The other day I noted that conservative MarathonPundit John Ruberry had gotten in on the cons’ run of anti-Christian smears, tarring Sen. Obama’s faith and congregation as conservative blog editor Fran Eaton had also done so many times before. Mr. Ruberry was so smitten with this line of attack that he copied his original source, Pajamas Mafia writer Burt Prelutsky, wholesale by peddling the kindergarten epithet that Sen. Obama’s church is somehow “creepy” simply for engaging in Christian charity and witnessing their faith as they know it.

As folks who appreciate honesty are compelled to do in the wake of this onslaught of slime to explain the history of the African American Christian experience in this land of liberty a plethora of factual information has been made available online. Given that this context is there, ready to be explored and all set to quickly and effortlessly debunk the conservatives’ smears, it is abundantly clear that conservative partisans are choosing to ignore the truth in favor of deliberate misinformation about Sen. Obama’s Christianity, the tenets of Trinity United Church of Christ, and the UCC denomination itself.

So the question is why would conservatives even attempt this 2008 version of swiftboating, in which they use lies and half-baked malarkey to declare that Sen. Obama’s faith is in some way “controversial,” to put it very politely. (Swiftboating is generally regarded as the act of lying about an opponents’ perceived strong suit in order to denigrate and diminish the strength of that issue.)

A few possibilities present themselves…

First, it could be that conservatives find themselves so rapt with partisanship that they’ll attack anything and everything about candidate Obama simply because he’s a Dem. Turn their weak-minded attacks on Sen. Obama around by swapping his name with, oh, say, George W. Bush…

You can “claim” Bush was raised by Muslims (he does call Saudi princes “Uncle” after all), that he only became “born again” out of political gamesmanship and that his church is “supremacist” and “racist” because it raises money for charitable efforts in (oh, I dunno…) poor, white communities. Sure. Why not? You can “claim” anything — even if its wholly untrue.

Certainly John Ruberry’s Catch-22 about Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright, and indeed this whole rant about Sen. Obama’s church publishing a magazine that gave Louis Farrakhan an award, are nothing more than partisan baloney. Rube says Obama must distance himself from Wright, but within the same post also complains that Obama did indeed distance himself from Wright the day of the presidential campaign kick-off. And what again, other than coincidence, does Sen. Obama have to do with Minister Farrakhan?

Second, these cons may simply loathe Obama himself. Given the history of vitriol and eye-poking from the likes of conservative bobsy twins Fran Eaton and Jill Stanek that may appear to be the case. On the other hand, that doesn’t explain why cons outside of Illinois like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Michael Savage and their ilk — who’ve yet to really get to know Obama — would engage in the fallacy-based mud-slinging.

Third, we honest Americans may be witnessing a rising up of conservativedom against progressive Christianity itself. Any review of media time will lay bare the fact that social conservative fundamentalists — James Dobson, Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell — have cornered the market on air time and newspaper ink. There is virtually zero representation from so-called “liberal” churches in the press, yet Dominionist conservatives like those mentioned (and others) have no trouble finding a microphone to promote their brand of Christianist conservatism.

Perhaps it’s some combination of all three of those aspects because, in reality, if this steady stream of lies and smears about Sen. Barack Obama’s Christian faith is not stemming from basic conservative zealotry, their hate toward his progressive values, or their disdain for liberal Christianity then the only alternative can be that these conservatives are themselves engaging in the worst form of race-baiting — trying to convince their fellow Americans that Obama is somehow bad simply because he attends a historically black church.

The conservatives’ repeated gripes hold no water. They complain:

• Sen. Obama’s church espouses something called the “Black Values System” and claims it is dedicated to Africa and African peoples and the descendant. Guess what? Every church has a values system. Who cares if it’s called “black” or “green” or “way cool”. Guess what else? Every church dedicates its charitable work to some effort. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod sends volunteers to … Europe. Why aren’t conservatives up in arms because those Christians are dedicated to … Europe?
• A magazine published by Sen. Obama’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan last year. Was Sen. Obama involved in deciding who received the awards? No. Was he involved in advocating on Minister Farrakhan’s behalf? No. Did Sen. Obama hand the award to him? No. What is the cons’ point here?
• And the dumbest conservative whine has to be the one about Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. They complain that Gov. Romney’s faith is enduring a great deal of scrutiny … so why not Obama’s? The only problem with that gripe is its utter myopia. It is conservatives who are questioning Romney’s faith just as it is conservatives who are infopimping BS about Obama’s faith. The media should listen to every Tom, Dick and Franny just because they can’t be bothered to learn about the basis for Trinity’s tenets? Puh-lease.

Since it’s not cool to say straight up “He’s bad because he’s black” perhaps the conservative Obama attackers think attacking his church is the next best thing as the racism, in their mind, is perhaps somehow softer and more subtle.

Pathetic. Disgusting. And, at its core, racist nonetheless.

End Note: The newsmedia, contrary to conservatives’ moaning and wailing, have proven impotent when it comes to honesty in this matter. The major media — CNN, Chicago Tribune, USA Today — have published material which picks up the conservatives’ spin wholesale, declaring Sen. Obama’s church “controversial” on the basis of … some conservative who can’t stand Obama anyway says so. And they wonder why readership and viewership is declining.