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.
if you think we have problems with bush that obama can fix you are more crazy than that phony paster of his he’s a nut case!!
How is this guy any different from Fred Phelps… both seem to be preaching hate. Glad this is his last sermon! Maybe he will let the rest of us preach Jesus’ love.
SURE he slams Pastor Wrights comments. NOW. But he listened to them for 20 years. Sen. Obama should withdraw from the race. There is absolutely nothing he can say that means anything in light of the fact that he willingly listened to this anti-white racist hate speech for 20 years. I believe his denunciation no more than I did his lame renouncing of Rev. Farrakhan.
Sorry Obama, deny all you want. I’m not buying it. You have been a voluntary member of this church for over 20 years. Pastor Wright has married you and your wife and baptized your children. You also called Pastor Wright your mentor and the inspiration for your book.
How could you expose your two daughters to this rhetoric?
When I first heard the tapes of these speeches I thought I had stumbeled into a terrorists mosque. I was waiting for Pastor Wright to ask the congregation to strap on suicide vests. I’m concerned that so many black people are being exposed to this kind of hate speech.
I am saddened.
Obama’s 20 year membership of this patsor’s church speaks much more loudly than his recent attempts to verbally distance himself from this pastor during a closely contested presidential race. A deathbed type of repentance.
One thing is clear: if Obama were to ever obtain the presidency it would not be long before we all Hoping for a Change in the Future. 2012 that is.
I can see why now Michelle Obama has not been so proud of her country. Listening to a preacher like that brainwashing her all them years. I have to still wonder if Obama is just saying the words that he condemns what the preacher said because he is running for president. If someone like his preacher can say them words and his congregation is listening so diligently. Then to me the racist and hurtfull things that were said about My country ,full of Liberty and Justice for all, should not be overlooked so easily.
It is about time he said something. But since he says he has known the “preacher” said all the things he did since he became a Presidential canidate, my family and I find it way too little and light years late.
Don’t beleive OBAMA. He’s lying!! He’s only telling the American voters what they want to hear. He he really wanted to distance himself from Wright, he would not have him as a spiritual advisor on his campaign! If anyone was caught with their pants down of course they will saying thing to get elected. What do expect Obama to say, that he believes what his pastor is saying and will support him and his sermons regarless of what people are saying…. NOT! If he did, he knows he would loose the presidential election. He’s a politician for God’s sake. Spitzer probably told his wife that he loved her and that she was the only one, but when caught he appologized and probably told her lies to have her by his side during the press conference. Don’t be fooled America. Wake up! The bible said beware of one who will rule this world who is in sheep’s clothing. That is OBAMA.. Hello folks, his pastor, mentor, spiritual advisor has ties to people who want to kill American’s. The DEVIL Lies. Do you all remember the movie the OMEN. Well, that’s OBAMA. He’s Satan’s son and will lie to get into the White House. If you think 911 was bad, wait till he takes office. He’s not even and American, he’s an African!!!! Hello dummies. His and his wife’s loyalty as well as their church is to AFRICA not America.
OBAMA is honest, transparent and trustworthy. Obama has the CHARACTER to be PRESIDENT. OBAMA released his earmark requests for 2005-2007. Can Sen. Hilary Clinton release hers since she became a senator? How about her tax returns?
Obama wants to judged based upon his “values, and judgment and experience”, OK, based upon attending 20 years of of sermons from Rev Wright, his values are questionable, his judgemnt is poor. Most people attend church service with people who share their values and beliefs. Is this not the case with Obama and Wright? Why is it he is just now denouncing Rev Wright’s hate-filled sermons? He still doesn’t have any substantive eperience in national or international issues.