Obama's Other Controversial Church
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/obamas_other_controversial_chu.html
By Andrew Walden
June 14, 2009
"This is a guy (former Weatherman terror-bomber Bill Ayers) who lives
in my neighborhood ... the notion that somehow as a consequence of me
knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago - when I
was 8 years old - somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make
much sense." -- Barack Obama on the Campaign trail, 2008
As President Obama prepared to commemorate D-Day, the Associated
Press dug up old details and photos to write a warm fuzzy story about
the WW2 service record of Obama's maternal grandfather and grand
uncle. One could conclude that the actions of these two-nearly 20
years before Obama was born--are the closest Obama ever came to
uniformed US military personnel prior to launching his political career.
But Obama has a much closer military connection-one he has not talked
about publicly. Had a reporter asked Obama: "So what were you doing
during Bill Ayers' fugitive days?" An honest answer would be: "I was
going to Sunday school at a church which had provided sanctuary to US
military deserters."
While John McCain was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Hanoi,
First Unitarian Church of Honolulu -- at which the elementary-age
Obama would later attend Sunday school after returning from Indonesia
in 1970 or 71 -- was sheltering deserters and AWOLs recruited by
'flirty fishing' coeds from a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
group known as "The Resistance". The deserters' exploits were front
page news for months on end in mid-1969 Honolulu. They were also
proudly trumpeted by the Honolulu SDS tabloid, "The Roach".
The contrast between the war hero POW and the Obama deserters' church
would have made a pretty good campaign commercial. But nobody in
Honolulu spoke up to claim Obama's First Unitarian connection until
after Election Day. Even then it was hush-hush. As the
Star-Bulletin explained December 24:
"(Rev Mike) Young, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu,
could only tell his wife and a handful of church administrators that
a small, private service was planned for Madelyn Payne Dunham on Dec.
23. It was very hard to keep this secret. ..."
Obama's maternal grandmother had passed away just days before the
election. The story of his ties to the church began to emerge only
after he attended her memorial service. They have never received
wide media attention, but have been published just enough that-after
being kept secret in the 2008 campaign -- this chapter of Obama's
life can arguably no longer be considered a secret to be revealed in
any 2012 campaign. The connection to Vietnam deserters has not been
included in any of the Obama-related coverage.
Was sheltering deserters an aberration for First Unitarian
Church? No. Long before anybody was thinking of Barack Obama as a
Senator, much less a President, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin February
8, 2003 described First Unitarian's 2003 golden anniversary
celebration complete with "Liberal Religion for 50 Years" T-shirts:
"The bumper stickers on cars outside the church gave an insight into
its members' beliefs: 'No War.' 'If you want peace, work for
justice.' 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'
"Activism for peace and human rights causes has characterized the
congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu since it was
organized 50 years ago. Members were instrumental in founding the
League of Women Voters and activating a local branch of the American
Civil Liberties Union. It offered sanctuary to servicemen who went
AWOL to avoid being sent to Vietnam. It helped launch the Save Our
Constitution effort to fight the constitutional amendment on same-sex
marriages....
"After leaving Hawaii to work at the Unitarian seminary in Berkeley,
Calif., (Church co-founder Rosemary) Mattson and her husband were
active in the international peace movement. She escorted more than 25
tours of Americans to the former Soviet Union for people-to-people
experience...."
But six years later the coverage of the memorial service did not
bring out any of this information. At first there was no revelation
that Obama had any relationship to the church beyond simply holding
the service there. Then a January 6, 2009 article in the Honolulu
Star-Bulletin brings out the hidden story of Obama's religious upbringing:
"When (UU Rev Mike) Young reminded Obama that he had attended Sunday
School at First Unitarian, 'his eyes lit up, and he said, 'Oh that's right!'"
In response to an email query from Hawaii Free Press Rev. Young
confirmed the Star-Bulletin's account.
Young also repeated the story in the March 28, 2009 edition of his
hometown Tampa (Florida) Tribune:
When Obama was in elementary school in Honolulu, Young recounted in a
telephone phone interview, either his grandmother or grandfather
(there's confusion over which one) brought him to Sunday school there
for several years.
The Dunhams had attended a Unitarian church in the Seattle area when
Obama's mother was a teenager. Although there's no record of their
attendance at the Honolulu church, Obama writes about it in his
memoir "Dreams From My Father," and one family who still attends the
church remembers him.
When Young reminded Obama at the memorial service, "his eyes lit up,
and he turned to Michelle and said, 'Hey, that's right. This is where
I went to Sunday school.'"
Obama spent some time on the second floor, where Sunday school is
held, but didn't recognize anything. That's not surprising, Young
said, because the church has been renovated over the years.
