In Easter Sermon, New Obama Pastor Charges Rev. Wright Victim of ‘Lynching’
In sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ on Easter Sunday, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was compared to Jesus Christ for facing aggressive media in wake of anti-American remarks. Wright was not present at the sermon. (AP Photo)
CHICAGO — The new pastor of Barack Obama’s church delivered a defiant defense of its retiring reverend Sunday, comparing media coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to a modern-day lynching that resembles Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans.
In a sunrise Easter sermon, Rev. Otis Moss III never mentioned Wright by name, but implied that his mentor, who has delivered sermons in which he likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and declared it damned for its “state-sponsored terrorism,” is facing the same challenges Jesus did.
“No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching,” Moss said.
“The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching?” he continued.
The criticism surrounding Wright has not softened the services at Trinity United Church of Christ, where Obama has been a congregant for 20 years. Instead, Moss defiantly defended their method of worship, referencing rap lyrics to make his point.
“If I was Ice Cube I’d say it a little differently — ‘You picked the wrong folk to mess with,’” Moss said to an enthusiastic congregation, standing up during much of the sermon, titled “How to Handle a Public Lynching.”
Wright’s sermons were criticized for casting the country as institutionally racist and Obama sharply condemned Wright’s remarks as racially divisive in a high-profile speech Tuesday, though the candidate would not renounce the pastor himself. Church officials said Wright, who is now on sabbatical and entering retirement after nearly 40 years of service with the church, was not attending any service Sunday.
Obama and his family were spending Easter on vacation and also were not attending services.
Though the church recently moved a once-prominent section on its Web site about the “Black Value System,” the congregation still describes itself as “unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian.” A plaque states this prominently behind the front desk.
The sermons Sunday, which kept references to Wright as a common thread, implied that the firestorm over Wright’s remarks has taken the church’s teachings out of context.
Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first female bishop in the AME Church, also delivered a sermon, in which she talked about visionaries like King and Gandhi and “Jeremiah” (it was unclear whether she meant Wright), and argued that their words weren’t about “anger,” but about “a passion that demands confrontation.”
“The purveyors of information are trying to be judge and jury over prophetic utterances,” she said.
The church program handed out Sunday also included an essay called “Not on My Watch” from the Rev. Samuel B. McKinney of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle. McKinney said he was “greatly disturbed” by the “media feeding frenzy that has tarnished everyone in the process.”
“Dr. Wright represents the best among us … An attack on this man of God is an attack on all those of the cloth who believe in the social Gospel of liberation. And I will not stand for it,” he wrote.
Moss issued several pleas to congregants to donate to what he called the “Resurrection Fund,” stressing that during this time of battle, money is needed to defend the church. He offered no additional specifics about the fund, telling churchgoers he didn’t want to get into it because Trinity is streaming the service live on the Web and the services are available for purchase on DVD.
He concluded with another analogy, saying, “In order to crucify him you’ve got to lift him up … he had more visibility on the cross than he did during his entire ministry.”
FOX News’ Jeff Goldblatt contributed to this report.
Let me begin by saying I am a die-hard Obama supporter, from the very beginning. I have to say that this all makes me so very sad. I do not deny racism in this county, and it sickens me that it ever was and that it still exists in ANY form. People should be judged on their own merits and character, not the color of their race.
But it seems this church is projecting the very thing they are rightly offended by. Certainly their messages do not seem very Christian-like to me; it seems that it’s “love they neighbor, unless they are caucasian”. No race should be judged entirely on the wrong-doings of a select few; whether those wrong-doings were done in the past OR present.
I am a white middle-aged woman, and I am feel on the verge of losing the new found hope that I have; because I thought we all could get past this, and that Obama’s message would resonate with all races.
EVERYONE IS SICK OF THIS REV WRIGHT STUFF. DON’T YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT. MY FRIENDS,MY FAMILY AND I HAVE STOP WATCHING FOX BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO NEW NEWS. YOU HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR OVER TWO WEEKS. GIVE US A BRAKE. YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE ARE CORRECT, FOX HAVE BEEN TRYING TO LYNCH REV WRIGHT AND ALL OF THE BLACK CHURCHES. PLEASE GIVE US SOME REAL NEW. THIS IS A DONE DEAL. ENOUGHT!!!!!
MRS. BLUE
I find this whole thing sickening.
I find it odd that Senator McCain is forgiving of Senator Obama, saying “We all make mistakes”. But no one seemed to notice that Senator Obama is not asking for any forgiveness. In fact he’s completely unapologetic for his affiliation with such hate-mongering racists as Reverend Wright. In fact Mr. “do-no-wrong” Obama is so infallible, he has instead accused everyone else of not understanding the difference between “understandable anger” and “hatred”… Now we’re all supposed to feel guilty for questioning his judgment.
… I’m sorry, but I know “Hate” when I hear it; and Senator Obama has remarkably bad judgment …
Wow this sure got burried fast. No other network brave enough to face the race card.
Obama’s candidancy has been very divisive for our country…
Funny thing he represents himself as a uniter. This reminds me of the time when Bush ran.
Look where it got us.
Obama supporters, please take a second look at Hillary! There is nothing evil or bad about this woman, unless you have a problem with woman being a president.
Then I rest my case
sy, you fall into your self-described insane category. To not understand the correlation between a racist ministers 20 year influence on a potential leader of the free world is not only insane, it’s JUST PLAIN STUPID!
It is really sad what is happening in this church. As Christians we should realize that our salvation and faith in Christ has absolutely nothing to do with our race and culture. You can throw all that stuff out the window because they are spiritual sand traps.
Joseph wore a coat of many colors because he was a type of Christ. Christ wears a coat of many colors because we are all welcomed into salvation as believers regardless of race.
Christ brings us all together and there is no longer any need for division on any grounds.
Now that this issue has been in the news for a week, what can be done about it? How can this problem be solved? Will anyone ever be happy? What is the answer? Will we ever be able to come together?
I JUST DONT GET IT…OBAMAS CALLING ON OUR BETTER ANGELS WHILE HIS PASTORS
ARE FANING THE FLAMES OF HATRED…OBAMAS TRYING TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS..BUT THE WORST IS THAT HE DEFAMED THE GMOTHER WHO COULD JUST AS EASILY PUT HIM IN FOSTER
CARE. THIS SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT HIS TRUE CHARACTER…AND HOW HE WILL DO
AND SAY ANHING TO GET ELECTED….
Why do you Obama-fans keep saying Wright’s incendiary comments were “just 10-second sound bites and taken out of context”? The comments couldn’t be any more clear and concise.. Wright and the church were so proud of this hateful, bigoted diatribe that they sold and distributed the tapes of the “sermons”.. These tapes did not come from someone with a hidden cam and were not doctored .. What if he had said that he would participate directly in violence or physical harm to people or property, but only said it once ?? Would that excuse him from it ?? — This so-called pastor has been preaching this sort of hatred and race-baiting for decades.. Obama knew it, he went to the church, he listened, and now he is a liar for trying to deny it.. Obama disqualified himself for the office of president …