Another day, another preacher “actin’ a fool.”  This time it was on Barack Obama’s side of the divide.  A guest speaker at Trinity United Church of Christ not only mocked and derided Hillary Clinton, but he infused it with racial depth charges.  “Rev.” Michael Pfleger, the white pastor of a mostly-black Roman Catholic church set out to prove to the world that he is acceptable to his congregants, and that, even though he’s white, he knows where they’re coming from.  Nice try.  It didn’t work.

So, the list grows.  By my count, the score is 2 – 2, and both sides are losing.  John McCain had John Hagee, with his anti-Catholic, anti-woman, and anti-everything-else-that-is-not-him neuroses (although Hitler, in his view, served a godly purpose); and he had Rod Parsley, who sees America’s task as eradicating the Islamic faith.  Obama had Jeremiah Wright who, in addition to other nonsense, blames the U.S. government for the spread of AIDS among African-Americans, and equates himself with the entire black church experience; and now, Pfleger.

McCain and Obama aren’t getting anywhere with pandering to the “faith” voters.  In fact, they’re spending more time untangling themselves from disaster than I’m sure either ever imagined.

It is distressing that Hagee, Parsley, Wright, and Pfleger have the microphone, and that they choose to separate, alienate, divide, and encourage estrangement.   I suspect the general perception of clergy, the church, and our faith has taken another significant hit in the esteem of many people.

The more appalling dirty little secret, though, is that people like them wouldn’t have the microphone unless there were too many others willing to give it to them because they like what they hear.