Remember, You Saw It Here First

 Edit Article Title changed today, March 18, 2008, to Remember, You Saw It Here First.

 This articel was originally published on February 26, 2008. At that time, there was no allusion to Obama's affiliation with Pastor Wright and his controversial teachings. No matter your opinion, this is an issue that took some time to catch on, but it finally did.

Edit: Title changed from This Is The Reason He Doesn't Salute Our Flag to the above. Last sentence "I maintain that herein is the reason that Obama will not and cannot salute the flag of the United States of America,"  removed.     March 6, 2008

Outside of mainstream Christianity, the Protestant and Catholic denominations, there are three major goups of Christian sects, Fundamentalists, churches like the Assemblies of God, of which Pat Robertson is a member, Evangelicals like the sect of President Bush, and  Pentecostals, mostly comprised of former Baptists of the Protestant denomination.

There are other fringe sects such as the Messianic Jews, and probably others of which I'm unaware. Within these sects are also, often, what I will term as sub-sects, a subtle flavor that is distinctive for a particular Church or several Churches within that sect. The Fundamentalists seem to have fewer of these sub-sects. Their features are all basically the same within sub-sects. It can also be viewed as the personality of the sect.  An example would be that the Fundamentalists seem to cater more to the family. You'll feel most welcome and comfortable in one of these churches if you are an established family with more than one child with plans to have more children. This is not to say that you'll be ostracized should you not be in that category, but you might not have the sense of belonging that you would otherwise. All of these sects and sub-sects have some type of such personality, at least in my vast experience with them.  The one thing they all have in common is a desire to grow and develop. Money is tantamount to the endeavors of all the sects and sub-sects.

The United Church of Christ of which Barack Obama is a member, would fall into the Evangelical category. As its name indicates, its purpose is to evangelize, or spread the  Word of God. The Bible, however, is a very complicated book if not understood as it should be, which is really very simple, an all encompassing message of unadulterated love, a pervading and underlying goodness superseding all other interpretation. Since, however, that message is often obscured by its many interpretations, it largely depends upon how the Bible is interpreted as to what kind of message is spread. The Pastor of any of these sects sets the tone from his/her interpretation of the Bible to the congregation, and the Word is disseminated as such.

There are some churches, like Obama's, belonging to the Evangelical sect, that also have a set agenda further categorizing them into that sub-set of the sects that I mentioned above. These might also be more commonly referred to as cults. They are identified by a set of rules or tenets that are exclusive to their evangelism or to whatever base upon which they have been founded. Thanks to Lera, who pointed out this informative link to me yesterday, I am able to provide the link to the Church to which Obama belongs with its tenets listed on its website. (Edit February 27, 2008  This site is inaccessible today, not only from this link, but from a Google search or from the URL in any browser. Very interesting in light of last night's debate.)

I could expound on all of them, but the most important to the point of this article is tenet #4, quoted here with the same capitalizaton as is on the website.  "A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA." This clearly indicates an uncompromising loyalty and allegiance to Africa.  If one has such loyalty, there is no way that he can possess or express his allegiance to any other entity without negotiating a portion of such allegiance to that entity.