The problem with Father Pfleger’s racist and sexist rant about Hillary’s tears and whiteness was not that he once had some tenuous relationship with Barack Obama and therefore is the candidate’s eternal responsibility. Obama obviously is not responsible for all the dubious people that he has come across in the world of Chicago activism.
But there is a problem, and it really is far larger than Father Pfleger– namely the immediate reaction to the father’s sick mimicry from both the congregation and the new pastor of Trinity. The reception to Pfleger seemed enthusiastic, at least as it appeared on the video “snippet”, and indeed after that racist harangue the pastor at Trinity praised Pfleger in the manner he had introduced him.
After the Wright National Press Club meltdown, Obama I think has made the case that Trinity and Wright were distinguishable; and thus while he could finally cut loose the latter, he could still in good conscious stay with the former.
But now? It seems the problem is not Wright per se, but the church itself and its generic pastors that are starting to voice, or at least tolerate, habitually racist themes. After the pastor’s and congregation’s response to the latest creepy sermon, it is surely past time for Obama now to gracefully leave the congregation that either cannot or will not distance itself from hate speech.
Surely the possible next president of the United States cannot formally belong to a church where Wright and Pfleger have habitually spread their venom, and where both were praised by Wright’s successor and current pastor. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be wrong to suspect that Wright did not create Trinity, but rather Trinity created Wright.
If the Obamas have already formally quit the Trinity Church disregard the above.