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.
The truth is finally starting to come out and the “truth will set you free”. America, wake up and smell the coffee. Obama doesn’t want his records out anymore than he wants Rezco, his pastor, earmarks, or anything else to come out for that matter. Doesn’t he know by now if, it’s negative information, all he has to do is look sweet and repute, denounce or deny it and the media won’t bring it up again. What a plague on all of us, the mainstream media. FOX is turning out to be more fair in this election than nearly all the rest. Come on media, OB’s not on the level on the Rev. Wright issue or anything else it now seems. He only speaks the truth when he gets caught in a lie or half truth. He needs to bow out of this campaign gracefully, if that’s possible. How much more is lingering out there for Republicans to mo-up the floor with him if, and that’s a big “IF”, he gets the nomination. God help us if he does! Our country needs “US” to stand-up for her now. Our future lingers in the balance of the impending primaries & general election. We need a President to restore our standing at home and abroad. We need Hillary, not inexperience and a very questionable past, and certainly not Senator more of the same, McCain.
I don’t understand Obama!!!!!! He doesnt’ even respect the US enough to wear her FLAG???????!!!!!!!!!!
God knows what else he doesn’t respect?
Take a longer look America. You usually end up
acting like the people you hang with.
this is a freaking joke and anyone who has a problem with what this pastor has said has oviously benefited from the practices of this nation and has no intention of ever seeing things change. Everything Rev Wright said was the truth and its a shame that Sen Obama was forced to renounce his relationship with him.
This is great for the media, great for republicans and great for hillary clinton. What is wrong with white people that hate to look at the truth of this nation past and present.
my heart is aching listenting to this {man of God} speak such hate and filth i was so happy that we had 2 canadates that we could choose to be are president 1 black man and 1 woman now my heat sinks when i hear this from someone who is suppose to preach the word of God speak the word of satan to 1 of the people runnings pastor talk this way you can not compare this to anthing the other people have said
be afraid be very afraid the time is coming the anti christ is not a person but it is religion itself. think about it look deep into your soul where do you think all this money is coming from? i promise you this is only the start of the horrror
this has nothing to do with race this is about the true evil that is about to come
.evil is beauty in itsself. i am so angry this has come to this.but i can see it coming now.ive tried not to see it coming but it is so sad so sad.
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.
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I think over 20 years of listening too Pastor Wright speak
I can’t believe that Obama has never heard his pastor many times preach these kind of sermans. For as close as the two
have been over the years I can’t believe Obama didn’t know
his pastors point of view as far as how he felt about america.
You are who you hank out with.
Allen
Central Florida
As I reviewed the comments on this “God Damm America”, speech by the racist Wright, I
note that their are still some people trying to defend Obama, Wright and even Farrakhan.
Some want to quote the bible, some want to compare comments made by pastors while
candidates where on the campaign vs being a member of Wright’s church for twenty years,
and some are still blaming America for not giving them a free handout because their black.
Obviously, Obama is very comfortable with the teachings of Wright over the last twenty
years and can’t understand why this has become an issue now. It is unfortunate that this
profile of Obama didn’t come out earlier before so many people wasted their vote. Maybe
someone should whisper in his ear that he should quite before all the dirty secrets get
exposed.
Apparently Wright never read the scripture 2 Timothy 2:24-25: “And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. . .”
Jeremiah Wright was Hussein Obama’s spiritual guide for over 20 years, and in all that time one can get a real good idea of what a person is all about because people repeat themselves when spouting an opinion on any given subject.
You are known by the company you keep, Hussein - and the company you keep is as racist as KKK - in fact I will go so far as to say that it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the KKK were to hold you, Wright and Farrakhan up as examples of how our country has gone straight to hell in a handcart!!!
You cannot have such a ’spiritual guide’ and ‘mentor’ for 20 years and not be influenced,
Hey Obama - your Muslim side is showing - the Quran teaches it’s perfectly acceptable to lie to unbelievers if it benefits Islam, and YOU HAVE CLEARLY STATED YOU WOULD ENTER INTO NEGOTIATIONS AND TALKS WITH ISLAMIC TERRORISTS IF YOU ARE ELECTED.
Try an deny that you liar.
I didn’t know Black people hated White People so much. What an eye opener! I teach my grandson “Jesus loves the little children of the world red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight … ” but evidently Black People are still blaming we White People for sins and transgressions that took place years and years ago. I guess the Black People are never going to forgive and forget. That has become quite obvious. I thought with as many White followers that Obama had obtained, that race was no longer going to be an issue, but I can throw that assumption right out the window. It is the Black People now who are completely playing THE RACE CARD.