Newsbusters.org. . .

. . .has a rather interesting exchange between CBS's Russ Mitchell and Rev. Calvin Butts, III from the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. I particularly liked this part:

MITCHELL: Black congregants are reluctant, are they not, to criticize their pastor in public, even when the pastor says something as strong, as controversial as what Reverend Wright said?

BUTTS: That's right. I'm very surprised at any congregant who would denounce his or her pastor.

So, you see, we're being told, "It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand."

That's exactly what is going to be Obama's problem from here on out. On one hand, he's telling America that it is time that we move beyond the divisions that have set Americans apart from one another for far too long, and that he is the man to move us beyond them. At the same time, those who choose to defend his failure to decry the very divisions he supposedly laments when they're perpetuated by his pastor are telling us, "Look. You mind your own business. This is who we are, and this is who we're always going to be. If you're expecting us to be conciliatory in this quest for reconciliation, I'm afraid you're going to be sorely disappointed."

As an average white guy who has often found himself shaking his head at the shameful ugliness expressed by some whites toward blacks, and bewildered at the sense of grievance that some whites harbor over the idea that racially divisive sentiments should be shunned, I'm beginning to get the sense that I've been conned. How am I supposed to believe that there is any real desire to heal the wounds of the past when men like Jeremiah Wright use their positions of authority to keep them open and bleeding?

Can Barack Obama, Calvin Butts, or Jeremiah Wright please explain to me how it is that I'm not a chump?