Obama Rejects Anti-U.S. Sermons From Pastor Who Was ‘Like an Uncle’
Barack Obama denounced controversial sermons Friday by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., shown here at a funeral service at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in December 2000. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama describes longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr. as “like an uncle” and a spiritual mentor, but the presidential candidate rejected Wright’s fiery anti-U.S. and politically divisive sermons after days of mounting pressure to do so.
Obama told FOX News Friday that he could no longer lay low as Wright’s past sermons, where he condemned the United States as institutionally racist and blamed the government for HIV and the Sept. 11 attacks, were played in heavy rotation on national television.
“Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with,” Obama said. “I reject them completely — they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals or Michelle’s.”
Obama called his remarks “inflammatory and appalling” in a written statement Friday.
Though Obama has known Wright for 20 years, he said the pastor has never been active in his campaign and that he is no longer on his African American Religious Leadership Committee. The campaign said Wright left his unpaid post on the committee Friday, but did not elaborate.
Obama, in the interview Friday with FOX News’ Major Garrett, said he has been a member of the church since the early 1990s after working with the congregation as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.
Obama married his wife Michelle at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, had his children baptized by Wright and donated money to the church, but he said he first learned of many of the pastor’s controversial statements, which FOX News reported on a year ago, only when they were aired in the media in recent days.
“None of these statements were ones I had heard myself personally in the pews,” Obama told FOX News.
He said the sermons now sparking controversy didn’t resemble the sermons he remembers from Wright, which, Obama said, stuck to messages of faith, values and helping people in the community.
Obama’s response came as critics called on the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate to do more to distance himself from Wright, who, in a fiery sermon recorded and available on DVD, can be seen and heard saying three times: “God damn America.”
In his recorded sermons, he also questions America’s role in the spread of the AIDS virus and suggests that the United States bore some responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Obama issued his more forceful statement against the sermons Friday afternoon.
“Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy,” he said in the statement. “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.”
A year ago, Wright defended his beliefs in an often contentious interview on FOX News’ Hannity & Colmes.
“If you’re not going to talk about theology in context, if you’re not going to talk about liberation theology … then you can’t talk about the black value system,” Wright said on the show’s March 1, 2007, broadcast.
Wright said his teachings are based on black liberation theology, which he summed up as “Africans speaking for themselves.”
Wake Forest University professor Terry Matthews, says in a lecture reprinted on the university’s Web site that black liberation theology “seeks to find a way to make the gospel relevant to black people who must struggle daily under the burden of white oppression.”
Wright’s supporters say his sermons accurately portray black America, and they contend his sermons are widely studied by theologians.
“I’ve been at some of those sermons,” the Rev. Dwight Hopkins, a member of the church, told FOX News. “The majority of Wrights’ sermons speak to healing, he challenges the black community … to be more responsible.”
Wright delivered his final sermon last month and retired as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama told FOX News he wouldn’t have quit Wright’s congregation if the pastor’s more controversial statements were isolated, but if that became “the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis of his sermons” Obama said he would have quit.
“Obviously they are ones that are from my perspective completely unacceptable and inexcusable,” Obama said.
With the pastor retiring from the pulpit Obama said he doesn’t see an issue in his family remaining part of the congregation.
“If I thought that was the repeated tenor of the church then I wouldn’t feel comfortable, but frankly that has not been my experience at Trinity United Church of Christ.
After the interview was broadcast Friday night on “Hannity & Colmes,” Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President Bush, suggested on the show that the controversy and the timing of Obama’s disavowal show him to be little more than a shrewd politician.
“I think there’s a reason Republicans I talk to are increasingly looking forward to running against Barack Obama,” Fleischer said.
Click here to read Obama’s full statement on Wright.
FOX News’ Jeff Goldblatt contributed to this report.
Obama says he never heard the Rev Jeremiah Wright make such bad remarks in his sermons but he was in and a member of his church for 20 years and did sit thru Rev Wright’s sermons……wha, was he sitting in the pews with ear plugs on? Or perhaps maybe he was just sleeping in church……..Mr Obama, your idea of damage control sucks…….
When did the word “slams” become acceptible among educated people. This term is something that you would expect to hear from teenagers. Using it for headlines or text of a story makes me wonder what age the writer is and what kind of education he or she received.
This is dumbing down the language. You guys can do better.
Hmm.. real funny nobody seems to be commenting and nobody is defending. GO HILLARY 08
Somehow I think he’s only condemning it so people will vote for him, but in reality he agrees with his pastor.
I find it ridiculous that Mr. Obama, just now, is denouncing this racist posing as a “Pastor”. I think he has much more explaining to do.
To believe that Obama never heard his pastor of 20 years preach the venom and hate that we have heard over the past few days would take the willing suspension of disbelief!
Horse manure. obama has been a member of this church for 20 years and given it tens of thousands of dollars. The videos of thes esermons are for sale. He knows all about Rev Wrights views and supports them with financial donations. He also takes his children to hear this vile language and hatred, not something most people would take young girls to church ot hear.
Too late for “I vehemently condemn” Rev’s statements. TWENTY YEARS OF exposure to this Rev’s preachings and sermons must have shaped or at very least influenced Barrack Obama and familiy’s belief system and values. sorry, but a “public statement ” does not justify enough for me to belief that Barrack Obama feels different now to his “Mentor’s” positions in a matter of a day. Sorry, I decided now; I will not support you Mr. Senator Obama. This proves what I feared…Too much unknowns under the rug.
Thank You FOX for uncovering the TRUTH
Well now that he has reject and denounce can we move on already
The more I hear this, the more disgusted I get. It has totally changed my mind about Obama. I can’t believe that in 20 yrs. this is the first time that Obama has heard comments like this. This couldn’t have been a surprise to him. He must have known that sooner or later this would leak out.