The Dunhams' Seattle-area Mercer Island Unitarian Church was infamous
as "The Little Red Church on the Hill"-Obama's mother's attendance
there had been exposed during the campaign-and had been associated
with an ambiguous reference to Obama's grandfather Stanley Dunham in
Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" (p17).
"In his only skirmish into organized religion, he would enroll the
family in the local Unitarian Universalist congregation...."
But knowing Obama's connection to Honolulu's First Unitarian Church,
it is possible this passage refers to either church -- or both churches.
Contemporary accounts of the SDS Resistance use of First Unitarian
and nearby Church of the Crossroads as part of the 1968-70 sanctuary
for deserters movement shows why Obama would not have wanted this
information exposed.
Starting in 1966 University of Hawaii students and professors began
raising funds to donate directly to the Viet Cong. By 1968 UH Manoa
leftist activists had morphed into a chapter of the so-called
Students for a Democratic Society and began publishing a newspaper
called "The Roach."
On October 26, 1967 Lt. Commander John McCain was shot down over
Hanoi. With two broken arms and one broken leg he parachuted into
Truc Bach Lake where he was dragged from the water, beaten and bayoneted.
The June 4, 1968 edition of The Roach includes "memo from the
resistance"-The Hawaii Committee for Draft Resistance-which urges
supporters to show up at a June 10 court hearing for "the ten
arrested for loitering when they attempted to block the 29th Infantry
Brigade troops leaving Fort DeRussy...." On the very next page Mao
Zedong's murderous Red Guards are described as, "...young activists
full of joy who understand the potential for their society...."
In mid-1968, the Vietnamese communists realized they held the son of
Admiral John McCain-commander of the Pacific Fleet, including US
forces in Vietnam. The younger McCain refused an offer of early
release because preferential treatment for the son of a high ranking
officer would provide a propaganda opportunity for the
communists. He would be held five more years.
The September 24, 1968 edition of The Roach describes Resistance
leader John Witeck refusing induction right next to articles titled
"Pot Talk" and "Revolutionary Orgasm." An obscure article in the
October 23 edition mentions "two marines (sic), Young C Gray and Tom
Mat, who are now in sanctuary...." This 'sanctuary' apparently
lasted four days.
The Roach, January 15, 1969, describes Gray receiving two years in
the stockade after being found guilty of "'attempting to possess'
mescaline and marijuana." The Roach further explains: "Gray had also
written some disparaging remarks about NCOs and lifers concerning
their intellects and temperaments. These statements appeared in 'A
Call to Join Us', a piece read to the congregation assembled at the
Unitarian Church."
After losing 50 pounds while receiving insufficient treatment for his
injuries, John McCain was placed in a cell in December 1967 with two
Americans who did not expect him to live a week. He was then locked
in solitary confinement for two years beginning in March 1968. Here
he endured beatings and rope binding tortures but refused to meet
with anti-war delegations attempting to visit the POWs.
The August 16, 1969 Star-Bulletin shows deserters going shirtless
with some of the dozens of hippy girls who had flocked to the
sanctuary churches. The headline: "Hot showers for AWOLs at Church."
By August 23, 1969 the New York Times was reporting "24 G.I. War Foes
now in Sanctuary...staying at both the Church of the Crossroads and
the Unitarian Church of Honolulu...." The Resistance had grown but
all was not well. As The Times explained:
"One of the protesters, Seaman Arthur parker, 17, turned himself in
to the authorities at Pearl Harbor yesterday after talking to an Army Chaplain.
"Seaman Parker denounced the protest as 'a movement to overthrow the
government.'"
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin August 22, 1969 had much more of Parker's story.
(Parker) arrived in Honolulu from a Great lakes, (Ill.) boot camp and
... got drunk with buddies at Waikiki last Thursday night.
He told of meeting a young girl the next morning who promised love
and relief from the military. Parker disliked violence and war....
"We were walking down the street. Man was I bombed, and these two
girls came up and handed me a sheet of paper. It told about the
servicemen at the church and what the Resistance stood for.
"I told the girls that I didn't like to hate and I didn't like the
war but that all I neeed was love. One of the girls said, 'Well
there's a lot of that at the church.' Then we just talked.
"I went back to the hotel, drank three beers and a half pint of
whiskey and then called the Rev Bob Warner to come pick me up....
...On that day the young man from Holland, Mich., became number 18 at
the Church of the Crossroads....
"... It isn't a sanctuary anymore. Its become a movement to
overthrow the government and I don't stand for that; neither do a lot
of the others....
"Even though I don't like the military, I would rather be part of
them than what's down at the church. They scare me now."
