Tucker Carlson: Obama's Black church isn't really Christian [VIDEO]

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 10:07 AM on February 10, 2007.

Right wing TV host Tucker Carlson claims that presumptive presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama(D-IL) isn't a real Christian because he goes to a Black church. [Video Here]

Obama belongs to the "Unashamedly black and Unapologetically Christian" Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.

Tucker was tut-tuting because Trinity United espouses a 12-point Black Value System.

CARLSON: So Barack Obama is a member of a church called Trinity United Church of Christ. It's a predominantly black church in Chicago, that espouses something called the "Black Value System," which includes calls for congregants to be "soldiers for black freedom" and a, quote, "disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness." Now, it would seem to me, Tom, not to make a broad sweeping statement here, but a racially exclusive theology, a theology that ministers to one group of people, based on race, kind of contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity, and is worth talking about. Wouldn't you say?

And, again, a few seconds later...

CARLSON: Soldiers for black freedom? How about -- what about soldiers for freedom for everybody. What does that mean?

Tucker obviously hasn't read the first ethical precept of Trinity United which states:

Commitment of God “The God of our weary years” will give us the strength to give up prayerful passivism and become Black Christian Activist, soldiers for Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind.

If Tucker has read the document, he's bearing false witness against his neighbor.

Try to reconcile Tucker's contempt for Obama's faith with his crocodile tears for religious tolerance in this interview with Edwards blogger-basher Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.

[Media Matters, NG Blog]

Tagged as: christian, religion, race, black, obama, church, carslon

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.