So then, what should John McCain do about the endorsement of John Hagee, the frothing-at-the-mouth Catholic hater? It doesn't seem his response to Hagee's hateful rhetoric is very much different from Obama's to Wright's. In fact, it seems much less forthright:

"I don't have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions. . . .

"And I am very proud of the Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people and I am proud of his commitment to the independence and the freedom of the state of Israel. That does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor John Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues."

Sounds pretty lukeward compared to Obama's response to Wright:

"Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue."

Why aren't you calling for McCain to "categorically denounce any statement that disparages the Roman Catholic Church?" Do you think that McCain "deserves to be welcomed into the company of decent people" if he is "proud of Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership?" To paraphrase your own words, "If Republicans are not anti-Catholic bigots, they will repudiate him. Ha ha...I won't hold my breath on that one."

And yes, Wright is the pastor of Obama's church. But just how much emphasis do you put on your priest's sermons, as opposed to all the other aspects of the community that are your church? I think that Publius at Obsidian Wings has it right:

"I suspect the reason Obama joined the church had virtually nothing to do with Wright and everything to do with the congregation. Trinity is a big important African-American church in Chicago, and Obama was planning on being a politician representing these communities.

"Further, once he had already joined, his family likely grew roots within the church. I’m sure he and his family developed close friends, participated in community activities, and so on. It’s hard for people who have never attended church to understand this, but sermons are among the least significant aspects of what the larger church is all about."

Given your political views, it's entirely understandable that you oppose Obama's candidacy. But I think it will serve your cause better to concentrate on substantive issues, especially when your own candidate is equally, if not more, vulnerable to similar charges.

Excellent questions.

The short answer on McCain is that I'm confident that he is not anti-Catholic, and is just doing the tacky stuff one does to get elected. If he were anti-Catholic, we'd have heard about it long ago. And I do denounce him on substantive issues. I've done so, especially Campaign Finance Reform, and the "Gang of 14."

You will no doubt reply, "So why aren't you cutting Obama the same slack?" The answer is that I don't know what Obama really thinks. And neither do you.

McCain says what's on his mind, and if I and the entire conservative "establishment" howls in outrage, he just laughs at us. It's well known that he will sit with reporters for hours and talk about everything.

It's quite possible that Obama just joined his church to get ahead in Chicago politics. (His problem there was not that he's half-black, but that he's half-white.) If I had good reason to think that he is not in tune with Wright, I'd be happy to drop this matter and focus on substantive issues. (Of course it's not too clear what he thinks on substantive issues either.)

On the other hand, if his beliefs are in any way congruent with Wright's, then that IS the substantive issue. The possibility that he is a racist, that he hates white people, that he hates America--that's bigger than any policy position.

And his response to Wright sounds strong at first, but is really kind of weasely. It's sort of "Anything anybody finds controversial, I denounce!" But it does not reveal what he actually believes.

Obama is a hider. He's a lot like you. He's always got some quick slippery words to avoid being pinned down. Like you I suspect he's picked a congregation that's in his comfort-zone, and if one could be a fly on the wall, one would hear some ugly stuff that never gets openly avowed.

(I AM a fly on the wall among leftists. I live in San Francisco. I know whereof I speak. And I belong to a mostly liberal parish, which doesn't bother me much because I'm secure in my beliefs. Also we have a truly truly great man as pastor, Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, who is, I'm sure, quite liberal, but rarely lets it show, and would clamp down hard if anyone tried to hijack the parish for any kind of political flavor.)

People like me are scritinizing Obama's church because he is sneaky and deceptive. And possibly a chronic liar.

I think Truth really objectively exists, and that we have a duty—a duty with no wiggle-room—to try to find it. I doubt you or Mr Obama agree.

"...just doing the tacky stuff one does to get elected."

So McCain is simply demonstrating the lack of personal and intellectual integrity required of any presidential candidate. I'm fine with that. None of them are fit to govern: the very desire to do so disqualifies them.

What's obvious, of course, to anyone who reads your blog, is that you will overlook the failings of your candidate because he is your candidate, and demonize the failings of his opponents because they are his opponents. So much for the obligation to search for "Truth." But that's what having what you call "a point of view" tends to do to one's IQ--knock off 50 points or so, contrary to what you said in the comments to an earlier post. The Buddhists call it "attachment," and rightly ascribe both ignorance and suffering to it. The word for it among Jews, Christians, and Muslims is "idolatry."

