I can't believe I am the first one to post on this. My own personal opinion on this is that if I had ever attended a church where someone shouted these things from the pulpit I would never return. In fact, it wouldn't even need to be racial/political things that would drive me away. I have left churches before and would not hesitate to do so again if there was a good reason.

That all said, I do think Obama's speech was excellent. I have never lived as a black woman and really do not know what life would be like as one except from what I am told. I think the fact that this has opened up a dialog is excellent. Sooner or later it would have come up, should he become President, so it is best to do it now. Not every white person is KKK USA, per the pastor nor is every black person someone to be feared (and thus cross to the other side of the street to avoid). Unfortunately many people still have these views so it is good to get them out in the open and air them out a little and, hopefully, see how far we have come.

One thing that was said was that the most segregated hour of the week begins at 11:00 AM on Sunday mornings. Today if that is the case it is because people want to be segregated rather than because they have to. The churches that I have attended have all had black people in attendance, but the racial make-up has mostly been white. Though I have never worshipped in a black church, my daughter and my daughter-in-law have. They were warmly welcomed and there was none of the kind of hatred being spewed from the pulpit that this pastor seemed to frequently dish out. The worship service was quite different from what they were used to, but it is merely a cultural difference, with the singing and *praising* being quite different than what you would find in most white churches.

My concern with this pastor is the fact that he used the pulpit for something other than what he was ordained to do, and that is to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was not teaching IMO. It was brainwashing and inciting people and that should NEVER be done in a house of worship of any kind by anyone.

I can sympathize with Sen. Obama for not wanting to cut himself off from a close friend of 20 years who has become such cause of embarrassment to him now. He is to be commended for his loyalty. What I just don't understand, though, is how that friendship ever got started if this pastor has always held these views. If he has and Obama knows it, staying in that church remains very puzzling to me and does cast a bit of a cloud over him.