Chicago Daily Observer

Pfleger chuckled when I asked if he would be in the Mile High City this week: “It would be feeding time if I went.”

The pastor of St. Sabina Church, a staunch Obama-ite, wants his candidate to “deluge the press” with programs that have not been top priorities in the campaign so far: racism, sexism, education and poverty. Pfleger cautions that Obama shouldn’t be diverted by “flavor of the day” issues such as high gas prices. “The president has to say, ‘I’m not willing to negotiate these things as second priorities.’ He must keep that moral focus.”

Tucked into the NY Times Magazine was this explosive profile of DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s left-hand—his chief of staff and CEO of the Dem convention, Leah Daughtry.

Appointed a year ago spring, right about when Barack Obama shunted the Rev. Jeremiah Wright off the stage for his Springfield campaign kickoff, Daughtry is a ticking time bomb. For she’s a Rev. in her spare time, and she espouses the same black liberation theology Obama finally repudiated a few months ago. Daniel Bergner, NY Times, “Can Leah Daughtry bring faith to the party?” A few excerpts, starting with her father’s ministry:

Blago’s Call for the Guard.

No one can properly assess what goes on in the crazy-quilt jumble going on inside the governor’s brain but one thing is clear: he is out to ruin the Democratic party starting with Mayor Richard M. Daley. Here is Daley, renting out his very soul…who knows why?...to get the 2016 Olympics with everything riding on the city being one of the world’s most livable. Now comes Rod Blagojevich with the suggestion that the Illinois National Guard might be called to keep order in the streets of Chicago and cut the murder rate to keep order which the police obviously can’t do. It’s about the very worst thing that can happen to a city mayor…and heretofore unthinkable for a Daley. It was unthinkable under his father, even at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. burnings and the Democratic National convention melee.

I watched him ... Read More...

Fr. Michael Pfleger has reappeared on the national ABC program “Good Morning America” as some type of spokesman on race who is also against gun violence being touted as having “spent the last 30 years cleaning up his impoverished south side Chicago parish, fighting the presence of poverty, drugs, gangs and gun violence..” despite the dismal reality of the St. Sabina’s neighborhood floundering in a sea of prosperity in Chicago. Mixing partisan politics with religion has been combustible combination in Chicago for generations. The media practice of using a religious persona to somehow add legitimacy to a political cause is a failure, and in many cases obsolete.

David Axelrod is on the Board of Fr. Pfleger’s fundraising organization “Raising the Roof” at St. Sabina’s parish. Fr. Pfleger is on the Board of David Axelrod’s organization attempting to appropriate Chicago Park District property for a private charity. Fr. Pfleger is ... Read More...

About 600 of Chicago’s top African-American lawyers and judges gave standing ovations Thursday to two preachers who’ve been vilified in recent months for their sermons that went nationwide on the Web.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. Michael Pfleger became headaches for Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign when their controversial comments became fodder for conservative talk-show hosts.

Most Chicagoans know nothing of Charles Chinquy. Most Chicagoans have probably forgotten Pastor George Stallings, a one-time Catholic priest and mentor of Pastor Mike Pfleger. Most Chicagoans know Pastor Pfleger, who returns to his Faith Community of St. Sabina flock on Monday, June 16th, after being given a forced leave by Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago.

Today the Chicago Tribune tells one and all that Pastor Pfleger was disciplined for political reasons – speaking disparagingly of Senator Hillary Clinton. The Tribune writes, “latest transgression: talking about the wrong thing, in the wrong place, with a preaching style—honed in the back pews of black churches—that some Catholics found unsettling.”
There was much more. Pastor Pfleger angered people, not so much with his barbs against Senator Clinton but the hostility and race-baiting fervor imbued throughout his sermon. Pastor Pfleger’s target it seems was white America and not Senator Clinton per ... Read More...

Margaret Ramirez and Rex Hupke at the Tribune have weighed in on the working of the Catholic Church, claiming Fr. Pfleger’s:

“latest transgression: talking about the wrong thing, in the wrong place, with a preaching style—honed in the back pews of black churches—that some Catholics found unsettling.”

Never mind shouting racist rants, appearing as a crazed vaudevillian in public and defying the Cardinal, Hupke and Ramirez tell us that the real problem was that Fr. Pfleger was a very mild “unsettling”.

Since both John McCain and Barack Obama purport to be persons of faith and prayer, I have devised a little prayer for both of them. It goes:

“Lord, save me from my friends—I can cope perfectly well with my enemies.”

Oddly enough, some of the friends plaguing or having plagued both candidates are themselves persons of faith and prayer.