I'll get to that in a moment by way of a small digression inspired by what is for me the real real point of interest in your response: a comment about your priest that illustrates a huge difference in our understanding of the role of religion in one's life.

"...we have a truly truly great man as pastor, Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, who is, I'm sure, quite liberal, but rarely lets it show, and would clamp down hard if anyone tried to hijack the parish for any kind of political flavor."

Comforting the afflicted, but not afflicting the comfortable, eh? How nice for you: a convenient, Laodicean religion (Rev. 3:14-18) with little or no impact on your political life. God forbid that you should hear anything that might shake your "Truth" and bring you face to face with your blindness.

I approach religion rather differently. For me, the statement "Jesus is Lord" is fundamentally a political statement, as it was in the beginning, before the Church began the long process of conforming to the world. Do you know the history behind the Greek word translated as "gospel," euangelion? It referred to an imperial proclamation of victory, of the emperor (who was often referred to as "Son of God") as savior of the people of the empire. A good modern example of an euangelion would be President Bush on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

So, when those first followers of The Way heard "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," what they understood this deceptively simple statement to say was: "Listen! The emperor is not your savior, and the empire holds no salvation. The true lord of the world is Jesus." It was a call to turn away from the idols of the empire--violence and power and oppression--and seek first the Kingdom of God.

If you hold on to your idols--whether "America" or "The Constitution" or "The Republican (or Democratic) Party" or "Our Troops" or "Spreading Democracy" or "Overthrowing Tyrants"--the list is endless--you will end up with nothing in the end: "wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." They cannot save you. But if you truly seek first the Kingdom, then all else will be added to you, including truth.

Jeremaiah Wright was speaking truth in the now-famous "God damn America" sermon that you denounce as "lying filth." (I'll note that your constant use of the the word "filth" to characterize the views of those with whom you disagree is quite revealing--it wasn't Jesus who worried about filth, but his establishment opponents who used the purity code as a tool of oppression.) His remarks on damning America are squarely in the Biblical, prophetic tradition. Open any of the prophets and you'll find vitriolic denunciations just as savage, just as shocking, and just as violent against the established order. I don't use the language of damnation because I think it is a concept inconsistent with the God revealed in Jesus. But I think his basic vision is prophetic, and true, and your inability to understand that merely puts you among a generation of vipers that doesn't even know enough to flee from the wrath to come, the retribution for our arrogance, our militarism, and our murderous exceptionalism.

You have ears yet cannot hear because of your idolatry. As revealed again and again in your blog, you worship the idols I mention above. What you call "Truth" or a "point of view" is just the intellectual, moral, and spiritual equivalent of a senseless chunk of wood or stone--a collection of hates and prejudices that have little to do, as far as I can tell, with the Way of Jesus. But that's what happens when you worship idols--as the prophets pointed out again and again, idolators become as senseless and incapable of seeing the truth as the empty forms they worship.

Now, I know your response to this will include your standard denunciation of my refusal to engage you on the issues--that I hold myself "above" them in some way. I've never answered that accusation because I wasn't really sure myself why it didn't seem important. But composing this post has helped me see more clearly my reasons, so I'll try to explain.

For a long time I've tried to avoid your blog because of the contempt and hatred that pervades it, and your almost total lack of compassion. But I find myself drawn back again and again with a horrified fascination that I imagine is akin to the guilty pleasure enjoyed by 18th-century Londoners visiting Bedlam. I don't see any point to discussing most of your assertions any more than I would those of a Flat Earther or a Creationist. Your worldview is based on assumptions and prejudices that I don't share, find difficult to understand, and consider entirely at odds with the Way of Jesus.

Indeed, if I didn't know you personally and consider you a friend, I wouldn't bother with your rantings. But the contrast between your fundamental decency and your vicious politics has taught me a lot about the power of fear and its corrosive effect on people, as well as the relationship between fear and lack of faith. If you really had faith in your idols' power to save, you wouldn't so hate and fear those who criticize them. (In a sense, you're not a very good idolator, and that may save you in the end.)

