OK - I'll admit it. This is a long post to ask a simple question. A question that popped into my head as I was websurfing this morning. I have a feeling that the answer cannot fit into a single pair of parenthesis but can take on many shapes and forms. Even more important than the "What is it?" are the questions of how do we get there? How will we know we are there? AND! Is it even possible to get there? Whose definition of Economic Parity will we use?
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Here is the path I took on the web this morning. First I clicked the "Next Blog" link on the top bar of my blog page. I was taken to Marathon Pundit who had a post he titled - Obama's church's tenet raise questions -
In the post John Ruberry points to a Chicago Tribune article, - Race is sensitive subtext in campaign (Free Registration needed for page 2-3) - that references Barack Hussein Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago IL. The article highlights a bit of the 12 precepts and covenantal statements the church stands on and which (the article says) conservatives have a problem with.
The congregation posits what it terms a Black Value System, including calls to be "soldiers for black freedom" and a "disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness."
In an interview late Monday, Obama said it was important to understand the document as a whole rather than highlight individual tenets. "Commitment to God, black community, commitment to the black family, the black work ethic, self-discipline and self-respect," he said. "Those are values that the conservative movement in particular has suggested are necessary for black advancement.
"So I would be puzzled that they would object or quibble with the bulk of a document that basically espouses profoundly conservative values of self-reliance and self-help."
In his published memoirs, Obama said even he was stopped by Trinity's tenet to disavow "middleclassness" when he first read it two decades ago in a church pamphlet. The brochure implored upwardly mobile church members not to distance themselves from less fortunate Trinity worshipers.
"As I read it, at least, it was a very simple argument taken directly from Scripture: `To whom much is given much is required,'" Obama said in the interview.
So I (prying1) found it neccesary to see for myself the 12 tenets the church lists. I could see Barak's point. But beneath the 12 points was a 10 point vision statement of the pastor which listed as number 10: "A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY." - (caps his) -
OK! Sounds good. But how does one get there? If it is indeed through Commitment to God, community, family, work ethic, self-discipline and self-respect (any race can use these not just blacks.) then I have no problem with it. But if it is through the socialistic system of redistribution of wealth then I (prying1) have a major problem with it.
I would like to know Barack Hussein Obama's definition of ECONOMIC PARITY. Does he think it is really something that CAN be achieved and how would he intend to get us there? These are questions those in the MSM should be asking of a person who wants to lead the most powerful free nation in the world.
As an aside:
Trying to find a definition of ECONOMIC PARITY I came to Why Income Distribution Doesn't Matter in This Country at Coyote Blog - Excellent read!
- Hat tip to Maobi for link to Coyote -
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