women coming into the church where I ministered (in Columbia, MD), because they knew that the Pastor, Rev. John L. Wright, had religious and political influence. Not only that, but if the newspapers would conduct research, they would find (in my case) that the Senators and Representatives from Maryland are closely linked with Rev. John L. Wright in this county and the entire state.
Newspaper reports contain, and I am an eyewitness to confirm, just how those politicians came into the church to get Wright's influence to pick up black votes. In fact, an attorney in this county (one of Rev. John L. Wright's cronies) is quoted in one news article as saying that nobody can get in office unless they stop by that church. And Wright, himself, said in a publication interview that, "Nobody bothers me (Wright), because they know -- they know I have people and all I want to know is if you're ready." That was in 1992, after he had falsely accused me and had me arrested inside the church.
The press does not really want to know the bombshell I am sitting on about the black Baptist church and black preachers, in particular. The race question will remain a troubling concern as long as the ones who are in positions of authority refuse to acknowledge and consider valid complaints.
Here is the link to my story, which remains unknown. Other links are included on the site. http://www.clergywomen.org/dowell_sundaysun.html
/s/ Rev. L. Dowell, Five-Fold Minister
Subject: Reply to NY Times article by Jeremiah Wright
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:35:48 +0000
Dear Jodi:
Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years.
You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a "Spiritual Biography" of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service that I have ever met.
For two hours, I talked with you about how idealistic he was. For two hours I shared with you what a genuine human being he was. I told you how incredible he was as a man who was an African American in public service, and as a man who refused to announce his candidacy for President until Carol Moseley Braun indicated one way or the other whether or not she was going to run. I told you what a dreamer he was. I told you how idealistic he was.
We talked about how refreshing it would be for someone who knew about Islam to be in the Oval Office.
Your own question to me was, Didn't I think it would be incredible to have somebody in the Oval Office who not only knew about Muslims, but had living and breathing Muslims in his own family?
I told you how important it would be to have a man who not only knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office, but also how important it would be to have a man who knew what Sufism was; a man who understood that there were different branches of Judaism; a man who knew the difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who was a devout Christian, but who did not prejudge other s because they believed something other than what he believed.
I talked about how rare it was to meet a man whose Christianity was not just "in word only."
I talked about Barack being a person who lived his faith and did not argue his faith. I talked about Barack as a person who did not draw doctrinal lines in the sand nor consign other people to hell if they did not believe what he believed.
Out of a two-hour conversation with you about Barack's spiritual journey and my protesting to you that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had not mentored him or made him the man he was, even though I would love to take that credit, you did not print any of that. When I told you, using one of your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to how God asked Moses, "What is that in your hand?," that Barack was like that when I met him.
Barack had it "in his hand." Barack had in his grasp a uniqueness in terms of his spiritual development t hat one is hard put to find in the 21st century, and you did not print that.
As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi, out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on...
... Barack's taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and what do you print?
You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a printed "sound byte" and a titillating and tantalizing article about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.
I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before, and I want to write you publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it and will not be party to any further smearing of the name, the reputation, the integrity or the character of perhaps this nation's first (and maybe even only) honest candidate offering himself for public service as the person to occupy the Oval Office.
Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even mention that makes me doubt your credibility, and I am looking forward to see how you are going to butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator Obama's "Spiritual Biography."
Our Conference Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman who belongs to a Black church that Hannity of "Hannity and Colmes" is trying to trash, set the record straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms of who we are as the church to which Barack has belonged for over twenty years.
The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to roll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth.
I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for listening to that bad information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did your editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to worry about hearing anything else from me for you to edit or "spin" because you are more interested in journalism than in truth.
Forgive me for having a momentary lapse. I forgot that The New York Times was leading the bandwagon in trumpeting why it is we should have gone into an illegal war. The New York Times became George Bush and the Republican Party's national "blog." The New York Times played a role in the outing of Valerie Plame. I do not know why I thought The New York Times had actually repented and was going to exhibit a different kind of behavior. Maybe it was my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of Roshashana. Maybe it was my being caught up in the euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatever it is or was, I was sadly mistaken. There is no repentance on the part of The New York Times.
There is no integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie!
Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.,
Senior Pastor
Trinity United Church of Christ
The middle of the night New York Times bombshell reported about 2008 Presidential Candidate, Senator John McCain, and Vicki Iseman, has evoked shades of the former President Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex controversy during his term in office. I cannot help but recall a solemn-faced Bill wagging his finger in American's faces while he resolutely stated, "I did not have sex with that woman -- Miss Lewinsky."
And I guess my mind went blank and did not light up again until the picture appeared showing the two of them touching hands across an outdoor gathering of Clinton supporters, followed by the sound of "the other shoe dropping." After that, I stayed woke throughout the entire Congressional impeachment of then President William Jefferson Clinton. To this date, he and his wife and their surrogates have continued to deny there was any such impeachment.
Political news pundits are standing by McCain in the same way as they did Clinton. However, I keep hearing them add, "unless the New York Times . . . ." and "if the New York Times . . . ." followed by the words, "smear campaign." Who can we believe? It appears to me the New York Times reported and the radio and tv news pundits decided while, at the same time, decrying the nerve of the New York Times and their unnamed source(s) to allow their "scurrilous" report to get out after McCain has all but secured the Republican nomination, as expressed, in part, by Pat Buchanan in a tv interview on MSNBC (Thurs., February 21, 2008, 12:38 p.m. est.)
