Below The Beltway

Only this time, it’s a white Catholic Priest:

CHICAGO – Sen. Barack Obama sought Thursday night to extinguish a burgeoning controversy over another Chicago minister who supports him, denouncing the comments of a Catholic priest who said “a whole lot of white people [are] crying” because a black man was within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination.

The remarks by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a white minister known as “Chicago’s renegade priest” for his liberal social activism in the city’s black community, came from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, the same church where sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright came under scrutiny from critics who called them anti-American and racially divisive.

Pfleger, pastor of predominantly black St. Sabina’s Catholic Church, who fiercely defended Wright even as Obama eventually rejected his support, sounded similar themes Sunday in a guest sermon at Wright’s church.

Saying he was seeking to “expose white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head,” Pfleger mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for appearing to weep at a campaign appearance before the New Hampshire primary in January, saying she was crying because “there’s a black man stealing my show.”

“She always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white and this is mine,’” Pfleger said in his fiery sermon.

As the racially mixed congregation responded “Amen!” and “Yes, sir!” Pfleger pretended to cry and shouted: “And then out of nowhere came him, Barack Obama. And she said: ‘Damn! Where did you come from?! I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’

“She wasn’t the only one crying!” he said. “There was a whole a lot of white people crying!”

Then, sensing that he may have gone too far, Pfleger added: “I’m sorry. I don’t want to get you in any more trouble. The live streaming [video] just went out again.”

And this so-called Catholic has also defended hate mongers like Calypso Louis Farrakhan:

Rev. Pfleger is indeed an admirer of “Minister Farrakhan.” Ambushed by a Bill O’Reilly camera crew, Pfleger stated: “He has–first of all, he has not called Judaism a gutter religion of blood suckers. That is not what he has said because I have heard that talk. I stick up for Louis Farrakhan because he is another person that the media has chosen to define how they want to do it. And they demonize how they want to demonize somebody. I know the man, Louis Farrakhan. He is a great man. I have great respect for him, ho has done an awful lot for people and this country, black, white, and brown. He’s a friend of mine.” (The O’Reilly Factor, Apr. 3, 2008.) Farrakhan spoke at St. Sabina’s on May 25, 2007. (Chicago Sun Times, May 10, 2007.)

Like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was recently an invited speaker at Rev. Pfleger’s church, Rev. Pfleger believes that “racism is still America’s greatest addiction.” (Chicago Sun Times, Jan. 17, 2004.)

In September 2007 in Iowa, Plfeger participated in forums on the role of spirituality in politics, which the Obama campaign had organized. (US Federal News, Oct. 1 & 14, 2007; Chicago Sun Times, Sept. 12, 2007). The Obama campaign touted Pfleger’s endorsement, listing him as one of about a dozen prominent ministers who supported Obama. (Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), May 8, 2007.)

As a state legislator, Obama obtained $225,000 in grants for St. Sabina. (Chicago Tribune, May 2, 2007.)

Rev. Pfleger was a prominent early endorser of Obama’s successful 2004 Senate campaign, as well as his unsuccessful 2000 challenge to U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

Rev. Pfleger’s church has taken some admirable stands against the degradation of American culture, such as speaking out against abusive rap music, and hosting a speaker who exposed the anti-Catholic compilation of lies in “The DaVinci Code.” (Chicago Defender, May 15, 2006.) St. Sabina also organized a rally against the genocide in Darfur. (Chicago Sun Times, May 19, 2005.) Rev. Pfleger appeared at a press conference to support state legislator Obama’s bill requiring the police to keep statistics on the race of motorists who were stopped by the police, so as to deter racial profiling. (Chicago Defender, Feb. 20, 2001.)

Rev. Pfleger also appeared at a press conference announcing State Senator Obama’s proposal to outlaw the sale of bidi cigarettes–a type of high-nicotine hand-rolled cigarette which is made in India. (Chicago Defender, Feb. 5, 2000.)

Rev. Pfleger does not respect the property rights of persons who sell products he does not like. He “is known for climbing ladders to deface liquor billboards.” (Crain’s Chicago Business, Dec. 20, 2004.)

He is, in other words, exactly the kind of priest who deserves to get himself bitch-slapped by Pope Benedict XVI.

Here’s the video of Pfleger’s insanity in case you missed it:

The worst part of this, or maybe it’s the funniest, is seeing a whiter-than-white guy in a Roman collar trying to talk like a black preacher from Alabama.

Stick to what you know dude.

H/T: QandO