Travis had better be careful then……..Lovita can get very jealous of “Ceddi” as she calls him. Haha.

Important note – If you’ve never watched “The Steve Harvey Show” my attempt at humor is probably lost on you.

I don’t know who Rev. Manning is, but he’s not my boyfriend.

I completely understand your thoughts about Rev. Wright. I don’t think there’s really much question that Rev. Wright might consider you or me his enemy, and I don’t think that’s a good thing at all.

I’ve disagreed with something in the majority of sermons I’ve heard over the past few years, probably. I think to conclude that Obama is anything like Wright, we’d have to assume that Wright does nothing but preach on this theme week after week after week, and it doesn’t seem like that’s true at all. Given that Obama has consistently denounced the more extreme remarks of Wright, I’m not really nervous about him considering whites his “enemy.” His spending plans, however…

I don’t think it’s possible to keep politics out of the pulpit. Religions are not ultimately private belief systems to create comfort through personal piety; that’s a very modern definition of religion that doesn’t fit the majority of the world’s religions at all. Religions, rather, are visions and descriptions of the way things are, of who we are, of why we’re here, and of how we’re supposed to live.

I think it’s a matter of how one does politics from the pulpit. I’m more interested in keeping hatred out of the pulpit, which is where both Wright and preacher in the YouTube video fail miserably.

But it’d be impossible for Christians, for example, to entirely keep politics out of the pulpit. because the “Kingdom of God” language used by Jesus is manifestly political, as is the exposition of such themes in St. Paul. It’s just politics upside down. Instead of being a grab for power, Jesus preached the need to lay down power, to affect change through suffering love. Which brings me back to keeping hatred out of the pulpits.

I don’t usually hear conservatives get mad, or say that it’s “politics” and should be kept out of the pulpit, when the Baptist preacher condemns abortion (which he should do, of course).

Here’s maybe how I’d frame it: politics can’t be avoided from the pulpit, but lining up an entire religion with an entire political party is a Bad Thing. Political issues can be discussed in a way that doesn’t sound like this: “Here is God’s opinion on this particular issue in U.S. Government, and if you disagree, you’re not a true believer.” I don’t know if that suffices, and I probably still have a lot more thinking to do about it all.

I find it impossible to discuss Rev. Wright without strong negative reaction to the possibility of having a President who for TWENTY YEARS listened to him. And may possibly define me as his enemy also …

While I know it’s not the discussion of racism in American that you were hoping for, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on using the pulpit for politics. I can’t imagine God is very happy with either Rev. Wright OR your boyfriend, the Rev. Manning: http://youtube.com/watch?v=khuu-RhOBDU

I think this is one thing the LDS church has got down – keep politics out of the pulpit.