Obama's Catholic Problem

Mr. Barack Obama does not have a Catholic problem. White Catholic voters have a problem with Mr. Obama because he is a Black man. Indeed White Catholics have a malignant racial problem which is much deeper than the candidacy of Barack Obama. Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania was alluding to this racist problem that Mr. Obama may be faced with in the State of Pennsylvania in his conversation with the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board several weeks ago. This past weekend, several white players from North Catholic High School, which is located in the City of Pittsburgh, hurled racial epithets at Black members of the Jeanette High School basketball team who had just trounced North Catholic in a PIAA quarterfinal Class AA game held at Hempfield High School. The Black players from Jeanette responded to the racial slurs by physically confronting the White player(s) who precipitated the altercation. This is the same Catholic neighborhood that the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl hails from as well as Steeler’s owner Art Rooney.
Yes, it’s true that Mr. Obama will have an uphill battle in getting the White Catholic voters in Pennsylvania with its large White Catholic voting population. Mrs. Clinton received 65% of the White Catholic vote in Illinois. Bigotry, hatred and religious intolerance are learned behaviors. A child is not brought into this world hating, disliking and being prejudiced until somewhere in that internal or external environment, adults or others teach, cultivate, nurture, reinforce biased racist feelings and religious intolerant teachings. According to noted social scientist, Gordon Allport: " No child is born prejudiced. His prejudices are always acquired...chiefly in fulfillment of his own needs. Yet the context of his learning is always the social structure in which his personality develops". Kenneth B. Clark, social psychologist and author states: "social scientists are now convinced that children learn social, racial, and religious prejudices in the course of observing, and being influenced by, the existence of patterns in the culture in which they live". Bigoted racist parents produce bigoted racist kids who become bigoted racist adults. It is unfortunate that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, local bishops, priests, Protestant Clergy, and Jewish Rabbis have not spoken out against these vicious, vile, malicious attacks against Mr. Obama which also have a racist component to them. The Catholic Church from the Vatican all the way down to local priests must do a better job of teaching all their members about racial reconciliation and tolerance and that all human beings are part of God’s divine kingdom. The failure to exorcise this insidious, ungodly racism and religious intolerance will ultimately have very damaging repercussions in this country and abroad.
What accounts for organized religions’ silence? Such organizations as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the World Council of Churches, the NAACP, the Southern Baptist Association have also refused to speak out against these nefarious attacks against Mr. Obama. Their silence could be another form of oppression. The Catholic and Protestant Churches stood by, along with the free nations of the world, and witnessed the brutal genocidal murder of six million Jews. No one stood up then to stop that carnage and human suffering. If Mr. Obama were Jewish, would we still see these outrageous, abominable, unprecedented, specious attacks without a response from the Jewish community?
These attacks on Mr. Obama are anti-Semitic (Arab) even though he is a proud Christian. But even if he were a Muslim, should he be victimized by hatred that is being displayed by certain people in the media, the Clinton surrogates, talk show hosts reactionaries and racists like the Republican representative from Iowa, Stephen King? Muslim Americans are risking their lives everyday in fighting for this country in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have made invaluable contributions to all aspects of American life and culture.
America remains that vast reservoir of hypocrisy in that America advocates religious freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution on which this country was founded but practices and is addicted to religious intolerance, racism and bigotry.