Could it be that the radio and tv news pundits must now actually become journalists and reporters that they hold themselves out to be? After all, their various national network news appearances are made under the guise of reporting the "news."
Come on New York Times, give us something. Go to video tape? Go to photos that haven't been photoshopped? Go to tape recordings? Go to named sources? How about telephone records? Eyewitness reports? Girlfriends? Guy friends? Anything to defend your own news report and reputation? Discerning skeptics want to know of which I am one. Meanwhile, the New York Times is standing by its story. We shall see.
Do not disparage, because you are not alone. A lot of people are expressing their discontent about the news media lovefest with Obama. My prayer is that the heart of Americans will catch up with the mind of the media to overcome their attempts to crown Obama as King of America by (their) divine right. If people think we have seen trouble before - wait until trouble really comes to the door via the White House turned Black (or feminine). Obama says he will link hands with Iran and Syria and terrorist nations. Hillary says she will rollback the advances made by Pres. Bush and that she will give up much of the authority of the Office. What??? McCain won't be much better. In the interest of patriotism, security, and the general welfare of this nation, we'd better thank God for President Bush and pray that Gov. Mike Huckabee will continue to pursue the Office. We know he exhibits genuine respect for the Office and reverence for God.
I cannot stand to look at Obama much less hear him. Can you say, "Jim Jones?" I agree with all the others whose comments have given us a look beyond Obama's facade. Christians wake up! Americans unite to return this nation to God. The candidates who run from that necessity need to keep running out of this country. Stay on the wall. God bless America!
Can you say, "Jim Jones?" Obama frightens me. He's too slick! Sound familiar?
What is it about the Christian community that they would accept from an all-talk,
no-action newcomer who has no tangible record of worth everything that is
anathema to our faith in the Lord Jesus? How is it they reject the Preacher,
Mike Huckabee, and don't want him to express his faith in the Lord, while
they run over themselves to heap glory and praise upon Obama? It was really
frightening when I heard one tv news pundit announce, "Obama has more money
than God." Imagine!
Democrats believe their choice is about race and gender/race (i.e., a black man
or a white woman). And they choose to take form over substance. Obama has yet to account for his missing "record." He scoffs at the idea that he needs, as he laughingly says, "seasoning." The truth is, he does! This is not a game or beauty pageant. It is
about this nation and our God, which makes people clamor to get here and to stay.
It's great that we have come this far through the blood and trials of so many
on the frontlines of "CHANGE," but we do not have to take anybody for the
highest position in America based on sentimentality and racial pride. If we had
racial pride and gender identification, it should spur us on to seek the very best
and accept nothing less. And that goes for the GOP candidates, also. McCain
has told us that "there is no perfect candidate." But we'd better be very sure
that candidate is striving by God's hand to become as close to perfection as is
possible in the eyes of God (and man, too). We were proved right about Romney
and we will be proved right about the remaining candidates, too. My prayer is
that Americans will wake up before it is too late and that all Christians will
come together in the true knowledge of our Lord to prayerfully consider how
our nation will be able to recover the true meanings of Godly values, morality,
mores, principles, and common courtesy and respect. And, return to worship
God alone.
The writer of that article (below) makes a correct assessment. Pay particular
attention to that very last paragraph in Jim Brown's article entitled, "Obama a media darling says, conservative analyst." (source: OneNewsNow, 215/2008)
Needless to say I am not an Obama fan. In fact, I cannot stand to look at him. He gives me the creeps. More people need to hear his tv interview where he stated his proposal to meet with the Iranian leader and other terrorists in the Middle East. I do not trust him. I also do not trust Hilliary Clinton or John Edwards to keep this nation on a path of greatness. Each of them has at one time or another denigrated the President -- the office and the man. I wonder if they ever once stopped to think about how they would like it if they were undermined even as a Senator much less being disrespected as they have done to President Bush. Have we in America forgotten how to use the words, "sedition," "traitor," and "Firing Squad?" Anybody who advocates the overthrow of the government is guilty of sedition. They are traitors. And they are placed before a firing squad. At least, that's how it used to be.
Mitt Romney says he is a conservative and that Mike Huckabee is not. I want somebody to ask Romney how it was possible for Massachusetts, under his watch as Governor, to become the first and, to date, only state to make it lawful for same gendered people to presume to be joined together in (un)holy matrimony? Even civil unions are a disgrace, because they feed the lie that they are different and those who participate in them would be content to not have it called, "marriage." What a laugh! They know it is just one more step closer towards legitimizing an illegal act of same-sex physical contact. Are Americans really that gullible? Even when we are called "homophobic" and "haters," we are the ones who are forced to apologize. For what? For speaking the truth? Speaking what is verifiably truthful is not being hateful. It is being bold and courageous.
Mike Huckabee is a conservative. I trust him. I believe him. I believe this nation could sleep well at night with him in the White House and do so without any fear that he would open up the gates to this nation and let the terrorists just walk right on in without anybody to stop them.
Americans really need to wake up before it is too late. Do not let the news media facilitate a political embarrassment that we will live to regret. Keep America for Americans. Does anybody remember the movie called "The Manchurian Candidate" where a man was fitted with a microchip in his head and groomed to help take over the highest office in this land? Take a very long look at *this* news-media driven candidate, OBAMA, and give this election process much prayerful thought.
