sdbest

Some -- perhaps many -- Volconvonites live in countries where religion just isn't as important in the political square as it is in the United States.

To many of us it smacks of religious extremism and intolerance. Is the U.S. so intolerant that Obama has to repeat over and over again he's not a Muslim? Is there some problem with being a Muslim, that precludes a Muslim from running for President?

I for one cannot fathom why anyone would automatically assume that Obama is some how an adherent of Reverend Wright's. Does the political body in the U.S. assume that every Catholic agrees on every matter with the Pope? You're supposed to leave a church whenever a pastor or rabbi or priest says something stupid or outrageous? Damn, the places of worship would be empty. If a religious leader isn't saying things that are offensive at times, can they be saying anything important at all? Are places of worship supposed to be comfortable and inoffensive? If so what's the point of them?

I heard Wright's speech on CNN. He said some things that were bizarre, other things that made sense, was very entertaining, made comments that no less than Nelson Mandela and the late Dr. Martin Luther King have said as well.

What's the issue? Isn't the U.S. supposed be a country the extols--and is even supposed to be a beacon of--freedom of speech and freedom of religion? It sure doesn't look like it from here north of 49.