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’m sorry but I kinda felt sick hearing his sermon. It’s as if his world revolves around blacks alone. Instead of using his influence to spread unity among blacks and whites, he is trying add more fuel to the fire which has divided the nation. I have high respect and admiration to Obama for what he had accomplished in his life. I just hope that if ever he becomes president, it would not be a nation of Blacks, but a nation united despite a racial divide between whites, blacks, asians and latinos.
“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people,”
Barack is a rich white person. He lives in a million dollar mansion and has a white mother and was raised by a white family in Hawaii.
This just goes to show who Barack Hussein Obama REALLY is and the culture that he comes from! If you replaced the word black with white it would not be called church or pride it would be called a rally and racism.
I left for the day and came back to this news story.
It’s as if Fox News broke away from the Obamedia cult.
Obama has no place near the White House. He’s just down right scary!!!!!!!!!
The Obameda and Obrah have given this guy a very scary ride on their coat tails.
Nobody is alowed to talk about his drugs, his religion, his middle name, outfits he’s worn, his race and qualifications, his realtionships, and more ……..or they shall be silenced.
Also, he has a red white and blue “o” for the flag. Why doesn’t anyone talk about that?
His friend was arrested for wanting to blow up some US Gov office.
His other friends are Rezco, That F … guy and this church hate white people. OH MY GOD.
Then his wife says that “Americans have lost their souls”
This is unbelievable!!! His wife should be fired. If someone said Barak Husein Obama has lost his soul, they would be fired. She said it about EVERY American!!!!
He doesn’t salute the flag, his wife just NOW said she likes America, ….
I can’t write anymore ……..I just get upset.
Why isn’t everyone seeing this? I guess 50% of the US does, the other people do, but they are getting seconds from the koolaide. Now we have NY, CALIF, TEXAS, OHIO, and MORE……… These states effectivley reflect AMERICA … A DIVERSE GROUP WHO WANT HILLARY. THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE COME FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND ALL RACES.
President Hillary Clinton or McCain.
I think that the clip that was aired on the Hannity&Colms show was very telling. How can this man be considred a man of God! The only thing I heard coming out of his mouth was hatred and divisive statements. If this man is Obama”s mentor what does it say about the man Obama is? I think that the voters in this country need to take a long hard look at Obama. Aside from being associated with this horrible man, Obama is also associated with Rezko and other corrupt businessmen in Chicago. Why isn’t the press reporting on the Rezko trial? Obama”s name has come up a few times.
I dont believe that is Pastor Wright on the audio. This is another fraudulent smear attempt against Obama. The United Church of Christ is FOR the Black community, but is NOT AGAINST any race or religion and welcomes everyone into their congregation. There are other ministers in the church who are white.
Regardless, Senator Barack Obama is not in any way responsible for the words of someone else because he knows them.
Why doesnt Fox News investigate the ministers of the Black churches that Bill and Hillary Clinton have attended over the years?
Thanking you for bringing this out to us. This country will see it s darkest days if he ever become the President. He is a man with a hidden agenda. A man bent to bring bounty to the black people in this world. I hope the rest of the remaining states will count him out and let Hillary and McCain fight this out and work for the best interest of this country.
If Ferraro is in trouble for making statements which ‘may’ be considered as racial, where does that leave Obama’s Rev. Wright? He makes statements such as the US is the #1 killer in the world, the US invented AIDS, and the ‘poor black child’ is kept down by the ‘rich white man’ in Congress. Who’s the racist? Rev. Wright makes a big deal about Hillary has never been called a N*****. Does that mean she does not know what it is like to be hated? Does that mean that other names are not as demeaning or hurtful? I am sure that she has probably been called names the Rev. Wright never has been called. If Clinton needs to separate herself from Ferraro, then Obama needs to separate himself from Wright.
Lol - this is funny given that every church goer I know was told to vote for Bush 4 years ago. I don’t remember the IRS pitching a fit over that.
this is definitely anti-discrimination. What ever happened to love and forgiveness. Black people are blessed to be in this great country, as all of us. You have to work hard, live a moral, clean life, put God first and your neighbor second and be very thankful for the wonderful opportunities we all have. Many great men and women were born very poor and disadvantaged and made it all the way to the top by the thousands. Look at Abraham Lincoln. He failed eleven times before he was elected. It takes tenacity and character which many do not have. I wish the black people would stop complaining and be thankful for all the opportunites this great country affords them. We are ALL very blessed.