The 17 years of sermons Barack Obama never heard from his pastor

Barack Obama and his pastor of 17 years, Jeremiah Wright

It's hard for a conservative to resist enjoying the site of Barack Obama squirming as he tries to disassociate himself from the recent comments of the pastor at the church he's attended for 17 years. Jeremiah Wright, a self proclaimed expert in a theologically questionable school known as "liberation theology", has dug a pit into which his protege, Senator Obama, has fallen, and fallen hard.

Turns out that Reverend Wright's incendiary anti-American diatribes, delivered at his church in Chicago, have been caught on tape and circulated on the internet and by conservative media outlets like Fox News and talk radio. America, if you believe Reverend Wright, promoted AIDs in the black community, is responsible for the 9-11 attacks, and is generally worthy of divine damnation, though the Reverend does not use such a polite description in his "sermon".

Enter Senator Obama, with his denials last night on Fox News that he had ever heard Reverend Wright utter such words. This from the man whose marriage was officiated by Reverend Wright, whose two children were baptized by Reverend Wright, and who considers Wright his spiritual mentor.

Is Senator Obama's claim to be believed ?

And was it wise for him to issue such a complete denial of any knowledge of such words escaping ever from Reverend Wright's mouth ?

Let's assume Senator Obama attended services at which Reverend Wright delivered the sermon 40 weeks each year. 40 weeks multiplied by 17 years gives us a grand total of 680 sermons we can assume Senator Obama heard delivered by Reverend Wright. If we give Reverend Wright 4 weeks of vacation each year, that leaves 8 sermons a year that Senator Obama missed. 8 sermons a week multiplied by 17 years is 136 missed sermons.

Are we to believe that Reverend Wright made these anti-American attacks in one or some of the 136 sermons Senator Obama missed, and mentioned nothing of the sort in the 680 sermons Senator Obama heard ?

Wouldn't Reverend Wright's recent trip to Libya, made with Louis Farakkhan for the purpose of meeting the dictator Khaddaffi fit in the category of a general clue as to Reverend Wright's general philosophy ? And wouldn't it make sense that this general philosophy was articulated in sermons Senator Obama heard ?

Consider your own church experience.

After how many sermons do you have a good sense for the core values of your preacher ?

5 ? 10 ? 25 ? 50 ?

How about 680 ?

Senator Obama's claim that he never heard Reverend Wright make the statements which he has now been forced to disavow completely lack credibility.

Even more, his complete denial of ever hearing such statements is an open invitation to every Republican operative and every journalist in the world to scrutinize his weekly attendance at his church for 17 years. There should be about 680 instances where Senator Obama's attendance matches Reverend Wright's delivery of a sermon. Odds are, someone out there is trying very hard to find the smoking gun that places Senator Obama in church and listening to Reverend Wright on a day he made a particularly outrageous left wing , Anti-American statement.

And then the question will be not just about Senator Obama's left wing politics. The question will also be about his integrity and veracity.