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.
Such spewing of anger and Hate from a Church Pulpit
I have never witnessed before from anywhere.
No matter how you feel about this issue, I believe that everyone would agree that Fox’s reporting
on this story has been ” Fair & Balanced “.
Thank you Fox News for keeping us up to date. So what if this issue lasts until the election? It is very relevant in selecting our next President.
To the people who want this story to go away because it doesn’t fit your agenda: Some of us like to know what is going on in this nation instead of taking the stick-your-head-in-the-sand approach.
I respect my brothers and sisters in Christ of all colors. I am married to an American-Asian. However, I served my country and my sons have served in the army of the United States. One of them fought to defend this country. Five uncles fought in WWII.
I don’t agree with the government of the United States sometimes, but I will never call upon my God to “damn” it for any reason. Disagreeing and trying to change a wrong is far different than calling down damnation upon a nation. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the so-called Rev. Wright are mighty poor representatives of my black brothers in Christ.
Obama ought to have distanced himself from this man a long time ago and leaves me very nervous about seeing him in the Senate - say nothing of the presidency of the United States.
The Democrats are not offering much to the American people in the way of good choices.
The “social gospel of liberation” is just double speak for a hand out. The non specific “resurrection fund” is just another slush fund for corrupt ministers. Jesus Christ liberates us spritually and we in turn then find the strength to improve our temporal circumstances through our own efforts. There is nothing Christian, spiritual or uplifting about this so called “church”. It’s just a regularly scheduled pity party. It will be the primary reason why Obama will not be our next president.
ANDREW: I agree with you. I think most people want to believe Obama when he says he disagreed with Wright’s comments but I don’t. I believe that Obama went to that church for 20 years because he believed what was being preached there. I am sure the others that were sitting in the congregation believed Wright too and nodded their heads in agreement. I’m sure there was an ‘amen’ or two.
There is a reporter who was at one of those ‘hate’ sermons with Obama was sitting in the church. He said Obama nodded his head in agreement to all that Wright said. To believe Obama now would be foolish. History is what we should look at. His actions of going to that church for 20 years speak volumes.
FOX NEWS NOT FAIR AND BALANCED ANYMORE. They are screening our comments and I’m sure it is only about Obama. From the comments of mine they are not showing have to do with the website I tried to post where you can go and see Wright’s anti-AMerican and anti-White hate speech. I guess Fox doesn’t want people to keep seeing that hateful stuff. Wonder why? If you are looking to see what Wright said, just Google Rev. Wright and look for the youtube posting.
I find it strange that 7 of my firiends say that their comments in support of Obama are not being posted. Seems to me Fox is trying to manipulate the % of people blogging for Obama and Rev. Wright. This is just more of America’s double racists standards!!!!!!!!
There was nothing libelous,obscene,threatening or unlawful about their comments. LET ALL VOICES BE HEARD!
There is no possible human way that a person would attend a church for TWENTY YEARS that had such a hateful bigoted message in nearly everything that was said unless they believed some of it… Obama was lying through his teeth when he denounced the remarks of his pastor… the pastor has been making those marks for the entire 20 years Obama has been attending the church… if he really disagreed with them, he would have left the church long, long ago…not denounced them once the media found out
WALT: Fox screened your comments too! What is going on at Fox News — are they trying to protect Obama in some way I wonder… Probably since I posted a website for people to view Wright’s comments. I guess Fox is no longer Fair and Balanced… Where do we go anymore? The truth is being hidden.