Obama Ipsum

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. We were born out of revolution against an empire.

John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves. And so this will be a difficult debate next week. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.

I've been speaking to a lot of churches recently, so it's nice to be speaking to one that's so familiar. That has been my experience at Trinity. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. It is time for these settlements to stop.

His values - and his record - affirm what is best in us. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful.

But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation.

God bless you.