Obama’s Spiritual Mentor May Put Church in Hot Water
(Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service) Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, March 2005.
By Jeff Goldblatt
CHICAGO - Barack Obama’s controversial pastor and the church he’s served for 36 years may be in hot water over statements he has made from the pulpit in support of the Illinois senator’s run for the White House.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. preaches that he follows the righteous path, but when it comes to the federal tax law, his Trinity United Church of Christ may have crossed the line.
Although Wright delivered what was billed as his final sermon last month on his path to retirement, prior to his departure he delivered commentary from the pulpit now being scrutinized in which he praised Obama.
“There is a man here who can take this country in a new direction,” Wright said during his Jan. 13 sermon, according to recordings obtained by FOX News.
It was not the first time Wright appeared to endorse Obama, who was baptized at Trinity United, has been an active member of the church for two decades and receives spiritual mentorship from Wright.
The title of Obama’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” was taken from a sermon by Wright.
During a Christmas sermon, Wright tried to compare Obama’s upbringing to Jesus at the hands of the Romans.
“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people,” Wright said. “Hillary would never know that.
“Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”
In his Jan. 13 sermon, Wright said:
“Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.”
FOX News purchased the video recordings of Wright’s sermons from the church.
“It’s pretty clear an indirect endorsement of Barack Obama - that’s not something you’re supposed to do according to the tax code,” said Andrew Walsh, a professor at Trinity College who specializes in religion in politics.
The tax code bans churches from participating in or intervening in a political campaign. Violations can result in the loss of a church’s tax exempt status.
The Obama campaign issued a statement in response to FOX News’ inquiries about Wright’s sermons.
“Senator Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they’re offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church,” said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.
“Senator Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Senator Obama deeply disagrees.”
Click here to visit Trinity United Church of Christ Web site.
Obama defended Wright’s longtime activism for blacks in America last week at a campaign event in Ohio.
“Jeremiah Wright … has said some things that are considered controversial because he’s considered that part of his social gospel,” Obama said.
The Internal Revenue Service wouldn’t comment on whether it is looking into potential tax violations at Trinity United. The church declined to make Wright available for an interview.
Congregant Dwight Hopkins, a professor of Theology at the University of Chicago, said there is no basis for the IRS to go after the church.
“From the church side they will say it’s theology,” said. “If it wasn’t a senator running for president and it wasn’t his church, then I think we could say all kinds of things.”
The IRS has written dozens of letters warning churches against political advocacy from the pulpit. Yet it has revoked a church’s tax-exempt status only twice in the last half-century.
Walsh said it’s not typical for the IRS to enforce the rules.
“There’s a tension here between the desires of the religious leaders to say important things in the public marketplace and the IRS rules, and so most of the time, the IRS does not enforce these rules,” Walsh said.
The public scrutiny of these sermons comes in the wake of last month’s revelation by the head of the United Church of Christ that the IRS is investigation a speech Obama gave at the denomination’s national conference last year in Connecticut.
In a certified letter, Marsha Ramirez, IRS director, EO Examinations, wrote:
“Our concerns are based on articles posted on several Web sites including the church’s which state the United States Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama addressed nearly 10,000 church members gathered at the United Church of Christ’s biennial General Synod at the Hartford Civic Center, on June 23, 2007. In addition, 40 Obama volunteers staffed campaign tables outside the center to promote his campaign.”
The church and the Obama campaign have denied that any inappropriate political advocacy occurred during this speech.
Wright’s sermons often address themes of white supremacy and black repression, and critics have called them racially divisive.
Some remarks attributed to Wright that have been posted on the Internet and cited in press accounts include:
“Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college.
“Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.
“We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means.
“And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this shit!”
Click here to hear an audio clip of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. WARNING: Contains offensive language.
Once Wright’s remarks were widely publicized last year, Obama backed out of his plans for his pastor to speak at his Feb. 10 presidential announcement.
Obama met Wright after college while working with local churches in Chicago to tackle problems of drug abuse and unemployment in inner-city neighborhoods. Wright preached an Afrocentric theology that interpreted the Bible through shared suffering of African Americans.
For Obama, this experience was a spiritual turning point. He has written that he had been exposed to various faiths during his life but never formally adopted one until after meeting Wright.
“Inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones,” he wrote in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
“Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story.”
