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.
Where is the white counter part of Rev. Al Sharpton and Jessey Jackson when racist coments such as this are made. If a white preacher or politician was to even hint at the same remarks, what deep stuff we would be in. It seems that no one will stand up to this man and speak for the whites and other races that reject his vicious and racist out cries. Will Al Sharpton or Jessey Jackson put him in his place? I think not. They will just join in the three part harmony and sing his songs to the top of the charts.
Obama doesn’t see an issue in remaining in his congregation? Everyone in that Church was standing and applauding the treasonous and Racist remarks that Wright was spewing. Everyone member of that “so-called” Church, including Obama, agree with everything Wright had to say during his “rallies” against America and the White Race.
I AM SO ANGRY AT THIS MAN!!!!How DARE HE denounce this country , that has obviously given him the right to stand there at what he calls a “Sermon”, and speak those words. If he lived in another country, he would be arrested. I am appalled at the APPLAUSE he received from so-called parishioners, I ask them this, If you don’t like this country,why don’t you go somewhere else? Maybe Africa, where tribes are annihalating tribes, and people are dying of disease and hunger. He doesn’t mention that though, does he???
This is not a minister of God, this was not a sermon. This is a hateful man. He needs to stick to a Biblical topic to help his people and himself gain more tolerance. He doesn’t mention he lives in a country that can give him the NAACP, Black History month, Black tv, Black colleges, and sports, minority scholarships, and more. and OH< the right to free speech.
Apologize to the people of this country, your remarks border on treason.
Wright is Obama’s spiritual mentor? Kinda makes one question Barack’s spirit doesn’t it?
It doesn’t matter whether or not Barack Obama denounces or rejects the anti-American, racist remarks of his pastor and mentor, who is also like an Uncle. Anyone who attends a church for 20 years has heard that rhetoric over and over, which means the words of that pastor is instilled in their heart and mind.
Just because Barack wants to now denounce those few remarks means nothing … He has been brainwashed for 20 years with a militant type of ministry and training, and so has his wife Michelle. All one has to do is look at the eyes of both of them to see the coldness.
Reportedly, a group from that church did not stand to show respect for the National Anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance. Neither does Barack Obama. There is definitely a photo on You Tube of Barack Obama standing on a platform with his arms downward, holding his hands in front of him during the entire National Anthem while all other candidates placed their hand over their heart, as is appropriate in America to give honor to our U.S. Flag and country. This is a FACT and all of the Obama fans can write in and deny it if they want to, but a photo speaks for itself.
being a Veteran from Desert Storm. I am pissed off that, Barack thinks that all Americans are stupid. If someone can be so close to you and your family, and you don’t know the hatred that they have in their heart, then Barack is trying to fool himself and all others around him. Barack is not an honest man. He knows what his pastor believes, says, and Barack has those same beliefs. Barack the closet door is open, you can come out now. Leave the campaign please. You are not an honest man, and do not have the values we need as President of the United States.
SenObama is one sneaky guy — he wants the benefit of all that is evil until he’s caught — then he disavows the statements of others with whom he has been associated — can/will he say forthrightly that HE believes the 9/11 attack was the work of Islamic extremists and not the ‘fault’ of the United States? can/will HE say forthrightly that HE believes that Israel has an absolute right to exist and that he would aggressively enforce that right? can/will HE say that he does not believe that today, 2008, whites are not oppressing blacks? can/will HE say that he will not surrender US sovereignty to the United Nations and that he will work to keep America as the world’s leading protector of freedom? can/will HE forcefully denounce the Islamic extremists as ‘terrorists’ and vow to defeat their efforts to gain nuclear weapons and eliminate the West? can/will HE denounce domestic terrorism such as the bombings carried out by his old radical buddy from the 60’s? can/will HE say clearly that he believes that there is a border between Mexico and the United States, and that it is not an ‘open border’ for unlimited, unchecked, unregulated immigration?
Amazing - - - wonder how this would have been accepted by the general public if it had been Hillary’s preacher talking about white rights. It’s a little late to try and sweep him and your long time association with him under the rug, Barack….
Sen. Obama’s “rejection” of “Uncle/Pastor Write Jr.’s” Anti-American statements comes too late. Like the thief’s repentance after he has been caught. He isn’t sorry he was associated with a n Anti-American Hate Monger, but he sure is sorry to be exposed. Is this why Luis Farrakhan was so quick to endorse Brother Obama?
If Obama really felt these statements did not reflect his values, he would have quit the Pastor and his brainwashed church that followed him and hung on his every Anti-American sermon. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?
Obama now plans to continue his association with the same Anti-American church whose leaders and congregants are still clapping, dancing and repeating the same indoctrination with the same Anti-American philosophy.
Ho wonder Michell openly stated recently that “Until recently I didn’t know what it felt like to be an American”. And all this negativity coming from a well educated, woman of privilege leading the good life. Spoiled Michell should tell this face–to-face to a poor white, American, woman struggling to survive in Appalachia Who has always been proud to be an American.
It is my position as a Proud Mexican American who has served his country, that America and American Families are to precious to be entrusted to a man who surrounds himself with American haters. And he has no knowledge of their hateful attitudes? He has very poor awareness and poor judgment.
Obama should quit this race and return to his Anti-American Friends. we don’t need people like him.
Why? Fox doesn’t monitor this forum nor does it actually post responses.