We need no further reminders, do we, of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and more recently Father Michael Pfleger and the varying degrees of damage they have inflicted on Obama?

“Poof!” declares Obama, quite wisely, “they are no longer my friends.”

Then there are the Reverends John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Until very recently they were McCain’s newest best friends of convenience, vigorously courted to calm the qualms of the fundamentalist evangelical constituency so necessary to Republican victory. Trouble is, their historic histrionics seriously offended other necessary constituencies.

“Poof,” declares McCain, quite wisely, ... Read More...

For weeks, the members of Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of the city felt battered by the national spotlight that had accompanied the growing fame of their longtime member, Senator Barack Obama.

First came the endless television coverage of incendiary statements by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, their controversial former pastor. Then reports of a visiting Roman Catholic priest who had mocked Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. And finally on Sunday, a day after Mr. Obama announced that his family was leaving the church, satellite trucks idling again outside the 7:30 a.m. service.

Cathleen Falsani Religion Editor of the Chicago Sun Times had this to say about Benson ‘Time Out.’

There’s something painfully ironic about Cedric’s (if temporary) ouster.

He’s been thumbing his nose at authority—secular and sacred—for years in pursuit of what he believes God has called him to do: fight for the poor yardage and the press coverage; battle injustice in whatever form it appears to taxing him at the moment, be it racism, sexism, or classicism; and to above all present the God of revolutionary love and radical grace to the world around him like he did when those cracker Texas Gomers boarded his boat. That sometimes has meant disobeying civil and Man law.

Benson has been arrested several dozen times over the last five weeks for civil disobedience. He’s taken on drug dealers aboard his boat, big alcohol content while driving, the tobacco products ... Read More...

The Roman Catholic archdiocese went eyeball-to-eyeball with Fr. Michael Pfleger…and the archdiocese blinked. The incendiary priest is to return to his pulpit and pastorate June 16 to a forest of high-fives from those to whom the Mass and reverent ceremonials have always meant not much more than a circus.

Not surprising.

All along the archdiocese has forfeited its authority because it has been afraid. Afraid of black anger at St. Sabina’s. Afraid it couldn’t find a replacement that could build support to succeed him. Afraid the media…headed by the Bohemian Girl reporter, Cathleen Falsani…Carol Marin’s little sister…who has Catholic antecedents but is a Wheaton College grad (even though little evangelical propriety is observed in her hippie writing) who disses Roman Catholic cardinals as “men in red dresses” would portray the archdiocese as…gasp…unfeeling, untrendy.

All along the archdiocese had seven points to consider which authenticists say doesn’t rank very high with ... Read More...

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Just last summer Father Pfleger said my words was trash to the community and I didn’t deserve to be on the McDonalds tour. It’s crazy how the tables turned in just under a year.

Father Pfleger’s own words and opinions of Mrs. Clinton came In the worst way and now he expects for the world and his church to give him a full acceptance. Do you think its right that he apologizes and gets away with his words? Did he really lose anything? I lost a multi million dollar contract, he embarrassed and disgraced my name in public by his billboards calling my music trash. He even went as far as getting Bill O’Reily to get on TV to diss me as well, and not once did he ever call me or even ask me my opinion of my ... Read More...

“I must now to address the one who says, ‘don’t hold me responsible for what my ancestors did.’ But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did! And unless you are ready to give up the benefits — Throw away your 401 fund! [sic] Throw away your trust fund! Throw away all the money that been put away in the company you walked into ‘cause your daddy and your granddaddy and your great granddaddy —
Unless you are willing to give up the benefits, then you must be responsible for what was done in your generation! ‘Cause you are the beneficiary of this insurance policy! expose white entitlement. And supremacy, wherever it raises its head. I said before, I really don’t want to make this political, because you know I’m really very unpolitical. . . .

She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot ... Read More...

At long last, Democratic presidential aspirant Barack Obama has resigned his
membership in the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ. It only
took him two decades to renounce his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah
Wright, despite Obama’s previous insistence that he could no more disown Wright
than his own grandmother. What a difference a few weeks can make! Time will tell
if this desperate move occurred too late to be of any real value to his
staggering candidacy.

Of course, there are cynical observers who will insist that Obama acted out
of pure political expediency rather than as the result of a genuine crisis of
conscience. The inflammatory racial rhetoric issuing from the pulpit of the
Trinity United Church of Christ seemed better suited to a beer hall meeting
than ... Read More...

