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.
Where there is smoke there is fire. This flock who publicly agrees with their minister’s firey words of condemnation toward “rich” american whites, tells me they want justification. Obama must be in agreement or he would not be a part of the flock nor a close friend with the one who is delivering this emotionally stirring “speech”. A true sermon has no place for words of slander, only what must be done to gain salvation. To me, it goes back to justification. Where will our tax dollars be spent ? Justifying moral mistakes made 2 generations ago? Extreme give-aways? Or just plain old “letting America get what it deserves?”
From what I have read, what Rev Wright said is THE TRUTH! And I don’t think very highly of Obama for being a hypocrite by condemning what Wright said just so he won’t lose votes. I don’t believe in wearing blinders or sugar coating the truth. Many Americans feel the same way Rev Wright does and many know that is the truth, there is not one minority that doesn’t truly feel that way, so Obama should not be afraid of the truth. I NOW, don’t trust Obama, he is a TURNCOAT AND A PUPPET!
I wonder how many copies of the DVDs Obama has. Did any respecting journalist ever ask him if he owns the DVD set? He is Wrights “nephew”, I would imagine he’d consume anything Wright published. If he owns the set then he’s an outright liar on national TV and to the people. If he doesn’t, how committed is he really to his “uncle”?
My confidence in Obama is not shaken one bit! I’ll vote again and again for him! What an awesome Leader!
I went and looked up the Reverends sermons on youtube, so I can view them in full context. Fox news should be ashamed of themselves for piecing together sound bits to make this man sound like a racist, and anti-american. If you listen to the whole sermon instead of snippets you will find its not as bad as it seems. Fox claims to be fair and balanced, but from what i heard and from what they reported it sure doesn’t seem like they were fair.
You news reporters act so innocent. You act like you never assoicate with people that are racist. Maybe, they don’t say it out in public but it is no telling what YOU say in private. The pastor was in HIS own church. He should have spoken against the government and the big headed leaders, not the country America. I love America, but the current president uses torture, bullying, invading privacy, and walks around like he is a dictator (and he is against Castro) where is there a difference???
I am white middle class, but even though I do not agree with everything the pastor said, I do understand where he is coming from. He is older, therefore, he deeply feels the way the blacks were and sometimes now, are treated. I feel that if not for Martin Luther, white America, would have kept blacks down. My husband remembers when he was working in 1962 and there were a group of white men and two black men. The black men were told to stay out when they were trying to enter a restaurant. There, are still lots of predjudice. I don’t agree with saying God should damn America. I love America. I feel Bush is arrogant, and does exactly what he wants regardless of the wishes of the people. I feel he used 911 to get into Irag and will try to get us into war with Iran before he leaves office. McCain will simply take over and continue.
Thanks you…….Renda
You know after all this time the people are tired of rev wright and the radio commentators the jerry farwells all of them! Obama i hope wins because if a black president finally sits in the white house maybe the fear of the angry black man sendrome will stop hunting the biggets who pretend to be any diffrent than rev wright, black or white. Everyone knows that the media and certian groups are trying their best to continue to sale fear, and they wont ever stop, but know this the people have spoken we want Obama, no more washington as usual, we want change! And would someone please tell Hillary to get out the race, no one trust her, she is not Bill Clinton. Let me clear up one more thing, Bill clinton was called the first Black President because as a sterio type it has always been said that Bill was getting High and getting Head in the white House and thats why he was called the first Black President.
This country is run by rich white people, who weren’t lucky enough to be born black.
I think Obama is the biggest anti- american that has ever run for any government Office. He has no right saying anything about anyone running for president of this great nation .