Wright's words: Obama's fmr. pastor speaks out
WASHINGTON (AP) - April 28, 2008 "I served six years in the military," Barack Obama's longtime
pastor said. "Does that make me patriotic? How many years did
(Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?"
Wright spoke at the National Press Club before reporters and a
supportive audience of black church leaders beginning a two-day
symposium. He said the black church tradition is not bombastic or
controversial, but different and misunderstood by the "dominant
culture" in the United States.
He said his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has a
long history of liberating the oppressed by feeding the hungry,
supporting recovery for the addicted and helping senior citizens in
need. He said congregants have fought in the military, including in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
"My goddaughter's unit just arrived in Iraq this week while
those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of
privilege to avoid military service while sending over 4,000
American boys and girls to die over a lie," he said.
Wright seemed to relish the chance to speak out after weeks of
being derided in the press. He reveled in his retorts, high-fiving
an audience member, pointing and winking at his supporters and
mocking descriptions of him as Obama's spiritual mentor.
"I'm a pastor, he's a member. I'm not a spiritual mentor.
Voodoo," he said, leaning into the microphone and wiggling his
fingers in the air like he was conducting a seance.
Wright has been Obama's pastor for more than 20 years. Wright
brought Obama to Christianity, inspired the title of his book "The
Audacity of Hope," officiated at his wedding and baptized his
daughters. Wright also told reporters Monday that he prayed
privately with the family right before Obama announced he was
running for president, although he didn't appear with them
publicly.
Obama has said he disagreed at times with Wright, but video
clips of some of the preacher's most controversial remarks have
widely been distributed on television and the Internet and been
damaging to Obama's campaign.
In a sermon days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Wright said
"America's chickens are coming home to roost" after the United
States. Asked what he meant by that, Wright challenged the reporter
questioning him.
"Have you heard the whole sermon?" he responded. "No. You
haven't heard the whole sermon. That nullifies that question."
He said criticism comes from people who only have heard sound
bites playing repeatedly on television and have never listened to
his entire sermons.
Wright said he's told Obama that if he is elected in November
and is inaugurated in January, "I'm coming after you." He said
that's because his differences are not with the American people,
but U.S. policies.
"Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be
answerable to God on November 5 and January 21," Wright said. But
he rejected the suggestion that Obama was denouncing him or
distancing himself. "He had to distance himself because he's a
politician," Wright said.
Wright said he hopes the controversy will spark an honest
dialogue about race in America. Wright says black church traditions
are unknown to many Americans, as they have been throughout the
country's history. He said he hopes the controversy "just might
mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer
be invisible."
"It is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright - it's an attack on the
black church," he said to applause.
Wright's appearance was his third in four days, keeping alive a
story that continues to dog Obama's campaign and at points creating
further controversy.
At the press club, he jokingly offered himself as Obama's
running mate and embraced Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
even though he said he doesn't always agree with him. He criticized
the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that
the U.S. invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against
minorities. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what
has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government
is capable of doing anything," he said.
"God damns some practices and there's no excuse for the things
that the government, not the American people, have done," he said.
"That doesn't make me not like America or unpatriotic."