[Strangler Lewis]

I thought I read that they gave $27K to Rev. Wright in 2005 to 2006. So what? I would hope that anyone I would ever vote for who goes to a traditional church disagrees with 90 per cent of what comes out of the pulpit. Nonetheless, you give because that's what you do when you belong to a church community. If the objection is that this is really political activism under the guise of the Old Testament tradition of raging prophets, then, fine, let's take away the tax exemptions of all the megachurches and even some of the smaller ones like my sister-in-law's church where the congregation had a hissy fit at the thought of the American flag being taken out of the sanctuary.

My wife and I have belonged to various churches where we like the priest, he spouts the party line, we know to what extent he actually believes it, and we know that the proof in the pudding is in the makeup of the congregation. With one of the priests in San Francisco, a Russian dissident, it went both ways. He would read the official word about gays, but his choir director and most of the parish council were gay men, which was fine with him. He would also read the official word against capital punishment, but, privately, as a kneel-em-down-and-shoot-them-in-the-back-of-the-head Russian, he couldn't believe that I could represent death row inmates in good conscience.

Occasionally, my wife suggests that we find a church that's more officially in line with our political beliefs, like the breakaway pro-gay Episcopal group in Petaluma or the rich Episcopals in Sausalito who summarize Jesus's message as everyone should have a nice brunch. Frankly, I'm against it. Maybe I'm just an old Abraham who likes to argue with God.

More likely, I'm an American who believes in my version of self-evident truths. If I belong to a church or synagogue that's perfectly in line with my liberal moral beliefs and use that relationship with God to buttress my beliefs I'm really no better than a right wing evangelical or madrassah student like Obama.