Four days later the following Letter to the Editor appeared in the
Star-Bulletin:
SIR: Whereas the Congregation of the Unitarian Church of Honolulu
acted on October 18, 1968, to adopt a policy of offering symbolic
sanctuary to those who in conscience oppose the machinery of war by
nonviolent means, the Board of the Church, at its regular August
meeting, offers its commendation on behalf of the Unitarian Church of
Honolulu to the Church of the Crossroads for its courageous support
of the men now in sanctuary.
--Martha D. McDaniel, Secretary of the Board, Unitarian Church of Honolulu
On September 12, 1969 the Star-Bulletin reported a broadly sponsored
US House resolution, "condemning 'cruel and barbaric' treatment of
American prisoners of war in Vietnam....
"The resolution cites reports that the POWs are subjected to
'physical torture, psychological terror, public display, neglect of
health and are denied dietary and sanitary necessities. They are
unable to correspond with their families and are forced to comply
with propaganda exploitation."
Just two days earlier the Star-Bulletin had interviewed Rev Donald
Adams, a former associate minister of the Church of the
Crossroads. Regarding the military personnel in 'sanctuary' Adams explained:
"I think the majority of them are probably in need of counseling and
psychiatric help. After the wraps are off, you find the real
internal problems. Psychologically, some men are not for the
military. Its not easy in there."
Interviewed for the same article, Church of the Crossroads member
Rev. Ted Chinen explained:
"The men come for various reasons. We should look into their
previous records. We may be assisting psychopathics or neurotics."
To be considered a deserter, a soldier must be AWOL for 30
days. Eventually the City of Honolulu cited both churches for
violations of zoning and health ordinances related to the use of the
church buildings for 'sanctuary'. Then on September 12 military
police raided the Unitarian Church, Church of the Crossroads and
nearby Wellesley Foundation arresting 12 AWOLs. As many as 15 others
evaded arrest.
The Star-Bulletin September 19, 1969 editorialized:
"It seems inconsistent that these men who were so willing to face
television cameras and speak up before the nation on conscience-so
long as they had the protection of the 'sanctuary'-could not see
their adventure through.
"That gives us reason to believe that these young men are not made of
the fiber they would have had us believe.
"Their evasion of the consequences, which they admittedly knew would
eventually come, casts a shadow over the sincerity of their convictions.
"We can be thankful that they decided to take their stand in the safe
confines of a church.
"Had they gone to the jungles of Vietnam, it is entirely possible
that their lack of intestinal fortitude could have got someone else killed."
While the deserters were hiding, the September 15, 1969 Star-Bulletin
reports on another group of missing soldiers. A delegation of four
women-wives of American MIAs believed to be POWs-went to the Paris
Peace Talks. In a statement released to the press they wrote:
"Our husbands have been missing from eight months to four years and
we are hopeful North Vietnamese representatives will tell us if we
are wives or widows."
The November, 1969 edition of the Hawaii Free People's Press --
successor to The Roach -- recounts the story of a Schofield Barracks
deserter who had a different type of relationship with women. The
article titled "Fock the draft" begins with the testimony of
underground Schofield Barracks stockade escapee Bobby Jay Norton:
"Some five or six months ago I was charged with rape which I did not
commit. The girl that charged me with the intentions of rape was
pregnant when she came to Hawaii, so instead of her letting her
parents know of this, she thought that she could come here and charge
rape on someone....
"While we were driving in Waikiki she started screaming louder and
louder, so I told her that if she didn't be quiet that I was going to
slap the s**t out of her.
"As we came to a stop sign she jumped out of the car and started
running down the street crying. I started to go after her but I
decided that I had had enough of her crying so I decided to let her go.
"The next day I was informed by some friends that I was being looked
for by the H.P.D. and some M.P.s....I had previously gotten out of an
assault on a chick."
Above this was an untitled piece by "Private Partz" and a cartoon of
a naked general swallowing people whole and defecating them out as soldiers.
These activists eventually won their war against America in Southeast
Asia. They and those who admired them are now our professors, our
journalists, our ministers, moviemakers, and politicians. One of
their understudies is President of the United States.
In 1973 and 1974 Nixon withdrew US troops from South East Asia. When
the US war ended the real killing began. The Democrat-controlled
Congress cut off US funding to the South Vietnamese and Cambodian
governments. By April of 1975 Pol Pot took over Cambodia and began
murdering as many as 3 million Cambodians. The Vietnamese communists
murdered as many as 1.6 million people and forced millions more into
exile as "boat people."
Those deaths and the domestic political means which made them
possible are the most accurate reflection on the generation of
activists who raised Barack Obama and created his values.
--
Andrew Walden edits hawaiifreepress.com.
--
Related: The Unitarian Church and Obama's Religious Upbringing
The Frank Marshall Davis Network in Hawaii
Barack Obama reading list
.
No comments:
Post a Comment