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.
I AM APALLED AT THIS MINISTER AND HIS RANTING. BUT HE AND HE ALONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS COMMENTS OBAM IS A CHRISTIAN AND CHRISTAIN ARE SUPPOSE TO FORGIVE, TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, I WONDER ABOUT THE MEDIA WHO THRIVE ON THIS TYPE OF MUD. ONE THING THE PASTOR WAS RIGHT THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF KILLING IN AMERICAN. WHERE AS THE OUT CRY FOR THE 200 BLACK MEN AND THE SYPHILIS TESTING, HOW EVER I THINK IT IS WISHFUL THINKING ON THE PART OF FOX TO THINK THE PEOPLE ARE SO STUPID THEY WOULD TRUST YOU. EVERYBODY KNOWS THE KIND OF GAMES YOU ALL PLAY
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO VOTE FO OBAMA AND I AM SURE YOU WON’T THEN MOVE ON WITH YOUR GARBAGE.
Wright can say what he likes. I believe in the freedom of speech. It was up to the Church and the Churches covering to tell Wright whether they felt he was out of line to say things like that in their pulpit. I hold Obama accountable to what he new was being said and obviously did not have the good judgment to not be under that Pastor’s tutorage. By saying Wright was his mentor and Spiritual Guide means that Obama was receiving what was being taught by that person.
Obama is NOT a liar. If YOU are a church goer. Can you honestly say you are familiar with EVERY sermon your pastor has presented?? Besides, ANYONE with more than half a brain can listen to someone else’s opinion and make up their own mind about how something said will effect them. Here is a link for you folks to lazy to find out the truth of just how “influential” you believe this minister has been to Obama:
http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/obamas-pastor-speaks-out/
Obama is all ‘SHOW’. He rejects nothing. Simply more meaningless & hollow words for political gain. He embraces Wrights views as his own, truth be told. Dont take merely my word for it- allow the dynamics illuminate this fraud for ‘who’ B Hussien Obama really is:
> Refuses to place hand over heart with Pledge of Allegiance
> Married to A woman who has never been proud of America until her hubby is seen to be a viable candidate
>Friends with a known, self-confessed terrorist (Ayers) who lives down the street from Obama
>Has very close ties with the Weather Underground
>Has soaked up the anti-American & biggoted sermons of Wright for over TWENTY YEARS.
… thankfully, this anti-American fraud is finally being revealed. He has stuck his American-hating, white-hating head in the political guillotine, and now all we have to do is wait on Hillary (another socialist) to pull the lever. Good riddance racist, America-hating B Hussien Obama.
Every logical mind should be able to work out that 911 was planned years ahead and brilliantly executed. If you don’t know that, don’t even bother to read any further.
Many have said Senator Obama possesses a rare combination of skills, in fact so rare, no single other politician comes even close. What is not realized is the Senator also possesses a brilliant political mind. He knows everything he does, he does it with finesse, when he is not sure, he tests the waters to verify his plan. If he finds the test results satisfactory, his plan goes in. The Senator, to summarize, is a master Strategist; he leaves nothing to chance.
He knows full well he cannot win in November, so for now he goes in as the Peace Messiah. Nobody even knows or suspects he is testing the waters.
The Iran hate America Bush plan was executed with perfection. After that Ferraro and the race conflict. Nobody can point a finger at him. He rides across the screens hands clean, the Grand Uniter, Peace Messiah. Inside he knows he is closer to his goal than the day before. He knows it perfectly well.
You don’t believe this? Let me tell you his next big step [test] is Denver. If he fails in Denver he knows he will have to withdraw. But don’t think you know his private definitions of fail or win.
Herein lies the point. Senator Obama will win August if Denver erupts in flames. That is the grand and final test for him, inside him. So either way he wins. He simply cannot loose, whichever way it goes. …. Superbly confident, because everything has worked according to plan so far. He is the “Yes, I Can” man.
Another comment somewhere said: “don’t afterwards say you did not know I was a snake when you took me in.”
Here is what OBAMA should of Said, along with his wife at his side.
“I am disgusted and appalled at what has been going on, yes It is true years ago I bought into this churches ideals, I have heard hate messages before, but now that i am running for president I disassociate myself from wright and his church, I apologize to the american people for my stupidity of sticking with this church for 20 years, Ill I ask is for your forgiveness, I will make a great president and will from now on make good descisions. I ask that there be a full investigation in this racist , terroristic church that spews hate similiar to the Muslim churches around america. Dr. Wright you are a racist and you are no longer a part of my life, same goes to Farakahn. Once again America I apologize and condemn the behavior of Dr. Wright. Make sure to vote for change, vote for me , Barack Huesain Obama.
Yu shoulda listin when we fust tole you, Son
Obama is a liar. He can not be trusted and is a radical.
Hi Erin: Since you despise America, please leave- we don’t need you, or Obama, or Wright, or murderers, racists, rapists, or any other hate-filled person just itcing to spew forth their uncontrolled frothy venom upon these posts. You say, “Everything he said was right”… and then you end your hateful little post with “God da* America”. What you are really telling us is that you are very ignorant, very emotionally unstable, hateful toward life (& just ‘mad at the world’ & despise your own life) in general & just happened along to this post & decided to guide your hate toward this particular subject— much like Wright. So leave & take all the other America haters with you– you do not deserve this great country & neither does your in-the-closet-biggot Obama or his hate-filled preacher & wife.
fox news should not police comments. obama is a liar by his own choice. fox news should let the peoples comments be seen. if not it makes you fox news a spin.