However, when the candidates are Republicans, you might get the idea that the members of the mainstream media were boning up for their theology exams.  Is Huckabee too Christian?  Does he actually believe the universe was created in six days?  When he was a governor, did he go out of his way to commute the sentences of felons because he was a sucker for anyone who announced he’d found Christ in the slammer?  Is Giuliani, who contributed to pro-choice organizations, flying under false colors as a Catholic?  Does Romney really believe that Satan and Jesus are brothers, or at least third cousins, once removed?

            Why is it, I wonder, that nobody is asking Barack Obama about his religious convictions?  From what I’ve gathered, they’re far more fascinating than Mitt Romney’s.

            For over 20 years, Sen. Obama has been a faithful member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.  The other day, I paid a visit to Trinity’s website.  There I read that the vision statement of the TUCC is based upon something called the systematized liberation theology that began in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, “Black Power and Black Theology.”  Dr. Cone believes that black Christians should not follow the “White Church,” as it had failed to support them in their struggle for equal rights in America.  I suspect that most white Christians would disagree. 

            Trinity United boasts that it is a congregation “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.”  What’s more, “it is a congregation with a nonnegotiable commitment to Africa.  We are an African people, and remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.”

            Its pastor, Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., has referred to “white arrogance” and “the United States of Whiter America.”  To my ears, that sounds unashamedly black, but I’m not so sure about the unapologetically Christian.

            Furthermore, Rev. Wright’s church publishes a magazine, The Trumpet.  Not too surprisingly, all things considered, the recipient of the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Trumpeter Award for Social Justice was none other than Louis Farrakhan, the fellow who plays the race card even better than he plays his violin.

            Now, my own reasons for hoping that Sen. Obama is not elected president next November are pretty much the same reasons I object to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.  I consider all three of them to be antimilitary, tax-raising, left-wing flyweights who would bury this country in entitlements while essentially ignoring Islamic fascism.  I regard them as three run-of-the-mill hacks who would bring tears to the eyes of John Kennedy if he were around to see what’s happened to his party’s leadership over the past 45 years.

            That being said, I have no idea how a member of a black church that apparently feels it owes greater allegiance to Africa than to America and that pays homage to a bigot like Farrakhan, has the gall to present himself as the one candidate who can bring us all together.

            To be fair, I acknowledge that he has a pleasant smile and speaks better than most politicians.  The truth is, he sort of reminds me of David Duke.