You expect to say more in you're next column? Blah!Blah!Blah!Blah!Blah!

Carl, I'd like to hear more about how Obama has "been in bed" with his pastor.

I don't think it is necessarily inconsistent to be part of the community of a religious congregation and -- seeing how the perspectives of older generations, or others filled with grievances, are outdated, unproductive, and inappropriate -- want to be part of a movement that gets beyond them.

For someone so supposedly intelligent and smooth, how could BO not have seen this train coming down the tunnel?? Makes you question his judgement to say the least.

And another thing - why is this invective coming from a pulpit??

Oh, and FYI Corhilator, it's "your", not "you're"

I am curious, and would be grateful if the press (you?) could determine if there have been previous such inflammatory sermons of which Obama might, or should, have been aware. Or, asked differently, is he distancing himself from such extremism only because it has lately become a problem to his presidential ambitions, but was previously tolerated or acceptable to him, and now he has to "clean up his act".

I realize some preachers do not stick to only delivering their religious message and go off on political tangents because they feel religion pervades our entire lives and it does but it is dangerous to espouse on politics. That's why our wise forefathers sought to separate state and church. In ages past, religious leaders had too much power in the kingdoms - the Inquisition, Crusades, etc.

To whom it may concern:(Conservatives I hope) Yes let's separate church and state. Many conservatives are anti-abortion and pro-death penalty? How many ways can you interpret THOU SHALL NOT KILL?!?! There are no clauses under that commandment!

Mr. Strock, When I see your column in the paper, I usually find the read most worthwhile. After listening to Rush and Sean yesterday cut and
dice Barack and then watching Pat Buchanan lose it so quickly on Hardball when a black talk show host another guest) pressed him on visiting a black
church some day, I hoped you would offer a refreshing angle. I was very disappointed, not just because you were echoing so much of what these Talking Heads were saying about Barack's complicity because he refused
to sever all relations with Pastor Wright, but because you did not see that we might have begun to move to a different level of conversation between blacks and whites.
Two years ago, a graduate of a local high school,sat with my wife and me over dinner. A black man,he had gone to Colgate University, became a Rhodes' Scholar, then graduated from Harvard Law. At one point my wife said to him, "Who knows,you might become the first black President." He smiled and then said, "Thanks, but I worry that the first black President could be assassinated. There is still so much hatred out there." When I asked him about the prejudice he experienced at Oxford, he said that it was there, just more subtle. On occasions, it would break out, like the night he sat at a pub in Oxford with a few friends, including a white woman, also a Rhodes, who sat next to him at the bar. When one of his friends was in the bathroom, he heard two guys talking about the "babe" at the bar. And one said, "Yeah, but she's sitting with that n....r." The friend told our guest who just sighed.
I remember once listening to Arthur Ashe, shortly before he died of aids, say on Charlie Rose that there had never been a day in his life when
he didn't get up in the morning and think about how he was going to endure another day marked by prejudice. And I thought, here is one of the
classiest men you will ever know and that is his reality.
So I still believe that with Barack we might have a chance to raise the conversation between black and white to a little higher level - to begin to
understand in even small ways the levels of feeling and thought that exist between black and white. Nick Kristof's column in Thursday's Times gives me a little hope - Professor Marty's comment about those whites who do attend the Rev. Wright's church, for example. And there are a few others, for example, I believe her name is Margaret Curlson, who appeared on Hardball, who said that those who approach Barack's speech with an open heart are enlightened.
My final point is that there are a lot of prejudiced people out there, and I already met two today who said "Heh,Strock is right on - Obama is no better than Wright." They were
meaning it in a darker sense -- Obama is not a worthy candidate. And that is a sad commentary on our country.