So, I am finding that this contrast is helping me learn compassion for people whom, not long ago, I hated for their vicious acts and criminal behavior. I can begin to see them as people who want to do good, but are blinded by fear, so that they walk in darkness. I can pray simply for the relief of their fear, trusting to God to show them what they need to see once they feel safe enough to look. It is even helping me learn compassion for myself, for my own fear, blindness and anger. What does my darkness hide from me? What will I see if I feel safe enough to look? So I'll keep checking in occasionally--you do post some beautiful quotes from time to time, like the recent one from Newman--he's talking about your idols, you know.

In the meantime, be mindful that perfect (i.e., mature) love casts out fear. That is the love commanded by Jesus when he said "Be compassionate as your Father in heaven is compassionate," that is, towards everyone, and most especially your enemies. Try it. The results may surprise you. They certainly have me, and I expect many more surprises along the Way.

"How nice for you: a convenient, Laodicean religion (Rev. 3:14-18) with little or no impact on your political life. God forbid that you should hear anything that might shake your "Truth" and bring you face to face with your blindness" Nuh uh, that's what YOU have. I get challenges to my beliefs all the time, and school myself to keep my mouth shut and try to see if other people have anything I should hear. (This blog is the only place I express my politics.)

YOU picked a church that drapes lefty clichés in trendy spiritualism. You picked a church where the Holy Spirit drives a Prius and agrees that George W. Bush is horrible. You stayed in your comfort-zone. How many illegal aliens attend your meetings? How many conservative Republicans?

How many people in your church are different from you? Every Sunday (and plenty of other times) I greet people who speak no English, who are of ethnic groups I can't even identify. I kneel with rich and poor, black and white. I get hit with Liberation Theology, and nod politely. I know a hedge-fund guy in a natty blazer, and an old black merchant seaman who's getting baptized on Saturday.

"Afflicting the comfortable" applies to you. You not only have a church that never challenges your political life, when you DO encounter a challenge—right here—you dismiss it as "Bedlam," and never once engage in principled debate. Wow, way to meet a challenge, big brave Jesus boy! Way to shake your "Truth!" Of course St Paul wrote: "Test nothing; assume you are above it all." (1 Thessalonians 5.21, RGV)

Oh, and since we are on the subject of truth. When you dismiss what I write as "Flat Earthism," you are telling a LIE. I know...that you know...that these are views reasonable people can have, because you held many of them when I first met you. You are acting like someone who has "moved up" in the world, and then pretends he has never heard of stickball. (And you know lots of military stuff, too, and are telling a LIE by pretending you don't know that a "mission" is not a war or a campaign.) Let's see....Fruits of the Spirit: Complacency, Pomposity, Insults, Groupthink and ...Lies.

YOU are the idolator. It is not idolatry to have ideas or beliefs, but to worship them. I put all my ideas out in the open here where the sun can shine on them, and they can be criticized. You sneak yours in while pretending to be up on the Astral Plane, above all attachments. Now I understand; you are a fake-Gnostic!

I should be criticized and challenged. In fact that's what this blog has always been for. But it never happened. And my main critic should have been.....YOU! But you failed the test. You've never engaged in principled debate, even before you ascended to the Empyrean, where "truth" is just a chunk of wood. That was, and still is, a failure of Christian Charity.

And I don't demonize opponents. That's you. Projecting as usual.

I criticize politicians, for specific things, and of course leftists get most of the criticism--because that's what I believe is wrong.

BUT, I have also criticized McCain and Bush. And I have had positive things to say about every major Dem candidate. I just commended Mr Obama for coming out with clear policy positions for the War on Terror.

President Bush is right now using his political capital to get more money to fight AIDS in Africa. And none of you has any warm words for him. YOU are the demonizers.

"I've tried to avoid your blog because of the contempt and hatred that pervades it.." A smokescreen. You are upset because I criticize leftists,, which is to say, you. That's always what stings you. And you can't answer back, because you don't dare to make your views explicit. You are living in fear.

I criticize leftists—with reasons, with ideas, with facts—and I'm a hate-monger. Wright expresses naked hatred of the United States, and he's...a hate-monger, right? No no, he's a prophet! (And whites invented AIDS to kill blacks? Sure, hey, the prophets said that kind of stuff all the time. And they didn't like Jews, either. The parallels are amazin'.)

And all that stuff about detachment and idols...smokescreen. It's politics you care about. You were stung when I criticized Obama, and you were loaded and ready to shoot back with something about McCain.