So I visited an elderly couple today. I don't usually talk politics. But the wife asked me about the election. I was non committal and tired to change the subject. She said she just couldn't see a Black and a Muslim as president. I said that Obama was not a Muslim. She replied that she thought so. I said that I knew he was a Christian. In fact in stretching the truth a bit, I said I knew his preacher, the Rev. Otis Moss, III. I said I knew his father and grandfather from Cleveland and that he was a fine Christian man. Actually, I have met either his father or grandfather. They are renown in the African American community in Cleveland. I do not know the son, actually. She said several times, nice Southern lady that she is, that she thought he was Muslim and I said (bitchy spent too long in the north to be a southern lady that I am) that I knew Obama is a Christian.
I just haven't faced outright lies before. I'm sure she is sure she is right. I'm sure nothing I said will cause her to change her mind. But, I can't let a lie stand. What if I were a McCain supporter? Would I have been so quick to correct? What if she had said something wrong about McCain? Would I have been so quick to correct? I don't know. I hope so.
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I would hope if it were a factual error I would correct it, even if the candidate were not my choice. Obama's religious affiliation is not an opinion; it is a fact. I think I would have asked the person, kindly, where she heard that? Unfortunately we can no longer say he is a member of Trinity UCC. I hope the family will stay in the denomination.
Astoundingly, my partner just had the same conversation with an acquaintance who's a golf pro, who has had a fairly cosmopolitan exposure to the world and who should really know better.
But -- according to Beliefnet, some Southern Baptist political activist has been circulating letters among the faithful spreading the lie about Obama's supposed crypto-Islam. So I'm sure that's at least one factor in sustaining this urban legend.
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