As everything she writes is all about her, this is the way “Sun-Times” religion [sic] columnist Cathleen Falsani, a Wheaton college grad no less, started her story. “On Sunday morning, I was enjoying a brisk walk along the Hudson River in lower Manhattan and some quiet contemplation…”

THINKING OF REINHOLD NIEBUHR OBVIOUSLY.

“…when my cell phone rang. It was my editor.”

THAT WOULD BE THAT MATCHLESS BRIT ARBITER OF GOOD TASTE WHO PICKS GIRLY SHOTS FOR EVERY FRONT PAGE, MICHAEL COOKE.

“`Mike just called and he wants to talk but he’ll only talk to you’ he said.”

HOW TOUCHING. GREAT SPIRITUAL MINDS.

“Mike, as in the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the perpetually embattled pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic parish in Chicago who most ... Read More...

To put recent events in some perspective, I have asked Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina’s Parish, to step back from his obligations there and take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties, effective today. Fr. Pfleger does not believe this to be the right step at this time. While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the Church’s regulations for all Catholic priests. I hope that this period will also be a time away from the public spotlight and for rest and attention to family concerns.

I hope also that the life of St. Sabina’s parish may continue in uninterrupted fashion. Fr. William Vanecko, Pastor of St. Kilian’s parish, will be temporary administrator of St. Sabina’s and will assure the full complement of ministerial services during this period. ... Read More...

Catholics will wait a long time if they expect that the timid, mild, semantically parsing archdiocese will punish Fr. Michael Pfleger on its own. But nevertheless the day of penitential reckoning may be near for the fiery Saint Sabina’s pastor. Wait-how can those two statements be reconciled?

Easy-Pfleger’s scandalous pastorate may well have angered the one institution that carries massive weight in Catholic circles: the Democratic party. He has already brought serious harm to the Barack Obama campaign from a ranting pastor run amok. The archdiocese has stood by and allowed him to rant. But Democrats are on the verge of saying: enough. Then the archdiocese will have to act.

A few evenings ago, Fox TV talk show host Bill O’Reilly criticized the ultra-bland nature of the formal disclaimer issued by the archdiocese to Pfleger. As well he should. The truth is that Pfleger has become more than a media ... Read More...

Sen. Barack Obama’s chief political strategist sits on the finance committee of the Chicago church led by controversial pastor Michael Pfleger, who claimed in a sermon last weekend Sen. Hillary Clinton cried in public because she thought being white entitled her to the Democratic presidential nomination.

Pfleger, whose remarks about Clinton were condemned by Obama, several times hosted at his church Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan. Pfleger practices black liberation theology, is a regular guest speaker at Trinity United Church of Christ, and was identified by Obama as a key source of spiritual guidance.

David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist, serves on the finance board of Pfleger’s St. Sabina Catholic church, which is seeking to raise $1 million to offset the costs of reconstructing sections of the cathedral found to have structural problems.

Father Pfleger has the Chicago Sun Times which helped create the character screaming all over You Tube, going flat-out to help save his Public Life.

Instead of going to the Catholic Parishes that Pfleger routinely smears as racist and offering a true apology, The Real Pfleger sniffled to his flock that he has received 3,000 hateful e-mails ( Is that All?) over his disgracefully racist rant at Trinity. He said he has received ‘Death Threats,’ which he should have reported to the Chicago Police Department – that group of brave men and women that he calls a ‘systemically racist’ army of occupation.

The Chicago Sun Times, a dying fool itself. offers this from Pastor Pfleger’s Apology.

Hate me if you will. Hate my imperfect presentation. Hate my imperfect dramatization. Hate my imperfect articulation. I have never presumed to be anything but imperfect, but I pray I can still beat the ... Read More...

In the Jesuit “America” magazine blog, Tom Beaudoin tells us that Fr. Pfleger (and Rev Wrights) “sermons in question were written and performed for a “local,” not “global,” audience. They are performances—of defiance, passion, exhortation, meditation”. Not racist, sacreligious, hateful, spiteful, menacing or any of 100 other accurate condemnations, rather a lively discussion, appropriate to context.

Fr. Pfleger plays the victim on St. Sabina’s website (though he certainly was the assailant) stating
“Hate me if you will. Hate my imperfect presentation. Hate my imperfect dramatization. Hate my imperfect articulation. I have never presumed to be anything but imperfect, but I pray I can still beat the drum of justice, even if sometimes I am off beat”, which is an odd way of apologizing by accusing anyone who might question Fr. Pfleger’s bizzare buffoonery of “hate”. Beating up on a recently rather hapless Park Ridge woman from the ... Read More...

Barack Obama’s pastor buddies don’t frighten me as much as his church-going brethren.

