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.
Thank you Fox for reporting all the articles relating to the Rev. Wright controversies and the church. Other news media appear to have a different agenda and only reporting the articles that causes chaos, prejudice and anger among us. No story has one side or view, these follow-up stories allow us to see the damages the media caused to not only Rev. Wright, our citizens that were offended by the sermons, but a church that has been helping the community faithfully for years. What happened to ” freedom to worship”? Thank you, I think I will be viewing Fox more often.
I am a pastor and every week I read my Bible and the newspaper. When I enter into the pulpit each Sunday I try to give some Christian direction in light of what I read in both. As a pastor I have felt a high level of anger in the white community since the Jeremiah Wright sermons have been broadcast… and after reading the comments of the new pastor, Moss, I fear we have just slipped back ten years…as I fear the white community will no longer be interested in trying to understand…and the reason I have heard many of them give is…they feel the black community wants to be treated special instead of equal…and they just don’t have the time, or the heart for it as efforts so far have not been acknowledged…America has far more important and urgent matters to take care of and a man named Abe gave us the best advise…A House Divided Cannot Stand. American races do not need to mix together just for the mixing…but rather they need to bring back the true joy of the Christian message to all churches and then jointly carry it out to a troubled world!
How can Barack Obama still be a contender? It’s totally outrageous. His church has single handedly set our country back 40 years. These churches should lose their tax exempt status immediately. All are political. Start taxing them and watch em’ crumble.
To form an intelligent opinion on the Wright sermon one must first have
an open mind and it would help to listen to the sermon in it’s
intirety.I did this and heard a great sermon by a learned Pastor.The
snipets played adnauseum by cnn and fox accomplished their miss-
ion to discredit Obama but could’nt sabbatage his lead in the polls. I don’t
expect this to be posted.So surprise me!
I have seen Dr. Wright’s messages in context and have concluded that while they aren’t politically correct.. they are in NO way racist or anti-American. As a matter of fact his statements are understood completely differently when seeing the message in entirety. While I may not agree with how he stated certain things, Im sure had he known that his messages were going to be cherry-picked and nationally exploited, he would’ve framed his words differently. Notheless, Im disappointed at the irresponsibilty of the media. I doubt very much that this will hurt Obama very much though, giving that the context is now available and viewed by millions. CNN has even began to play the clips in context.. Hopefully Fox will follow suit.
In reference to the “social Gospel of liberation” mentioned in this article, as Christians we must remember what the apostle Paul warned when speaking to the the Galatians of that day: “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ to follow ANOTHER GOSPEL: which is really no gospel at all; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the GOSPEL OF CHRIST. But though we, OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN, preach any OTHER GOSPEL unto you than that which we have preached unto, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, IF ANY MAN preach any OTHER GOSPEL unto you than that which you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galations 1:6-9) This still applies to those who speak from the pulpit today. While Jerimiah Wright is “damning” and condemning America, maybe he should take a moment to reflect on these sacred words.
Wright came from an upper-middle class neighborhood/family…his mother a teacher & then a principal & his father a a pastor.
Obama is NOT a descendant of slavery in this country (his father was not from here).
So all this talk about these things from these two is ridiculous b/c as opposed to others of their racial heritage they do NOT “know where of they speak”.
I left the RCC over their theology/practices/actions including but not ltd to the molestations scandals & I don’t expect anything less from others.
To stand by evil is to allow evil & IMHO many of Wright’s sermons were evilly racist. IMHO, Wright is of the same ilk as Pat Buchanan…both racist.
And if I were his grandmother I’d kick him to the curb for using me.
I do not believe Obama’s church should use the pulpit for racial hatred. If my pastor preached anything other than the Bible I would look elsewhere for a church. The pulpit is not the place for hatred. What happened to seperation of church and state.
Many people have said many things in this world under the aegis of it being “Christian”. Now we have a few saying that the words of Rev. Wright are “prophetic” ; that he is being treated like Jesus was…that he is being lynched. This church, this Rev. Wright are heretical. They clearly represent a “point of view” and it is their right to do so, but neither are Christian by any generous standard or non-standard application of that description. Barack Obama has stated that Rev. Wright has been his “spiritual advisor”. God help us all, if that is the case and he is elected President.
Thanks Fox News for telling both sides. Obama got the 3:00am. call and went on vacation. When is he going to answer the real question? Why he sat in that church so long? It is very clear that this is the strong belief of this church.