Obama’s Preacher Flap Evokes Memories
March 20th, 2008, 1:45 pm · 13 Comments · posted by Joaquin
A touchstone of my South Texas youth was the church, as it is the case for many in this region of often deep faith.
But in my case it wasn’t the Catholic Church. I grew up Baptist, from the time I was about five to 15, a faithful Baptist was I, tagging along with my Mom and brothers to Sunday school and listening to the good reverend lay down the gospel every week. In the style and culture of where I grew up, the church I attended reflected my faith at that point, and my community as well.
My church was the Primera Iglesia Bautista,  a Rio Grande Valley church where the kids spoke mostly in English and all of the adults spoke in Spanish. Sunday school for the youth was delivered in English. The Rev’s weekly sermon was all Spanish, all of the time, no translations needed.  The kids understood every word of it while peeking glances at the wall clock, hoping the Rev. Rodriguez could finish in time before the Cowboys kicked off.
The church’s historical roots came a generation or two before mine when Mexican-American community leaders of their faith knew they needed their own church for their own people. Anglo Baptists had their church. The Mexican-Americans needed one of their own, knowing while the Anglos of that day wouldn’t exactly turn them away, they wouldn’t exactly welcome them either. Â
So the Primeria Iglesia Bautistas of their day started up, mostly in the first half of the 20th Century as the Valley became a Mexican-American beacon for immigrants from the south and north and west, (with my mother’s family coming here right after World War II to escape the harshness of West Texas cultural views, among other things).
 These churches became ingrained in our communities, in our neighborhoods, in our families. As a kid, I looked at the elders of my little Baptist church as surrogate mothers, fathers and grandparents. My youthful peers and I carried absolute respect for them, whether it was la senora Perez or el hermano Ramos, they looked out for us, gave us a pat on the head or a warm embrace. It was unthinkable to show any grain of disrespect to them.
Same went for the preacher. I recall him being on the young side for having such responsiblities and bringing spirtual guidance over adults that were often a generation older than he was, but he made up for it in firmness and certitude. The Rev. Rodriguez could bring it on the pulpit. Often starting in gentle tones, his sermons would rise to a crescendo with an open Bible to his hand, yelling out the gospel and lashing out at sinners. There were more than a few times when I was sure his fierce eyes had caught mine, looking at the clock in seeing how close we were getting to the Cowboy game. Talk about serious guilt trips.
On more than a few occasions, the reverend’s words of passion would jolt me. It was fire and damnation stuff, the God is angry type of sermons that would make a kid wonder if he was headed for the fires of hell later in the week. I would bring this up to my mother now and then, wondering if maybe the preacher was laying it on too thick.
“That’s his job,” she would say. “He’s suppose to say those things to make us think.”
I thought back to my preacher with the recent flap about Barack Obama’s pastor. My Baptist pastor never lashed out at America the way Obama’s rev did, as has been shown endlessly on Fox News, so they can remind all of their conservative viewers just how scary it would be to have a black president. But my guy did say some pretty strong stuff in his own right. And in the hallways and corridors of my church, I didn’t always over hear the nicest of things from adults about the Anglos across town who were praising Jesus in a bigger and nicer church.
But we didn’t quit the church - and didn’t quit the preacher either. Like African-American churches, my iglesia bautista served its purpose, bounding together faith with community, spirtuality with the culture of our families. Barack Obama wouldn’t disown his pastor or his church even if he vehemently disagreed with some of the things he heard. Same goes here. I would never disown the church of my youth or the reverend who would thunder things that to this day I find to be over the top. But it was my church, my community, my little slice of America.
“We’ve had pastors I haven’t agreed with, but I didn’t stop going to church,” said Deborah Parish, 57, of Fayetteville, N.C., in an interview with NBC after the Obama-pastor flap broke. “I’m not going for the pastor. I’m going for the soul.”
The Rev. Rodriguez looked out for my soul, and as he would say, condemn the sin and love the sinner.
Joaquin Tijerina, Official Chisme Blogger
March 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I know who youre voting for chisme.obama never held rumage sales at his church to buy coats and clothing for migrant workers like hillary did when she was in high school.your pastor probably didnt either.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Joaquin, You act like this preachers recent diatribe isn’t news! You act like Fox is over reacting! If this was John McCains preacher of 20+ years CNN, the clinton new network would have it running 24 hours a day, not to mention CBS, the communist broadcasting system . Then to have Obama stand next to this hater and say Oh, he’s just from another time and place, and he is harmless…come on, give me a break.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:26 am
I think that it is good that we are getting this out in the open. For way too long a time racism has been considered a whites only problem. Now we should be able to discuss this problem like adults and realize that we are all our own worst enemy. Racism it seems is fruit of ethnocentrism and we are all guilty of it. Whether or not we embrase it or learn from it and move on to productive diccourse all depends on the indiviguals ability to view themselves as others do. Obama and Joaquin alike have taken the first step in realizing that they harbour racist views and now they can move on and become more tolerant of other ethnicities, instead of rehasing the same old lines over and over.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I am glad to see that this is all being brought out in the open. Maybe now we can understand that racism is not just a White only phenomenon. Racisim is the fruit of ethnocentrism, anyone that does not want to believe that it is not is naive or just plain fooling themselves. I have some close friends that were very excited about Obama’s run for the Presidency and I now fear that they are going to be very disapointed. It looks like what we have is just a slicker Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Typical right-wingers always believe that if an American who retains some of his or her family’s ethnic heritage is not being sufficiently American. Just read some of the above posts to get that spin.