You have to expect that the bizarre likes of Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright would ooze to the surface in any number of organizations or institutions—right or left, Republican or Democratic. But the multitude gathered in what is supposed to be a temple of God, cheering on the racist slobbering of the two “reverends’” is scary.

Cheering is too mild a word. Look at the video of Pfleger’s rant against Hilary Clinton; notice the guys in the background. They’re on their feet, clapping, laughing and cheering. One is nearly doubled over in laughter. Broader shots of the crowds show that while some people are sitting quietly—in disapproval, I hope—there also was widespread affirmation of both Pfleger’s and Wright’s “sermons.”

They were eating it up.

God damn America. White people think they’re entitled to everything. They won’t tolerate ... Read More...

Carol Marin weepily tells us in the Sun-Times that the worst part of Fr. Pfleger’s spiteful rant at Trinity United Church was that it might hurt Obama’s campaign. Not that he is generally wrong, or vile, or speaks hatefully from the Pulpit. The real problem is that people may not vote for Obama.

Mark Brown, also in the Sun-Times, makes a more valid point stating that:

Barack Obama has thrown Rev. Michael Pfleger under the bus. Pfleger took Hillary to task, claiming she felt she should win over a black man.

CBS News notes that Pfleger is “another pastor friend.”

But he’s much more than that. Pfleger and Obama have had a long relationship. Pfleger backed Obama against Bobby Rush when Obama ran in 2000 for Congress.

Already by that time, Pfleger was on record supporting radicals like Louis Farrakhan.

Pfleger is a campaign contributor to Obama, in addition to being yet another “spiritual mentor,” and Obama got a $225,000.00 earmark for Pfleger’s church when Obama was in the state legislature in Illinois.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Rev. Michael Pfleger’s remarks at Sen. Barack Obama’s church that led the Catholic priest to apologize and the Democratic hopeful to renounce them:

“Most commentators are already focusing on the inappropriateness of the race-baiting comments by Father Pfleger. More serious is the venue in which he delivered his diatribe and his long-standing ties to Sen. Obama.

“Father Pfleger’s tirade would be inexcusable anywhere, but it is even more offensive when it happens in a church. It does not matter that it was not his own, nor does it matter that it happened in a church that has a record of allowing demagogues to exploit it. When churches become forums for political rallies, both religion and the First Amendment are corrupted.

“Obama and Pfleger are no strangers. Indeed, when Obama was in the state senate in Illinois, he conveniently arranged for Father Pfleger’s St. ... Read More...

Statement of Cardinal Francis George concerning remarks of
Fr. Michael Pfleger about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton during
an address at Trinity United Church of Christ on Sunday May 25, 2008

The Catholic Church does not endorse political candidates. Consequently, while a priest must speak to political issues that are also moral, he may not endorse candidates nor engage in partisan campaigning.

Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged. Words can be differently interpreted, but Fr. Pfleger’s remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply.

To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Fr. Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests.

This video must be seen to be believed. This is the Rev. Michael Pfleger speaking at Jeremiah Wright’s Church. Fr. Pfleger is a Roman Catholic Priest who is in the Obama camp. Sorry, I take that back. It is much worse than that. I do believe he prefers Obama over Jesus.

If you don’t like Obama, why then you are a racist. Watch this amzing and outrageous video of Rev. Pfleger.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, I was 19 years old and fancifully considered myself to be far to the left of him. Notwithstanding that, he felt to me like one of my moral elders and tutors (as he still does). When I was first asked to sign a petition to make his birthday a national holiday, on a Manhattan side street in 1970, I was 21 and signed with pride. When, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan finally signed also, authorizing the bill for the King holiday, I was humbled to think of how far along I was in my 30s and how comparatively little I had to show for it. And last weekend, reading a beautiful reminiscence by King biographer Taylor Branch, I was arrested by the realization that King has now been dead for ... Read More...

Carol Marin brought on top notch group of innovators to WTTW‘s Chicago Tonight to resolve the gun violence issue.

Dexter R. Voisin, a Ph.D from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration told us that more spending on education is the answer. Voisin noted that spending per student in Kenilworth is higher than spending per student in Chicago, and surmised that this spending keeps the gun violence down in Kenilworth.

Fr. Michael Pfleger called for tighter gun laws and more government regulation to stop the violence. Carol Marin repeatedly asked “But when is the violence going to stop” in rhetorical display of courage unmatched since the Founding Fathers.

But, none of the panelists noticed the actual trends in violence in Chicago. Murder hit a 40 year low in Chicago in 2007. The number of students murdered is down 25% from the last school year to the present ... Read More...