The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

If Barack is truly saved we can thank God almighty. Not pastor Wright.

Barack wants us all to believe he is Christian, and his father and grandfather both being devout Muslims is the impetus of said want. I can't fault him there. America IS, after all, a nation built upon a Christian foundation. America IS a nation still playing, at the very least, lip-service to Jesus Christ. And America IS a nation at war with an ideology that glorifies death and martyrdom, that kills innocents for the sake of bloodshed, and uses mentally handicapped women, and infants in strollers, as human bombs. That is what America typically thinks when it hears the word "Muslim." Right or wrong, that's primarily what Americans think.

But Barack Obama is a Christian, and he doesn't want you to forget it.

He spent twenty years in the same church knowing his pastor was a liar, a racist, and a hate-monger. He accepted reverend Wright despite his graceless stance on several issues. That, I suppose, was a very Christian thing to do. Or was it?

Barack and Michelle were married by reverend Wright, and when their children came along, reverend Wright baptized them. But into what faith? A faith of lies, racism, and hatred for ones fellow man? Or the faith of true Christianity that says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Did Barack once question his pastor about the lies he told from the pulpit, that white America invented the AIDS virus to infect black America? That America was founded on Racism? That America is the number one killer in the world? That the U.S. caused 9/11? That Jesus was a black man? [He wasn't, but what does it really matter? A lie is still a lie] That all the problems of the world are the fault of "white folks' greed."?

What about Obama's insistence that he did not attend his pastor's hate-filled sermons? Did he as much admit to lying to the American people this morning by saying some of his pastors' statements from the pulpit made him uncomfortable?

What kind of Christian sits on a pew for twenty years soaking up hate and lies from his pastor? What kind of Christian allows his children to be raised in such an environment? What does it say about the Christian who assigned a hate-monger an advisory role on his campaign for President?

What kind of Christian indeed!

What would Jesus have done? Would He have sat still in His seat when his under-shepherd repeatedly used His name in vain... from the pulpit!? Would He have sat still while His under-shepherd distorted truth and told blatant lies? Would He have sat still while His under-shepherd spewed hatred for his fellow man?

Do I have to answer that?

Well, why then did Obama sit for twenty years on a pew under the tutelage of the "reverend" Jeremiah Wright? No one sits that long under the instruction of any pastor unless he largely agrees with what his pastor preaches. Christians flee churches every week for the slightest and pettiest of insignificant reasons, but Obama sat for twenty years. Even allowing his children to hear "reverend" Wright's messages of "Hope."

After spending twenty years at his master's feet, just what kind of "Hope" can we expect senator Obama to give us? What kind of "Change?" What kind of "New Direction?"

I can't say much for Obama's brand of Christianity. Nowhere in the Bible does it instruct us to spend twenty years under the instruction of a pastor that spews hatred and lies.

But then, no one is perfect. I'm certainly not. I daily do things I shouldn't, as do we all. But twenty years, unmoving in the face of contempt and falsehood......

...

And I have given myself quite a bit to reflect upon. As I said, neither am I "perfect."