Sunday, January 18, 2009

Joseph Lowery Says Obama will "Lead the World"

Posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

So who is Joseph Lowery and why do we care that he believes Barack Obama will lead the world into abundant life and peace?

Dr. Lowery has been chosen to deliver the benediction after Barack Obama is sworn in as our 44th President.

He is an icon of the civil rights movement, and was buddies with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Frank Abernathy. He is the last and greatest link to King.

This 87 year old fire-and-brimstone Methodist minister stood in front of President G. W. Bush at Coretta Scott King's funeral and declared that there no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He knew it. Coretta knew it. After the ceremony, our benevolent President stood and embraced Lowery.

Here are details about Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, with a video at the end:

Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

A few weeks ago, the UK's TimesOnline, reports that Lowery missed a personal telephone call from the President-elect, requesting that he give the inaugural's closing prayer.
I called him back on his BlackBerry. I asked if I could speak to the 44th president of the United States and he said, ‘Brother Lowery, I believe that would be me.’

“I told him I would be honoured and humbled. It’s a momentous occasion in history, particularly for those of us who have been engaged in the struggle for first-class citizenship,” he said.

Dr. Lowery says that from the inaugural stage he hopes to be able to see the Lincoln Memorial, where his close friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech:
I’ve been told you can see a portion of the memorial and I believe that in my mind’s eye I shall see Martin Luther King shedding tears of joy,” he said in an interview.
He believes that Barack Obama is not only chosen as the American leader, but a leader of the world.
[He has] ...been touched by the hand of God to lead this nation and, indeed, lead the world through leading this nation to an era of peace and abundant life...
Dr. Lowery was instrumental in the most emotionally charged days of the civil rights period. He, along with civil rights icons, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Frank Abernathy, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King asked Lowery to deliver the demands and the plans for the famous marches from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL. to Governor George Wallace, infamous for his segregationist stance, and later famous as a born-again-Christian who asked for Lowery's forgiveness.

The now retired, the 87 year old pastor of Atlanta's Cascade United Methodist Church, is known for his fiery sermons, and using his rhetoric as a mighty sword from the pulpit.

He protested against the Iraq War with Cindy Sheehan outside the grounds of President G. W. Bush's Crawford, TX ranch, and memorialized Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. at her funeral.

Many Americans were incensed at Lowery's insensitivity as, from the pulpit, he verbally attacked President Bush, who was present among the dignitaries
We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there," he said in a boisterous, rhyming oration. "But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here -- millions without health insurance, poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

Lowery's remarks and other barbs were met with bursts of applause.

The ever-respectful, ever-generous-of-spirit President George Bush, sitting just a few feet away, it is reported, "stood and embraced Lowery with a smile at the end of his comments." Lowery even rhymed his cheap shot. See video below.

The FrontPageMagazine expose shows us this glimpse of Lowery:
He once linked arms with PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat and sang "We Shall Overcome"

He believes that the U.S. Government was complicit in Martin Luther King's assassination

He believes that the CIA has imported drugs from Central America

When Daniel Ortega headed the Sandinista Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, Lowery hosted a reception for him in Atlanta.
He has been called Jeremiah Wright's "twin," and the "other" Jeremiah Wright. Comparisons to Wright are seen at two United Methodist Board of Church and Society events:
Cleveland 2000: We demonized the saints and canonized the Devil. We've sown the seed and now we're reaping the whirlwind [referring to the Cold War]

Pittsburgh 2004: [urging the church to take a sinful America] down by the riverside....[low minimum wages and the absence of socialized medicine] weapons of mass destruction...[urged beating missiles into] morsels of bread, [and tanks into tractors]
The article goes on to say Lowery blamed America's supposed "re-segregation" on Supreme Court Justices appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, and he accused America of "killing and outraging Muslims."

He is a recipient of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center Peace Award, the National Urban League's Whitney M. Young, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award, and named one of the "Fifteen Greatest Black Preachers" by Ebony Magazine.

He married Evelyn Gibson in 1948. He is the grandfather of model, actor, and comedian Vaughn Lowery, also known as "Joe Boxer" from a K-Mart Christmas commercial. Watch the video as Vaughn unwraps his "present"

Video of Joseph Lowery speaking at Coretta Scott King's funeral



Video courtesy of YouTube

6 comments:

  1. I've heard that before. I think the speaker was describing Hitler.

    I don't want to lead the world into a suicidal kumbiya. And that is exactly what Stinky is going to bring us.

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  2. Lowery to me is a mixed bag. On the one-hand, he is a veteran of the Civil Rights struggle, which commands respect. He and Sean Hannity became close friends during Hannity's days in Atlanta.

    On the other hand, I am troubled by his treatment of President Bush at Coretta Scott King's funeral and his references to the wmds. I was also troubled by comments I heard him make in a speech about a reformed (and then-deceased George Wallace, who had repented his segregationist past and asked forgiveness. Lowery seemed to dismiss Wallace in a way that indicated that he could not forgive the man.

    Troubling from a man of God.

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  3. There are already several not very well explained things around Obama that have been promptly dismissed... When all comes up, it will be like releasing diarrhoea in front of an electric fan.

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  4. WATCH OUT AMERICANS. THAY WANT TO GIVE YOU DITACTORSHIP.


    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86324
    «CHANGING OF THE GUARD
    Hail King Obama: President for life
    Move underway to repeal Constitution's term limits...»

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  5. From India Express, Dalai Lama «I Love George Bush».


    «New Delhi: The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence candidly stated that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed.

    "It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence," the Tibetan spiritual leader said delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture here.

    He termed terrorism as the worst kind of violence which is not carried by a few mad people but by those who are very brilliant and educated.

    "They (terrorists) are very brilliant and educated...but a strong ill feeling is bred in them. Their minds are closed," the Dalai Lama said.

    He said the only way to tackle terrorism is through prevention.

    The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush." He went on to add how he and the US President instantly struck a chord in their first meeting unlike politicians who take a while to develop close ties.»

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  6. I'll worry about this if it ever gets to the Senate. Till then no worry. And then it would have 7 years to pass 3/4 of the states.

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