My husband has been an enthusiastic supporter of Senator Obama's candidacy and has sent money to his campaign. I've been vacillating between Edwards and Obama for some months now, liking certain things about each one. But my days of indecision might be over because of the Obama campaign events in South Carolina. If the Obama campaign goes ahead and has Donnie McClurkin on stage at his events, he's lost my vote, my husband's vote, our college daughter and her friends' votes (at the very large, very full of young voters University of Michigan campus), and many other people's support.
Yesterday I sent the following email to the Obama campaign:
"As Obama supporters, our family is very disturbed that he will be appearing with Donnie McClurkin in Obama campaign events in South Carolina. I can't believe the Senator really wants to be associated with someone who feels that homosexuality can be "cured" and says about homosexuality that "God started making it plain to me the things to hate. You don't hate the people, but there are certain things that are against God that may be in you that you have got to learn how to hate, even though it's in you."
In addition, Mr. McClurkin worked to get George Bush elected both in 2000 and in 2004. Is this really the kind of supporter you want to highlight?
My husband and I will be watching to see how Senator Obama handles this situation. We will also contact our daughter, a student at University of Michigan. Like many other students on college campuses, she feels very strongly about gay rights. I hope the Senator will reconsider having Mr. McClurkin at these campaign events."
Today I called Senator Obama's headquarters in South Carolina and left a voicemail for Mr. Sam Wilson asking him the same question. The very nice young man called me back to assure me that the events are not fundraisers, that the Senator will not be appearing on stage with McClurkin. I'm sorry, that doesn't do it for me. As I told him, if McClurkin had said the same sorts of things about Jews or about Blacks, would it be okay to have him on stage at campaign events? I seriously doubt it.
I read Obama's statement. It's lovely that he's been a supporter of gay rights, etc., but this is the test of his courage to stand up to the homophobic part of the religious community. If he doesn't have the courage to do this, he should not be President of the United States. We need to be done with empty moral statements and sham principles. We've had 6 years of that with the Bush administration. I want something better.
p.s. in response to jb1125's diary, it doesn't make it okay to have McClurkin featured at campaign events because:
By the way, he's not going to be giving a sermon, he's going to be singing inspirational songs like "We Fall Down":
Does a candidate have to select gospel singers who share every single one his or her views?
If Democrats don't reach out to people of faith, Republicans will...
Those statements are pure rationalization of the Obama campaign's bad choices.
UPDATE: received a call from the Obama campaign that the events are technically fundraisers, but the campaign doesn't expect to make any money off of them.
UPDATE 2: just read an excellent piece on Huffington Post -- describes the issues that the Obama campaign is facing with this
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...