Barack Obama Finally Leaves Trinity UCC Church
Barack Obama and his family finally resigned their membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after nearly 20 years of faithfulness to the church. Obama finally realized that you don’t need political enemies when you have a church home like Trinity.
“It’s clear that now that I’m a candidate for president, every time something is said in the church by anyone associated with Trinity, including guest pastors, the remarks will be imputed to me, even if they totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles,” he said, praising the congregation and church leaders for their work in the Chicago community.
“It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace, so our faith remains strong and I suspect we will find another church home for our family.”
In Obama’s May 30 letter to the church, he wrote that his relationship with the church had been “strained” by the statements of Wright.
The decision comes after Father Michael Pfleger ridiculed and mocked Hillary Clinton from the Trinity pulpit last weekend (see video). Pfleger’s performance seemed to be the knock out punch after retired senior pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racial and political comments from past sermons surfaced two months ago.
Sphere: Related ContentFather Michael Pfleger Mocks Hillary Clinton (Video)
Father Michael Pfleger was preaching at Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity Church in Chicago this past weekend and like Wright he took the pulpit to mock Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama is already in apologetic mode for Pfleger’s comments.
Pfleger has issued an apology for his comments. I am still surprised they let a white man preach at Trinity.
Also See: Jeremiah Wright Likes Pissing Off America and Rev. Wright’s Multi-Million Dollar Mansion
Michelle Malkin’s Take on Pfleger
Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Million Dollar Mansion
Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s UCC Trinity Church is using tax exempt dollars to build their retired, racist, and controversial pastor this million dollar mansion on a $345,000 lot they own.
Wright is on his national speaking tour promoting HIMSELF. Barack Obama has to be praying that Wright shuts up and disappears until he is elected President.
Sphere: Related ContentBarack Obama’s Race Speech
Sen. Barack Obama delivered a speech Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pa. addressing his connection to Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the racial divide.
Everything Wright Is Wrong Again
The Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois issued a statement that said the media was performing a assassination attempt on the character of the African-American church and it’s history. This is the statement issued by Trinity United Church of Christ was provided to Politico. When will enough be enough, this rhetoric is damaging to the country as a whole and even more so to the people that buy into this ridiculous rhetoric.
Sphere: Related Content“AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH”:
Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) — Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.
“Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.
“It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a released statement. “ … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.”
Trinity United Church of Christ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. Wright’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.
Moss added, “The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached the Christian tenet, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, “The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America.” Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats, and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America.
Wright Leaves Obama Campaign
Indignant pastor Jeremiah Wright has stepped down from Sen. Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. Wright has stepped down from the Senators African American Religious Leadership Committee that Minster Jeremiah Wright seemingly blames racism and America for all the world’s problems. Wright came to light this last week for racially motivated rhetoric, and his association with Senator Obama and his association with him as his spiritual adviser. Obama has said that he disagrees with some statements that Wright said, and that he never heard Pastor Wright say anything like that when he was listening to his sermons. Well that matter is solved, now that we all know Barack Obama is in the clear, the nation breathes a sigh of relief and yes we can move on collectively.
Photo Source: Get Relegion
Sphere: Related ContentObama’s Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Again
In 2006, Jeremiah Wright preached a sermon at Howard University the Wall Street Journal reports. During the sermon, he said that the United States is responsible for the AIDS virus, and that a black man will never be elected President. The minister, also had several other ignorant things such as to say such as, America is the trainer of killers, import of drugs, and overtly racist. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, we have to take notice that this man is spiritual adviser of someone that is in the position to be elected President, and even though Obama says that he sometimes disagrees with Wright, Wright obviously has some degree of influence Barack Obama and obviously Obama agrees with Wright enough to have him as an spiritual adviser, and friend. Everyone has friends they disagree with, but not so much your pastor. A pastor is a teacher who supposedly is there to teach you and guide you in your spiritual and philosophical decisions. Maybe Jeremiah Wright is trying to maintain that he is right and that a black man will not be elected president, or at least in 2008.
Sphere: Related ContentIn a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama’s longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president.
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
”We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he began. “Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body.”
Mr. Wright thundered on: “America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.”
His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, “We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . .”
Concluding, Mr. Wright said: “We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . .”
Considering this view of America, it’s not surprising that in December Mr. Wright’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening,” Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. “He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”
After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright’s church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.
