Comments on BrianJones.com: Barack Obama's Home Church Website

so you're suggesting that brian jones has discover...

2008-03-10T19:51:00.000-04:00

so you're suggesting that brian jones has discovered some piece of information that others may or may not yet have noticed...and that if they did notice it they're waiting to use it as 'ammo' against him. if obama's party has done anything right, it's this: it has not run a smear campaign against others, and in the end i believe he will rise above the rest...whether he is elected president or not. He has chosen to take the high road (as far as I know, so far!) and that is pretty admirable.

My point in my 'rant' was that i don't think that you should hold it against barack obama if the church he attends has these values you don't agree with. just like i'm sure all that attend 'movie church' (you know, the one with no prefixes) don't agree or fall in line 100% with Reverend Jones or the beliefs on his church website. have you read them? Others may read them and think Mr. Jones has been dropping acid to believe all of that stuff.
You're right, though, about hypocrisy. I just wish one presidential candidate would admit it. We are all hypocrites, but some are living in denial.
-tristan

I'm not sure what Tristan's point is, but I think ...

2008-03-06T23:02:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what Tristan's point is, but I think it might be that we should not criticize other folks' churches. If so, good point.

By the way, I don't think Brian was "ranting" about politics in either of those sections you mentioned. However, I noticed that he did point out the hypocrisy of some politicians who hope to win votes by saying they are Christians but then they use their "faith" as justification for immoral acts.

But that is not the case here in the Obama Church thing. However, my worry is that Obama's political foe(s) will use Obama's church as a way to discredit him if he is the democratic presidential nominee. Going back to Tristan's point, this may be why Obama's opposition is keeping quiet on his church affiliation, to use it against him later...Hmmmm. Better for us to know now.

so i'm perusing the site. enjoying it. wondering...

2008-03-05T20:19:00.000-05:00

so i'm perusing the site. enjoying it. wondering how a pastor can be hip and cool and still a pastor. then i get to this. then i go to a post from feb. where you rant about politics again. and i stop enjoying it. which is it? do you 'really like the guy?' or are you still wondering 'is this the best we can do?' and why are YOU the only one to bring up his church website. no one else has worried about it, but you feel like you need to bring this up about something that you 'really like?' really? like, um, what do you like about him? and i would ASSUME that everyone who attends your church likely doesn't adhere to EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF DOCTRINE/LITERATURE/ETC...that is on your website, even if they are members. So, until there is a perfect church out there, there will always be 'imperfect' people apart of 'imperfect churches.' i don't think that should be held against them, or him. do you?
-tristan

Correct.

2008-03-04T06:27:00.000-05:00

Correct.

I was wondering why we even had to bring up that t...

2008-03-03T22:58:00.000-05:00

I was wondering why we even had to bring up that this was Barack Obama's church. I never heard him say "This is my church". I am afraid that the criticism of the church he belongs to might be seen by some as a criticism by Brian Jones of this man's qualifications for President of the United States. It wasn't that, right?

I posted earlier with a glass houses comments amon...

2008-03-02T20:13:00.000-05:00

I posted earlier with a glass houses comments among others. My husband said I should let you know that we understand the point you were trying to make. We just did not like the way you went about it. Sooooooo . . . consider it said.

there's a song i recommend called "one lord" from ...

2008-03-01T20:24:00.000-05:00

there's a song i recommend called "one lord" from "veggietales: o veggie, where art thou?" album.

"Why can't the church just be the church?" Could ...

2008-02-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

"Why can't the church just be the church?"

Could it be that division is easier to accomplish than unity? All the additional adjectives that come before church are just another way for division to occur and unity to be postponed once again. They only promote a unity among the similar. But it sure does seem like Jesus desires a unity among those who have no apparent reason to unite together. If we can ever attain that unity the power that the Church would have to impact the world would be awe inspiring. Until then we will continue to label different parts of the same body and act as though they might not be part of the body after all. Sure sounds like we do a great deal of the evil one's work for him.

Anonymous,I'll be the first to admit that as a whi...

2008-02-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

Anonymous,

I'll be the first to admit that as a white male in a church that is predominantly white located within a predominantly white community that there are issues I just can't possibly see. I concede that. No question about that.

I also acknowledge that issues of race still linger, just as you mention.

My point is I'm not sure that positioning ourselves as a _____ Christian helps the issue. Black Christians. White Christians. Korean Christians.

If the solution to race relations in a religious context is to be solved by black Christians saying "the heck with you" and doing whatever they want, then Barack's church makes perfect sense.

However, as Christians, I think the witness of scripture shows that community/race/gender problems should be solved "in community" with one another -- blacks, whites, asians, etc.

Labeling and positioning ourselves as Christians with a prefix just simply further polarizes us.

Well first of all, I find your comments very inter...

2008-02-28T18:04:00.000-05:00

Well first of all, I find your comments very interesting. If you have all of the perks of the dominant culture inside the church as well as outside the church then your comments would be justified. But if you apart of a culture that continues to be discounted and discriminated against then I would understand. I have seen any white's that are stopped by the police for driving fancy cars, in any neighborhoods.

If you apart of a culture that wants to support each other and assist each other then you would understand that plight and the predicament of a culture where many of our people will go to a multi-cultural church in mass numbers led by a white pastor but not too many of people in other churches in mass numbers attend multi-cultural churches pastored by black pastors. In our community we still have alot of issues that we are resolving and one of them is self-hatred that is one of the lingering effects of slavery.

Rick Warren shares in his book the purpose driven church that there is nothing wrong with going after a specific group of people so why is there something wrong with trying to lift up a entire race of people by supporting themselves when other cultures do it but they just don't have the lingering effects of slavery and continued racism. For us to even have a conversation about a black person being president in 08 helps us that we still live in the yet to be United States of America

Personally, I think that Barack is so popular with...

2008-02-28T16:21:00.000-05:00

Personally, I think that Barack is so popular with the media right now, and everyone loves him so, that they would much rather pick on Hillary for everything that comes out of her mouth. (and some things that don't) They are much too busy loving on him to bother searching for what he really stands for. He is very charismatic, easy to look at, and revs people up. What more is there? *some serious eye-rolling taking place over here*

And if a a church advocated "The White Value System" they would immediately be labeled racist and I'm sure picketing and lawsuits and everything else would be going on out front.