Well the truth is he was somewhat "encouraged" to stay out of the picture until after the primaries at least. Last I had heard was he hadn't actually retired, he was on a vacation, and then was on a 3 month sabbatical (what a coincidence). So this is the first I've heard of the "retirement".

I've heard quite a bit about it and not made any comments before since I don't want to condemn a man for the company he keeps, although I'm sure if this was someone going to a white supremacy church, it would be all over the news with people shouting from the rooftops. This is not the only inflammatory comment that pastor has made. There are lots of them. So while I don't condemn Obama for another's comments, I do question why he would stay affiliated with them when there are obviously other churches he could chose to attend.

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I have been very, very surprised that it has stayed out of the media this long. This is not a new story, just new to mainstream media. Either the media didn't think Obama would or some other reason, it has been quiet before now. I am sort of enjoying watching how he recovers, which, thus far, he is doing quite well. I am not sold, but you know I wouldn't be sold on Obama anyways!

I think the media stayed away from Obama for 2 reasons. 1 they didn't think he had a chance against Hil and they didn't want to be labeled racist. Of course that gave him a free press scrutiny for while but now that is is posed that opens a new can of worms.

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

I figure he has a more unique perspective on race than any other president in history since he is mixed race. He is visually black, but he was raised by his white mother. I doubt he would throw the race that birthed him, raised him, and that he himself is "half of" under the bus. I also agree that just because you go to a church does not mean you believe in every thing that pastor says 100% of the time. I know that's not the case with most people I know. I didn't get to see his speech but plan to read it or catch it on line. I have to read up on specifics of Obama and Hillary now as it looks like Michigan will be redoing their primary on June 3. I didn't vote in the earlier primary as Edwards was not on the ballot, nor was Obama, so I didn't see a point in learning the differences between them. Now that I have a chance to vote, I have to read up. I have things I like and dislike about each of them.

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I feel that if you go to a church you at least understand and agree with their mission statement. You may not agree with everything the Pastor says but you are going to stand behind a mission statement.

So i feel that yes he agrees with it and now he's just trying to appease the people.

I do think it's a double standard. No white Presidential hopeful would get away with this.

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Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)

I guess if it was a one time situation with this pastor it would be one thing. But it seems that everyday a new video of him is coming out and therefore seems that it is a more regular occurrence for this pastor to say in front of his congregation some "interesting" things. If he says this in public, what would he say to Obama in private as his spiritual advisor? That is more of a concern to me....

Well....Romney is mormon and just a few decades ago Mormons didn't believe black people were human.

I also think that there is a big difference between "white supremacy" and being supportive of the social difficulties that are unique to your race due to the racial divide in America. It's the same as people of asian, indian, hispanic races taking actions, supporting systems that help support their cultures. It's not racist. That said, pastors like this guy can very easily cross a line into inflammatory speech that raises eyebrows. But I also don't go for the BS spouted by Billy Graham and all those other evangelical preachers who have advised presidents for the last 30 years. They are all questionable hypocrites in my book, so I don't give this guy any more creedence than the others.

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I totally agree!
if it was a "white" candidate, he would never hear the end of it.
He's using his race to his advantage, IMO
i so don't like him....
plus, did i mention, he has no experience...
when he said that some americans didnt have health insurance because they didnt want to! and that he would make it affordable for everyone to have health insurance.
You know whats going to happen,
The only people who will be able to take advantage of this "affordable" insurance will be super low income families/people.
Most of america will not qualify, trust me...
most of us are are not rich enough or well off enough to afford it on our own,
nor poor enough to qualify for any type of plan he is thinking of.

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I think most people have no idea if the church they attend has a mission statement and, if it does, I bet they don't know what it says. Mission statements became all the rage in the 90's. Prior to that, they were non-existant. I see all the posts on here where people are shopping around trying to find a church that suits them, where they like the pastor, like the programs, like the church community, checking out different branches of faith. How many go on line and look at the mission statement? I bet it dawns on few.

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I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Billy Graham. He has been in ministry for over 60 years.