The prophet/preachers proclaimed to a nation, "Because of your whoring ways, I will turn you over to your lovers, so they can have their ways with you."

Or:

"The time is surely coming upon you when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks."

No, that is not the rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright, the former preacher of Sen. Barack Obama's church in Chicago, but rather the oracles of the prophets Ezekiel and Amos.

One proclaimed that Israel's foreign policies resembled the practices of a whore, and the other believed that Israel's domestic policies were oppressive and self-centered.

Sound familiar? Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.

Yes, the role of a prophet is to point to the problems of his or her social surroundings, and express the possible scenarios that may prevail because of those social malpractices.

Wright is a pastor who has been immersed in the plight of the inner city. He is aware of our practices in the Middle East of propping up totalitarian regimes to reach our goal of having some say in their oil.

Just before 9/11, at an economic conference, we tried to strong-arm members away from the policy of cancellation of debt for Third World countries caught in a cycle of poverty that was impossible for them to get out of without outside intervention.

Also, just months before, our government refused to send a representative to the Racism Council in South Africa, until Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded that he go.

We took hard lines at home and abroad, and that is what the prophets/preachers saw, and spoke out on.

No, I do not agree with Wright's rhetorical choices, but I also understand the anger of Ezekiel and Amos, who used words of condemnation when speaking to Israel in such rhetorical language as "whore" and "fat cows of Bashan."

But I cannot help but wonder why those who are so quick to condemn Sen. Barack Obama for being a member of Wright's church are not so quick to condemn Sen. John McCain for asking permission to, and then giving, the commencement speech at Liberty University — yes, the same university that was founded and ruled over by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the same prophet/preacher who said that 9/11 happened because we, the United States of America, are soft on homosexuals and abortionists.

Different world views on the problems of our policies at home and abroad, but basically the same condemnation — we deserved what we got. Then why such a difference in response and connections to the candidates?

Why are we so quick to condemn one candidate and prophet and barely remember the other prophet preacher's rhetorical choices and the candidate who chose to cozy up to him?