Instead, Mr. Obama said, “I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.” Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright’s church out of the church’s offices, and Mr. Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
Meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Feb. 24, Mr. Obama described Mr. Wright as being like “an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with.” He rarely mentions the points of disagreement.
Mr. Obama went on to explain Mr. Wright’s anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state’s support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his previous claim that his church gave the award to Mr. Farrakhan because of his work with ex-offenders, Mr. Obama appears to have made that up.
Neither the presentation of the award nor the Trumpet article about the award mentions ex-offenders, and Mr. Wright’s statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way. Mr. Obama nonetheless told the Jewish leaders that the award to Mr. Farrakhan “showed a lack of sensitivity to the Jewish community.” That is an understatement.
As for Mr. Wright’s repeated comments blaming America for the 9/11 attacks because of what Mr. Wright calls its racist and violent policies, Mr. Obama has said it sounds as if the minister was trying to be “provocative.”
Hearing Mr. Wright’s venomous and paranoid denunciations of this country, the vast majority of Americans would walk out. Instead, Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle have presumably sat through numerous similar sermons by Mr. Wright.
Indeed, Mr. Obama has described Mr. Wright as his “sounding board” during the two decades he has known him. Mr. Obama has said he found religion through the minister in the 1980s. He joined the church in 1991 and walked down the aisle in a formal commitment of faith.
The title of Mr. Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons. Mr. Wright is one of the first people Mr. Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. He prayed privately with Mr. Wright before announcing his candidacy last year.
Mr. Obama obviously would not choose to belong to Mr. Wright’s church and seek his advice unless he agreed with at least some of his views. In light of Mr. Wright’s perspective, Michelle Obama’s comment that she feels proud of America for the first time in her adult life makes perfect sense.
Much as most of us would appreciate the symbolism of a black man ascending to the presidency, what we have in Barack Obama is a politician whose closeness to Mr. Wright underscores his radical record.
The media have largely ignored Mr. Obama’s close association with Mr. Wright. This raises legitimate questions about Mr. Obama’s fundamental beliefs about his country. Those questions deserve a clearer answer than Mr. Obama has provided so far.
Jeremiah Wright Likes Pissing Off America
Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s spiritual adviser and pastor, seems hellbent on his one man mission to destroy Obama’s chances for a White House bid. If this video isn’t enough, keep reading. Wright mentions that African- American people shouldn’t say God Bless America, but instead say G** Damn America. Also mentioned is that he believes that it is America’s fault for 9/11.
Obama has tried to distance himself from Wright, saying that he says inflammatory things, or he is the uncle with whom you don’t always agree. Though it is kind of hard to swallow that when Obama still attends the church that Wright pastors, and he writes the forward in Obama’s latest book. If Obama really found him that offensive or disagreeable, he still wouldn’t be attending his church and he certainly wouldn’t be his spiritual adviser. So the obvious conclusion here is that Obama is distancing himself, just to try to save face, and that he likes and agrees with Wright at least to some degree.
Sphere: Related ContentSen. Barack Obama’s pastor says blacks should not sing “God Bless America” but “God damn America.”
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side, has a long history of what even Obama’s campaign aides concede is “inflammatory rhetoric,” including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own “terrorism.”
In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, “I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial.” He said Rev. Wright “is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with,” telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.
Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright’s sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.
“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,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.
Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright’s 9/11 sermon. “The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” Obama said in a recent interview. “It sounds like he was trying to be provocative,” Obama told the paper.
Rev. Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.
“I wouldn’t call it radical. I call it being black in America,” said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.
“He has impacted the life of Barack Obama so much so that he wants to portray that feeling he got from Rev. Wright onto the country because we all need something positive,” said another member of the congregation.
Rev. Wright, who declined to be interviewed by ABC News, is considered one of the country’s 10 most influential black pastors, according to members of the Obama campaign.
Obama has praised at least one aspect of Rev. Wright’s approach, referring to his “social gospel” and his focus on Africa, “and I agree with him on that.”
Sen. Obama declined to comment on Rev. Wright’s denunciations of the United States, but a campaign religious adviser, Shaun Casey, appearing on “Good Morning America” Thursday, said Obama “had repudiated” those comments.
In a statement to ABCNews.com, Obama’s press spokesman Bill Burton said, “Sen. Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they’re offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church. Sen. Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn’t detract from Sen. Obama’s affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done.”
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