March 19, 2008

Barack Obama and Reverend James Meeks (so far not another Jeremiah Wright)

Sean Hannity is digging up dirt on yet another radical preacher linked to Barack Obama. This time it's Reverend James Meeks of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, whose day job is as an Illinois state senator. However, this time around the links are a bit more tenuous than in the case of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Here's Rev. Meeks:

He's also "the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson Sr.'s National Rainbow-Push Coalition" (link). That page says he's one of his religious advisors, but he's not listed on this document supposedly listing those advisors from December 2007. On the other hand, the 2006 book The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People by the unvetted author Cathleen Falsani says (link):

Another person Obama seeks out for spiritual counsel is Illinois State Senator James Meeks, who is also the pastor of Chicago's Salem Baptist Church and heir apparent to the helm of the Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. The day after Obama won the primary in March 2004, he stopped by Salem for Wednesday-night Bible study. "I know that he's a person of prayer," Meeks says. "The night after the election, he was the hottest thing going from Galesburg to Rockford. He did all the TV shows, and all the morning news, but his last stop at night was for church. He came by to say thank you, and he came by for prayer."

Meeks and several others were listed in December 2007's "African American Illinois Legislators Unanimously Endorse Barack Obama" (link). And, this says that while "Meeks was never very close to Obama, last month he was elected as a delegate pledged to Obama". More related to that and Meek quotes here. In 2005 news, apparently Meeks was pulled over by a cop and then tried to pull rank on him (link).

Note also that the video above was posted three days ago by the user 023chitown, who last logged in at that time and who only watched one video. In other words, 023chitown appears to have only signed up (at least under that name) to post that video.

This (from David Ehrenstein) says:

In 2004, during his U.S. Senate run, Obama campaigned at Chicago's Salem Baptist Church, whose leader, Rev. James Meeks, called same-sexuality "an evil sickness."

While there appear to be some links, unless something else surfaces they don't appear to be on the same level as the Wright issue.

Posted to Politics at March 19, 2008 09:39 PM