If one grows up in a Catholic church in South Texas where some Masses are said in Spanish, does that make someone less American than say a fellow American who grew up going a southern Baptist church in Georgia?
No, of course, not, but don’t expect the mind of a right winger to grasp that concept.
Ethnocentrism? Tell that to our brave U.S. soldiers of Hispanic descent, some of whom are the sons and daughters of immigrants, and who serve their country proudly.
Some of us are quite capable of being both authentically American and enjoying elements of our ethnic heritage. There’s over 300 million people living in this fine country. How many listen to right-wing radio or watch Fox News? It ain’t more than 10-20 million. Now there’s a real minority.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Joaquin, nice try although I think that you are digging your hole a little deeper everytime you try and justify either your ethnic experiance or Obama’s, as something other than soft racism. As I stated it is a good thing that this is getting out in the open. I in no way would justify the rantings of the so called White Hate spewers, they are just as bad. It must be difficult for you to realize that you may harbour some of the same racist tendencies that were echoed as you say in the halls after or before church. Keep the garbage flowing Jack, you are growing as a person.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
How silly, having a so-called `ethnic experience’ does not equate into `soft racism.’ I’ve yet to see any evidence that anything you could write could help me or anyone else grow as a person, Hemingway.
On the other hand, one can learn from others who are more thoughtful and logical, less ideological and judging.
From March 24 issue of USA Today, a guest column by Oliver `Buzz’ Thomas:
“Here’s what white folk like me are missing. The black church experience is different - and not just a little. I’ve had the privilege of being in the pulpits and pews of African-American churches on numerous occasions, and it’s nothing like the experience of most white churches.
“What some white commentators were describing as hysterical in Obama’s church was just good black preaching. My guess is that most of these commentators have never been inside of a black church.
“Candidates can’t be expected to vouch for all that their ministers say, and one segment of America’s religious community has no business imposing its views as normative on another. I’m a white Southern Baptist, but America is bigger than my tribe or yours.”
Those words you can really learn from, maybe grow a little, bub.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hey, Jose, you would have been right at home in the Joe McCarthy 1950s where every other person was accused of being a commie.
No, Jose Joe, if Sen. McCain went to a Phoenix church where a white evangelical preacher regularly warned that the higher authority was going to bring damnation down on America for its sins and inequities of tolerating gays and abortions, there wouldn’t be a ripple of news media attention, especially on Fox and talk radio.
It’s OK if a Jimmy Swaggart or Pat Robertson say the higher authority will damn America for its sins, but not OK when a black preacher says the same sort of wrath will come down on America for its past history of discrimination.
Personally, I think God has far greater things to worry about. But you righties always have to be agitated about something.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Hemmingway was the master at symbolism and metaphorical charectors, thanks, although I sense some condescention in your response. Most of Hemmignway’s symbolism as you know was Biblical in its Genisis, although in 2008 many of his charectors would be panned as racial sterotypes and probably be misunderstood, jsut like you misunderstand me. With that said, we still have not gotten to the root of why it is so difficult to understand each other, it is Ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is the Belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group or an Overriding concern with race. Now when you look at most of the above comments they all have some elements of Ethnocentrism.
Racism is not much of a stretch from Ethnocentrism.
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
Discrimination or prejudice based on race. Think about it, is Darkness the absence of Light, or is Light the absence of Darkness, is there Good without Evil, is there Evil with out Good. Is Ethnocentrism part of human nature or is learned behavior, I think it is learned behavior, and in some cases, learned Sunday mourning.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Whoa, truly deep. I grew up in a Baptist church made up almost entirely of Mexican-Americans, with both languages used in instruction and conversation. Bibles in both languages were read and used. We enjoyed each other’s company. The young people saw their church elders as being role models fully deserving of respect.
That’s not ethnocentrism, Lou Dobbs.
That’s part of growing up religious in America, just like white evangelicals enjoying their churches, African-Americans enjoying theirs, etc., and some churches having peoples of all backgrounds.
It’s all good and all American.
I know it gives a lot of righties the creeps for other Americans to enjoy some elements of their ethnic heritage since they have none of their own. Nothing wrong with that, but one size does not fit all. Like the USA Today columnist said, “America is bigger than my tribe or yours.”
April 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Yes, Jose, we know Obama is done. You’ve been saying that for months now and the guy keeps on ticking, for better or worse.
Looks to me like he’s something of a teflon man. His supposed gaffe on small town America is thus far making no dents in his support or in the polls, and even one of Hill’s biggest supporters, Penn Gov Rendell, said the Obama comments won’t lead to “a sea change” in his support.
And just yesterday, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, one of the more beloved figures in Pennsylvania representing the state’s most loved sports team, endorsed Obama.
Yes, Obama is `cooked.’