Obama’s Pastor’s Sermon: ‘God Damn America’
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, March 2005. (Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service)
In a fiery sermon taped and available on DVD, Barack Obama’s longtime pastor and spiritual adviser can be seen and heard saying three times: “God damn America.”
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., in his taped sermons, also questioned America’s role in the spread of the AIDS virus and suggested that the United States bore some responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Confronting the content of some of Wright’s sermons, parts of which have been aired this week on FOX News, Obama on Friday moved to condemn the remarks in his firmest statement on the matter to date, after initially stopping short of a full repudiation.
“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.”
Obama said he never personally heard Wright preach the statements at the center of the controversy, but that he first learned of them when he launched his presidential campaign.
Click here to read the full Obama statement.
Wright’s supporters say his Afro-centric sermons accurately portray black America, and they contend his sermons are widely studied by theologians. But critics are now calling attention to his more incendiary words from the pulpit.
The pastor delivered his final sermon last month and retired as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama has attended the church for 20 years and calls Wright his spiritual adviser.
Click here to visit the Trinity United Church of Christ’s Web site.
In a fiery sermon in April 2003, Wright said: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America.
“No! No No!
“God damn America … for killing innocent people.
“God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans.
“God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”
In DVD copies of his sermons available for purchase, Wright can also be seen questioning America’s role in the spreading of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS. In another speech, made in the days after 9/11, he suggested that American foreign policy invited the terror attacks.
“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye,” Wright said.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost.”
The pastor also said: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”
Amid calls to fully repudiate Wright, the Obama campaign said late Thursday it has distanced itself from certain Wright comments.
“Senator Obama has said before that he profoundly disagrees with some of the statements and positions of Reverend Wright, who has preached his last sermon as pastor at the church,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “Senator Obama deplores divisive statements whether they come from his supporters, the supporters of his opponent, talk radio, or anywhere else.”
That preceded the lengthy campaign statement issued Friday.
Last year, Obama rescinded an invitation to Wright to deliver the invocation at his announcement that he was running for president. He also issued a statement saying personal attacks have no place in politics after Wright delivered an attack on Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.
But Obama’s longtime relationship with Wright is continuing to spark controversy.
“This is not just someone that Barack Obama has a casual relationship with,” said Tom Bevan, executive editor of RealClearPolitics.com. He noted that Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama, and Wright’s words were the inspiration for the title of Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
“Barack Obama has not out and out distanced himself from all of these comments … ,” Patricia Murphy, editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com, said before the campaign responded Friday. “It’s unclear if he rejects all of these statements. I would assume that he does, but I think he is going to be pushed where he needs to come out and fully explain his relationship with his pastor.”
Some of Wright’s statements have raised eyebrows at a time the Internal Revenue Service is scrutinizing tax-exempt religious organizations for alleged violations of rules barring them from participating in political campaigns.
Prior to his retirement last month, Wright delivered commentary from the pulpit in which he praised Obama, as well as remarks focusing on the racial divide between Obama and Clinton.
“There is a man here who can take this country in a new direction,” Wright said during his Jan. 13 sermon.
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 a 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.”
So far the Clinton campaign has been quiet over Wright’s comments.
Wright has declined interview requests from FOX News.
FOX News’ Jeff Goldblatt contributed to this report.
WAKE UP AMERICA! I NEVER SAW THIS AS A RACE ISSUE UNTIL NOW!!!! I DON’T LIKE OBAMA
BUT IT WASN’T BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN. WHY ARE WE NOT MORE CONCERNED WITH HIS NAME?? WHY AREN’T WE DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER INTO HIS BACKGROUND? ISN’T HIS FATHER MUSLIM? WHY HAVEN’T THE REPUBLICANS JUMPED ON THE FACT THAT HIS FAMILY ARE DEVOTED TO ISLAM? DIDN’T HE HIMSELF AT ONE POINT STUDY AT AN ISLAMIC SCHOOL? PASTOR WRIGHT CLAIMS TO BE A CHRISTIAN? HIS SERMONS ARE FILLED WITH HATE TOWARDS WHITE AMERICA!!!!! WE BROUGHT 911 ON OURSELVES? WHAT AN OUTRAGOUS THING TO SAY!!!! OH AND BY THE WAY, WE INVENTED HIV… WOW. WE’RE IN FOR A CHANGE ALRIGHT. GOD HELP US ALL!
just one spook leading another. kind of like the blind leading the blind
Whether Obama discounted certain statements or not…He still has been a long-time supporter, admirer, and friend to this obvious racist. You cannot be friends with someone for 20 years and not share the same characteristics and beliefs. As far as I can tell…Obama is just as racist for sitting under and listening to this racist pastor for 20 years.
I wish we could have a black or a woman president or any good democrat, but unfortunately there are none whose politics or religion are not mired in an agenda to reduce capitalism to a socialist state. This country is rapidly moving left and will soon dissolve.
The Democratic Party in Michigan and Florida have messed up the primaries in these states to the point it is almost laughable. And to think this party wants to run the country when they can’t even run their own party…..another laugh!
Looks like Obama is done. Not so squeeky clean is he. This news will destroy his campaign.
It is disturbing. I’ve had a hard time making a decison on who to vote for but this does eliminate Obama for me. This leaves so many unsettled questions about Obama. It isn’t as if all the rest of the candidates do not have backgrounds that are disturbing too, but I do think the next President of the United States and First Lady should not be attending a service that supports hate for the U.S. I’m not sure the President should be attending any church that pushes any type of politics. That is why I have trouble with Christian organizations that tell you who to vote for…..I don’t think that should be a part of the church. But that is my opinion. Everyone should be studying the issues and making their own decision.
When our family selects a church, first item is to decide if we agree with what is being taught. It is one thing to disagree on controversial issues that might not amount to much. It is another to attend a church that leaves you full of anger and resentments and that is the meat of the service. We will be taking our children to this environment too.
I also know, churches are supported by their members. Churches survive by money donated by their members. You do have to be accountable for what you support with your money, including churches.
I can only assume, Obama gave monetary support for this man and his teachings as well.
Obama’s spiritual advisor? Paleeze. Stop trying to sugar coat it. Wright is his pastor; for 20 years no less. He’s a racist and so is Obama. If my pastor had views counter to my own, I would find another church and Obama won’t. His true colors show. Wake up people!
This man is not right. He does not know the One True God because he has too much hate in his heart.” If a man says he loves me but hates his brother, he is a liar, does not love me and has no place in my kingdom”!}~ God
What is disturbing is that Rev. Wright has been Obama’s spritual advisor for 20 years. Wright has been spewing hatred for these 20 years. This didn’t just start yesterday. Add it up. Maybe this is why Obama won’t wear a flag lapel pin, or why Michelle Obama hasn’t been proud of America in past years. If one listens to these weekly sermons of hate for 20 years, then it has to become a part of one’s psyche. As I stated, add it up.