In an
article well worth reading yesterday at the Weekly Standard, Stanley Kurtz asked the question of what did Barack Obama know about the controversial views and statements of his friend, mentor and pastor of twenty years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and when did he know it. Kurtz obtained a year's worth of Wright's writings, included as part of his monthly magazine, Trumpet. In analyzing the 2006 messages, Kurtz comes to the conclusion that Rev. Wright's political views were on such full public display that it's just not plausible to believe Senator Obama when he claims he never heard anything offensive from his pastor until he had to finally cut him loose after the National Press Club debacle. He knew, and he had always known how radical he was. Yet he chose to attend regularly for 20 years.
The larger question, though, comes from
ABC News' The Note blogger, Jake Tapper, who in March of this year wondered who is scrubbing Trinity United Church of Christ of any references to Trumpet Magazine. There used to be links on the Church website to get the magazine. There doesn't seem to a website available for the magazine now. The only reference is
here, which shows the Trumpet logo, and lists previous sermons you can purchase, but when you try to navigate to other parts of the magazine, you get redirected to a temporary domain host.
Thanks to
BizzyBlog, here are three instances where Barack Obama has graced the cover of Trumpet in the recent past.
January, 2005
February, 2006 - Note that the person on the right in the same row as Senator Obama is Louis Farrakhan.
March, 2007
CNN anchor John Roberts' pledge to make this a Wright-free zone notwithstanding, it is very relevant to try and determine whether Senator Obama is being truthful about his relationship with Wright and his knowledge of when he discovered how radical Wright's views are. It goes to his judgment, and whether or not he subscribes to the same views as the people with which he had surrounding him. The question is, why is it so hard to obtain the magazines? Why have they all been disappeared?
After a lot of digging, in addition to the 2006 volume that Kurtz has reviewed, here are two other random months that for now are available on the web.
September, 2005Here's some excerpts from Rev. Wright:
The conservative fanatics are made up of folks who are called “al-Qaeda” and/or “God Bless American Christians.” I will say more about that in a moment. The conservative fanatics are the people who make Christianity and “moral values” a matter of gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research and fighting a war against terrorism.
And,
Since 9/11/01, George Bush has convinced many Americans that to criticize his illegal war against Iraq is to be unpatriotic. That is conservative fanaticism.
And,
The faith handed down by Samuel DeWitt Proctor, the faith taught to me by Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Sr. and Dr. Mary Wright, the faith lived by Dr. Thomas Howard Henderson and the faith that teaches Africans to use their minds as Jesus said (“Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy mind”), that faith is not exciting. That faith does not make headlines. That faith does not bomb abortion clinics. That faith does not say that a vote against George Bush is a vote against God. That faith does not say that gays are going to hell. That faith does not say that we are right and everybody who is not on our side is wrong. The Christian faith that was given to me (from my past, that I keep looking back over) is a faith that faces each new challenge with the understanding that there would have been no civil rights movement if it had been left up to Christian fanatics. Christian fanatics used the Bible to keep us in slavery. Christian fanatics used the Bible to justify segregation and apartheid!
And,
Conservative fanatics line up on the side of al-Qaeda or they line up behind George Bush. Both are terrorists! Both believe that war is the answer. Both believe in murdering innocent people. George Bush lied to the public.
Remember, Obama had consented to have a picture of himself with his arm around Wright on the cover of this magazine eight months earlier. Still think Obama had no idea in what Wright believed?
Two months later, in November of 2005, here is sections of what Rev. Wright had to say.
Tom DeLay had finally gotten caught! He had been indicted not once but twice and his illegal gerrymandering of the districts in Texas negate the Black vote have been exposed for what it is; but my mother was dying.The White House Iraq Group had been exposed.The lies that they had told since 09.11.01 and the plan to take over Iraq (and secure all the oil in the Middle East for American interests!) that had been in place since 1992 was coming to light; but my mother was dying.The cooking of the books, the fixing of the facts to make it justify an illegal war was being exposed day-by-day; but my mother was dying. The politicians who had pulled the wool over Christians eyes with their lies, their deceptions and their putting all of their attention on gay marriage were being caught “with their drawers down”; but my mother was dying.
And,
Rove and Libby found themselves in the crosshairs of a Special Investigator and Grand Jury probe.Their deliberate attempts to “out” Valerie Plame to pay her husband back for daring to tell the truth about the lies told about the Bush Administration; but my mother was dying. Ms. Plame who was an undercover CIA operative was married to a man high up in the Bush Administration. He found out that there was no enriched uranium being sent to or exported from Niger as lied about in the Bush “evidence” and quoted in the Presidential State of the Nation speech. He had to go! Because he dared to say that there were no weapons of mass destruction before we invaded Iraq, he had to be silenced and the White House Intelligence Group sought out to silence him. Christians needed to know that; but my mother was dying. Bush appointed an undercover conservative to the Supreme Court; but my mother was dying. I had warned the members of our congregation and the citizens of this nation prior to the election in 2004 that Christians needed to be concerned about the 2004 Presidential Election because two possible Supreme Court judges would be named by whoever was in the Oval Office; and nobody listened. I needed to speak a prophetic word to help connect the dots between what I said in the fall of 2004 and what was happening to us in the fall of 2005; but my mother was dying.
And,
The Bush-Cheney-Halliburton financial rip-offs that were taking place not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but now in New Orleans, in Louisiana and Mississippi were matters that the Christian church needed to address; but my mother was dying. The President was trying to put onto the Supreme Court a woman who had never been a judge. Christians were coming to me asking me, “How can he do that?” I wanted to point out in a national forum that his daddy had done the same thing. Judge Clarence Thomas never sat on a judicial bench either! I needed Christians to see the games that were being played on them by the persons in whom they had put so much misplaced faith; but my mother was dying.
About three months later, Obama's face was part of an all-star line-up on the cover of the February, 2006 edition.
Joining Obama's face was that of Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam co-founder Elijah Muhammad, Dick Gregory, and Johnny Cochran.
Trumpet Magazine was founded in 1982. Each month, the magazine is offered and promoted in the Trinity United Church of Christ bulletin. Members of that church are affiliated with the magazine. Yet for twenty five years, the musings of Jeremiah Wright, and others he esteemed, are hiding somewhere outside of routine view, with the Barack Obama campaign hoping they stay hidden from view until after the election in November. Who will be the first blogger to find the extended cache of Trumpet magazines? Who will be the first MSM'er to connect the dots and call Senator Obama on why this radical pastor wasn't considered by Obama to be radical until polls in Pennsylvania forced him to publicly disown him?
Let the Trumpets sound.