Them Reverends, Obama’s Frat Brothers

“Get Ordained online! Free Online Ordination, Perform Weddings” from  how to become a reverend on Google.

Next, to the dictionary seeking the meaning of reverend:

1. honor or respect felt or shown: deference; especially: profound adoring awed respect
2. a gesture of respect (as a bow)
3. the state of being revered
4. one held in reverence —used as a title for a clergyman

Now let’s examine their Curriculum vitae:

The Rev. Sharpton ministering to his flock?

Al Sharpton– born Alfred Charles Sharpton, according to several bios I read, he has been preaching since age 4. Just what a four year-old preaches and to whom is a head-scratcher. He was licensed and ordained at age ten by Pentecostal minister Bishop F.D. Washington of Washington Temple Church of God in Christ. In the early 70’s to the 80’s  he was touring manager for soul singer James Brown (beefing up his ministerial resume?) and later became involved in civil rights. His activist career is first marked by his vocal and vociferous support of Tawana Brawley a black teenager claiming to have been beaten, raped and defiled by white men. A grand jury determined she had fabricated the hoax and Sharpton was successfully sued for slander in the case.

Reverend Louis Farrakhan– born Louis Eugene Walcott, educated at Boston English High School and Winston-Salem Teachers College. Trained as a teacher and became a nightclub singer in the 1950s. Walcott dropped his last name and became known as “Minister Louis X” who morphed into Abdul Haleem Farrakhan. In a split with Malcolm X Farrakhan became the leader of the Nation of Islam. Yet no where do I see any seminary or religious training.

Reverend Jesse Jackson– born Jesse Louis Burns , educated at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College where he became a civil rights activist. He turned down a scholarship to Duke University to study ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary but dropped out after only 6 months to join Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama fighting for the right of blacks to vote. His fiery brand of activism did not sit well with King and the relationship was never what Jackson claimed it to be. The day after King’s assassination in 1968 Jackson claimed on NBC’s Today Show (wearing a bogus blood stained sweater) to have cradled King in his arms as he died, a claim vehemently denied by King’s inner circle. The Jackson mythology continued as reporters began referring to Mr. Jackson as Reverend Jackson. In 2000 Chicago Theological Seminary finally “awarded” Jackson a divinity degree due to the influence of a Democratic congressman from Chicago who was on the board of trustees.

And then there’s Reverend Jeremiah Wright of “Not God bless American but Goddamn America” fame. Wright does hold a Doctor of Ministry degree (1990) from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

Judge for yourselves, but I prefer the more accurate term, race-baiters, and I put President Obama in the same fraternity.

Aloha, Mikie

~Psst, tired of politics? Check out the Travel Category (right side panel) for my blogs posted direct from Buenos Aires.