Simply calling something “divisive” does not magically make it so.

Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton (former Alan Keyes worker and full-time Barry Obama opponent) tells her readers today that she is upset that yet another Republican may be leaving the ranch to support Sen. Obama’s run for the Oval Office. In “More Republicans jump on the midguided Obama-bus” she laments that former 2004 Bush-Cheney strategist Matthew Dowd may be leaning toward helping the Obama ‘08 effort because, as he puts it, Mr. Dowd is weary of what he calls the divisiveness of the Bush Administration and is looking for a candidate who will unite the country rather than untie it…

But Ms. Eaton spews off what she considers a “good” reason for Mr. Dowd not to abandon ship:

Maybe someone ought to tell Dowd about the divisive Black Values teachings to which Barack Obama’s longtime pastor is so loyally devoted, and to which, one may presume, Obama is, as well. [Note: Ms. Eaton's link is broken and she hadn't bothered to fix it by the time I posted this]

While Ms. Eaton’s own history of supporting divisiveness and anti-Christian rhetoric is well-documented, she has yet to actually show how one church’s plan for supporting members of its community is in any way, shape or form “divisive”.

Of course, she started out with blatantly untrue rants calling Trinity United Church of Christ part of some non-existant “black supremacy” movement… then moved to falsely labeling it a “racist” church… Her current flavor of hollow rhetoric appears to have been watered down to simply “divisive” though she’s liable to turn the heat back up on that pot of witch’s brew any moment.

Every church I know of, in one manner or another, helps its community and other communities (local or worldwide) which may be less fortunate, Trinity is no different and as many a columnist have noted Trinity UCC’s many white members (as well as the black, Hispanic and other congregants) are likely to be just as surprised as anyone that their church is “racist,” full of “black supremacists”, and/or “divisive.”

If the conservative harpees continue to latch onto their own redefinition of TUCC’s black value system (apparently the part about “middleclassness” is what really confuses them) they will continue to show themselves for the petty, say-anything ne’er-do-wells they apparently are. What is the Trinity congregation really about? Read it for yourself. What is their value system about? Read it for yourself. (Ms. Eaton, apparently, has either not read this material in her haste to promote gotcha falsehoods against her long-time political nemesis or has simply failed to comprehend the content.)

Is there a place for such nattering nabobs of negativity in today’s partisan political marketplace? Apparently yes, as Fran Eaton’s Chicken Little cries of “racist church” continue to be echoed throughout conservativedom with constant drips and drabs of “some say Sen. Obama’s church is racist” sprinkled throughout conservative talk shows and publications.

Here, again, is another quarter for the Clue Bus: “middleclassness” (like the rest of the 12-points at TUCC) is a way for the church to encourage its congregants to rise above the base material-centered world and become engaged in a Christ-centered fellowship of responsibility and accountability.

And here I thought that was what the so-called social conservatives also wanted to encourage — anti-materialism, responsibility for one’s self and a Christ-filled life.

Unfortunately, in their blind partisan zealotry they’d rather spout off anti-Christian fiction about a church they don’t like just because one of its members happens to be running for president. (Can you imagine the fire and brimstone if the coin were flipped and partisan liberals repeatedly lied about Pres. Bush’s church like this?)