I so agree with so much that has been writen here, yet it’s incredulous thet the voices of the people of the WONDERFUL USA keep getting wiped out by the media who choose to believe that Obama is not the snake that he is. DORIS/TEXAS.YES!!!! You are so right, I am so happy I am not the only one who noticed the twisted mouth and angry rooster walk that happens when Obama is beat fair and square. Did he think he would walk away with the nomination? Where is HIS respect? He had seved in his post only ONE YEAR when he layed the groundwork for running for president of the USA. He expected to obliterate 35 years of hard work and brilliance…including hard work on civil rights, done by Mrs. Clinton…. without a peep? And when she trounced him with her 3 big latest wins…he was utterly amazed and disgusted…saying…”I dont get it, she just keeps on Ticking”..where does he get his gaul?I have seen Hillary after hard and sad loosses in States that She and BIll Clinton did mighty work for. She showed class and consideration..going out to hug the ones who waited to console her and cheer her on. NOT HIM, he stalks off like a spoiled 2 yr old with a bad temper. He just threw his white family under the bus and they were the ones who stood by him…he had to try to show white racism as if that would justify his Church and his 20 yr beliefs. His white grandmother gave up her life to raise him and keep him safe….and thats that he did to her? What loyalty do u think he would have towards his country as president? He should NOT be denied the presidency because he is black….BUT being black does not mean he is owed it either! Clean up your act, Obama, do your homework, and pay 20 or 30 yrs of dues….then we MIGHT talk.
I am sick and tired of black some commentators that try to make whites feel guilty. Obama would not say hurtful things about Wright but he sure threw his white grandmother under the bus. Also, check page 93 of his book where he states you must not be confrontational to whites but you must be nice to them.
Yes, the Reverend Wright’s church should lose its tax-exempt status. The American people should not subsidize such churches with tax-exemptions for its patently nonreligious diatribes and support for a political candidate.
i dont think mr obama is being truthful with us or himself. i also belive he will change his view if elected. if mr obama gets the democratic nomination my family will vote for macain .
Re: Obama’s minister’s “God damn the USA etc. comments!” Getting more and more curious - what constitutes treason in this country.
[...] One of Jeremiah Wright’s more inflammatory riff’s — his attack on Hillary — reportedly came during his Christmas sermon. [...]
[...] such as the “N-word” to discuss the plight of African Americans. White America is in an uproar. In the comment section of numerous mainstream websites and blogs, the subject of Wright and Barack [...]
We have two well educated bright peoplw, Mr. and Mrs. Obama, knowingly and willingly joined a church whose Rev. is known to them as a racist bigot, now Obama, after 20 years, tells the American public that he never heard Wright, say anything un-American, come on BS others!! The facts are that the Obamas’ knew exactly the church they joined and joined the church because they share Rev. Wrights’ views.
America, don’t allow yourself to be taken in by Obama, who new very well what the bigot, Rev. Wright is, a good friend of the black Hitler, Louis Farrakhan, both who visited Americas enemy, al Muammar Gaddafi, the President of Libia.
Religion is to teach faith not hate. Those who teach HATE, like Wright, Farrakhan, and many of their followers, plant the seeds of EVIL !!!!!MUTUAL RESPECT IS THE KEY TO THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY.
ANY RELIGION THAT TEACHES HATE IS A HATE ORGANIZATION, NOTHING ELSE……
AMERICA, LET US ALL TELL OBAMA, THAT HE AND HIS WIFE, DID NOT FOOL ANYONE, LET THEM GO TO VIST THEIR FRIENDS IN LIBIA. SIRIA AND IRAN…THE ENEMIES OF THE USA.
They’re trying to delete the Reverend Wright’s “Riding Dirty Attack Upon the Clintons”… December 25, 2007 “Christmas Sermon” at Trinity United Church of Christ that was on YouTube, but it’s still on this link…
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?storyid=40295
or Google… “Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s Former Pastor, Calls Out Clinton”
Look carefully at the man that comes into view as Wright talks about “riding dirty”…isn’t that Obama’s new spiritual advisor, Reverend Otis Moss III.
BTW…If it’s Moss, he’s trying to “high five” Wright after his “riding dirty remark.”
You might want to check that sermon a little closer. Wright is shown at the beginning of the clip saying “There is a man here that can take this country in a different direction…” and points into the crowd. Then later when Wright talks about “riding dirty” Wright is wearing the same clothes.
Obama denies ever being present while this type of sermon was given. Obama’s campaign confirms that Obama was in Chicago during Christmas 2007.
Was Obama at Trinity on December 25, 2007 for that sermon? Has Obama tried to lie to us again?
I am very puzzled by the idea that Obama can say White is like an Uncle that sometimes says things you don’t agree with. You can apologize a family member away because you really can’t change the fact that they are family. To act as if you listen to this man weekly and look to him for spiritual growth but you don’t agree with him. I admire my pastor and I don’t think he could do much at all that
would embarass me. He happened to resign just in time for him to look retired and not so influential. I guess what I am amazed that people can still talk like that and not get put in jail. If he was white he would have been hauled away.
Someone would have seen to it. Some people doesn’t think it is racist. It is the
way they still look at white people with the hate that says it will never be let go or forgotten. The pastor White helped me to make my mind up that racism is still
very much alive and being taught in churches. I will probably vote republican.
I haven’t done that in a long time.