Obama’s Church Fires Back

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Obama’s Church Fires Back

The Chicago church attended by Barack Obama is fighting back against media coverage of its controversial pastor, issuing a statement on Sunday, saying reports on the inflammatory remarks by Rev. Jeremiah Wright are an attempt to attack “the history of the African American church.”

“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,” the leaders of Trinity United Church of Christ wrote Sunday in a statement distributed to the media.

Claiming that Wright’s 36 years as pastor of the church — the largest United Church of Christ congregation, with 8,000 members — is being demeaned, Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, said, “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 … 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.”

Neither Wright nor Obama was present at the church on Sunday, but all of talk news has been on the subject of the pastor, whose many sermons have been captured on video and replayed across television and the Internet over the past few weeks.

Some of the more flamboyant sermons have included statements saying that the U.S. created the AIDS virus to kill African Americans and that the United States was asking for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks because it had supported “state-sponsored terrorism” against black South Africans and Palestinian

Obama’s campaign has tried to distance the candidate from his Wright, the man who coined the phrase “the audacity of hope” that became the title of Obama’s bestselling book.

Speaking in a conference call on Sunday, Obama’s advisers acknowledged that the pastor was supposed to speal at the announcement of Obama’s presidential campaign last year, but was cut in part because they knew he was controversial, and didn’t want him to become a target or distraction, both of which he nows appears to be.

But even as attention is focused on Obama, Hillary Clinton’s supporters have refrained from pouncing on the opportunity to link Obama to his 20-year-long spiritual adviser.

“I mean, as you know, I prefer Senator Clinton for a whole lot of reasons, but I don’t cast aspersions on Senator Obama for what somebody else said,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told “FOX News Sunday.”

Calling Trinity’s social justice and outreach programs “inclusive and global” Moss added that not much has changed since the era of Martin Luther King’s sermons for equality. He claimed that African American churches, “born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery” continue to treat marginalized victims of social and economic injustices in the face of prejudice.

“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,” he said, adding “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.”

Obama’s Church Fires Back

Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) - “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.

Church statment

[simple_male 1]

They should go to Fox, MSNBC to explain their side.

[chri'stina 190]

This whole denouncing of supporters is kind of getting silly to me. If they are on your official campaign, then I can see denouncing things they say that you don't agree with. But is it just me or have things gotten way too politically correct on this issue? Do we need to hear a denouncing of support about every person who will vote for them who they may not agree with on things? Just because someone wants to vote for them or endorse them doesn't mean they are identical in every aspect of opinions.

[DeadPoolX 9]

This whole denouncing of supporters is kind of getting silly to me. If they are on your official campaign, then I can see denouncing things they say that you don't agree with. But is it just me or have things gotten way too politically correct on this issue? Do we need to hear a denouncing of support about every person who will vote for them who they may not agree with on things? Just because someone wants to vote for them or endorse them doesn't mean they are identical in every aspect of opinions.

I don't see it as "denouncing a supporter" so much as merely telling someone he's a moron. The reverend who's made those sermons has done so purely to incite anger in the African American community. It's all complete BS and lies. So while I think "attacking" this reverend for being a supporter of Obama's is a little unnecessary, I do think that reporting on his deceit is something that is quite important. The people listening to him need to know the truth.

[Heracles 417]

Does anyone actually believe this BS response?

What a wanker Wright is..

The other thing is what does he have to say about making comments that blacks should not be killing blacks but should be killing whites.

PS It's like your in Chicago dumb ######. Not exactly a place renowned for slavery.

[garya505 2]

Does anyone actually believe this BS response?

What a wanker Wright is..

The other thing is what does he have to say about making comments that blacks should not be killing blacks but should be killing whites.

PS It's like your in Chicago dumb ######. Not exactly a place renowned for slavery.

Can we get a video on that?

[Heracles 417]

Can we get a video on that?

Like any of the other comments he made was any nicer. If someone white had made similar comments about the Black community ###### up America and was associate with Hilary, it would have been game over for her by now.

[HAL 9000 96]

Can we get a video on that?

Like any of the other comments he made was any nicer. If someone white had made similar comments about the Black community ###### up America and was associate with Hilary, it would have been game over for her by now.

No kidding. History has a sick way of being reminded in the minds of the objectified, specially when they are still somewhat disenfranchised from the power structures that control the country. Things are changing, though, and that is one reason this issue of race is such a pain for some.