Rev. Wright, history and Rev. Hagee

I was watching The News Hour yesterday, and they had a panel of people discussing the political races and religion. There was one panelist who kept insisting that Obama would never get past the so called “Jeremiah Wright controversy,” because of Wright’s “crazy paranoia” about the government planting AIDS in the black community. I couldn’t believe he was so totally unaware of history and of the infamous Tuskegee experiments.

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Pelkola Syphilis Study, Public Health Service Syphilis Study or the Tuskegee Experiments was a clinical study, conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, in which 399 plus 201 control group without syphilis poor — and mostly illiterate — African American sharecroppers were denied treatment for syphilis.

This study became notorious because it was conducted without due care to its subjects, and led to major changes in how patients are protected in clinical studies.

My emphasis added. 1972. That wasn’t all that long ago.

PBS has the MP3 on their site of the segment or you can try to listen here.

That same panelist also seemed to indicate (I’m sorry, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing), that if John McCain had a controversial minister supporting him, he would be criticized terribly. uh… Feb. 29th 2008, from CBS evening news:

(CBS) Today, it was Republican frontrunner John McCain‘s turn to answer mounting questions about one of his supporters, Rev. John Hagee, a San Antonio pastor with a worldwide broadcast ministry, reports CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield.

Hagee has offered some highly provocative views on a variety of subjects.

For instance, he linked Hurricane Katrina to the gay rights movement: ” … All of the city was punished because of the sin that happened there in that city.”

He has also denounced the Roman Catholic Church as “the great whore of Babylon” and “a cult.” He blames it for the Holocaust and predicts its imminent demise.

“This is the apostate church,” Hagee said. ” … this false religious system is going to be totally devoured by the anti-Christ.”

It would seem to me that sometime during the great Jeremiah Wright issue, that there would be some reference made about Rev. Hagee, but the last I remember it is from that day. McCain’s response: “I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy,” he said. “They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions.”

Hey,… sounds good to me.