Who is the Real Obama?

Which is the real Obama? The transcender of racial divisions or the faithful acolyte of a radical hatemonger? How much of a chance can we take on getting the answer right?

Until we get a better answer to that, Obama may be a bigger threat to American than Hillary.

That a leading Presidential candidate finds such a figure attractive ought to be a cause for worry. It would be a different matter if Pastor Wright were primarily a spiritual counselor. Many men who are wise, even saintly, in the affairs of God have talked foolishly about mundane politics. In the Orthodox Church, we have examples like St. John of Kronstadt, an inspiring preacher, organizer of charitable enterprises and member of the Black Hundred. But Fr. John was a secular naïf, to whom the Cross, the Holy Sacraments and a life of prayer were vastly more important than the City of Man. Jeremiah Wright is the opposite, so far as we can judge by appearances. (I make no judgement about what is in his heart and wish him nothing but the peace and mercy of Our Lord.)

If Barack Obama were a private citizen, or merely one percent of the United States Senate, his close association with Trinity UCC – praise for his “mentor” Pastor Wright, 20 years of active membership, sizeable donations – would be more a personal than a political matter. If he concurred in his church’s radically racist and anti-American ideology, his sentiments could do only minimal harm and would (rightly) be shielded from close scrutiny by our reluctance to pry into other people’s religious beliefs.

The President is on a different plane. One holding Pastor Wright’s views could do immense damage to the country. Am I convinced that Senator Obama sings “God damn America” in the shower? Certainly not. I wouldn’t rate the likelihood as high as 50 percent. On the other hand, it can’t help being significantly above zero, especially after we factor Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Michelle Obama and Tony Rezko into the equation. That friends and ideological soul mates describe the Senator as “most comfortable in the domain of policy and detail” is reassuring only to those who forget that policy wonks can be extremists, too.