NEW YORK (AP) - The former pastor to Democrat Barack Obama said his sermon blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks was a warning against vengeance and the view that all American actions are perfect, according to transcripts of a PBS interview released Friday.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said he was in Newark when the terrorist strike occurred and, from his hotel window, he said he saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Some of his congregants lost loved ones in the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center, he said.
"We want revenge. They wanted revenge," Wright told "Bill Moyers' Journal." "God doesn't want to leave you there, however. God wants redemption. God wants wholeness. And ... that's the context, the biblical context, I used to try to get people sitting again in that sanctuary."
The interview, for broadcast Friday night, is the first the pastor has given since video of his preaching gained national attention in March, putting Obama's campaign for the presidential nomination on the defensive.
The controversy forced Obama to distance himself from the minister, after a 20-year association through Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. In a March 18 speech in Philadelphia, Obama described the history of injustice that fueled Wright's comments, while also condemning his pastor's statements and acknowledging white resentment of African-Americans.
Wright, who is stepping down from Trinity's pulpit, said he and his successor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, have received death threats, and that the there have been threats to bomb the church.
In the Sept. 11 sermon, Wright pointed to U.S. military strikes on Panama and Libya, American slavery and its treatment of Indians and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans and now we are indignant?" he said in the sermon. "America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Wright told Moyers that "the persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly." The pastor said that the video is being publicized by people who want to make him out to be a fanatic instead of someone expressing problems with U.S. policies.
"To put an element of fear and hatred and to stir up the anxiety of Americans who still don't know the African-American church, know nothing about the prophetic theology of the African-American experience," Wright said, "who don't even know how we got a black church."
Among the most remarked upon part of Wright's sermons was his proclaiming from the pulpit "God damn America" for its racism. He told Moyers that his message was that people shouldn't confuse the government with God, and that governments have "failed and how they lie."
"And when we start talking about, `my government right or wrong,' I don't think that goes, that is consistent, with what the will of God says or the word of God says, that governments that want to kill innocents are not consistent with the will of God" he said.
Asked about his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Wright said that Farrakhan made racist and anti-Semitic comments "20 years ago."
The pastor said Farrakhan has helped African-American men stop using drugs and helped ease gang warfare and has worked in prisons.
"That's not indefensible in terms of how you make a difference in the prisons? Turning people's lives around. Giving people hope," Wright said. "We don't believe the same things he said years ago. But that has nothing to do with what he has done in terms of helping people change their lives for the better."
Wright said he has never heard Obama repeat any of the pastor's controversial statements as his own opinion. Of the senator's Philadelphia speech, Wright said, "I do what I do. He does what politicians do."
Wright is scheduled to speak Sunday at a dinner organized by the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, then again on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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pat robertson said jan 2006
'god smote ariel sharon for dividing the land of israel.' what about that arrogant, self righteous statement with regards to the stroke of prime minister ariel sharon.
the problem with robertson is nobody has rebuked him so he thinks he is perfect.
robertson cast the first stone & he is judging this person who suffered a stroke. he should look at the dirt in his eye before he looks at others.
rev wright said '...it is not god BLESS AMERICA but god damned american.'
Jesus also said,
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
And I believe this is a literal translation that calls us to advocate on behalf of the marginalized. and sometimes advocating means speaking against the power structures of our day while also praying for them.
I remember reading in the old testament when the Israelites were exiled from their homeland they were to pray for the prosperity of the land that they went into.....this attitude of his is in no way benificial to him or anybody else...imagine if everybody, country, state, or continent got what they deserved.....none of would be alive today. God through the Lord Jesus have mercy on us all....especially America.
cog, the words of Jesus,
Matt 5:17- 20
17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
If I am not mistaken God himself condemned the Nation of Israel for their disobedience to Him and their treatment of the poor. Oh and I guess the Old Testament Prophets just had good things to say about the Nation of Israel.
Rev. Wright is in love with himself, his style of "church" , and the self centered NAACP are nothing more than the KKK for black people, that is not a politically correct statement I know BUT this needs to be discussed because this self-centered hateful talk does not honor God any more than the KKK does.
good article here
http://www.newmediajournal.us/
The Holy Spirit would never lead a true Christian minister to preach "God Damn America" in any context, much less a taped public sermon with children involved. My concern is the same spirit leading Rev. Wright to make such remarks is also leading the youthful Barak Hussein Obama. May the Holy Spirit be our guide.
Hope Page: itsallaboutjesusnotme.blogspot.com
"Wright said he has never heard Obama repeat any of the pastor's controversial statements as his own opinion. Of the senator's Philadelphia speech, Wright said, "I do what I do. He does what politicians do."
The NAACP decided to take full advantage of this political season just as everybody else has.
If Reverand Wright really wanted to be helpful, he would lay low for awhile until the cameras are gone. But he wants his 15 minutes of international fame. Sometimes ministers need to learn how to be politicians as well.
Jeremiah Wright has done nothing but perpetuate the racial divide in our country with the incendiary remarks he made from his pulpit. Instead of insisting that most people don't understand the prophetic theology of the African American church, why can't Wright take it on the chin and admit that his remarks were careless, hate-filled and inappropriate? If my pastor said things like Wright said from the pulpit, he wouldn't have to worry about writing his next sermon.
what is it about 'Thou shalt not take the Lord Gods name in vain" does Rev. Wright not understand? Never heard anything like it. What an indoctrination into victimhood.
The whole entire DVD was on the radio nothing was taken out of context. He is moving into a 10,000 sq. ft. house in an upscale whitey neighborhood, I wonder why?
Why does anyone care what this backwards "pastor" has to say.
It is quite obvious his "preaching" is more towards the aim of some desire for "black power", and the fact that he is pro-"Palestinian" and friends with Louis Farakhan just shows that he is more Muslim than Christian. When are people going to start preaching Jesus crucified instead of their race?
Barak Obama is about as trustworthy as electing Judas Iscariot for president.
What Rev. Wright has been saying is not much different from many black preachers and leaders. Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Wright, Congressional Black Caucus and even many caucasian liberals. This has been the 40+ year mantra of the left- to continually convince black America of its victimhood. These listed are only a few of the "beneficiaries" of this false gospel, not to mention the Democratic Party itself. The book "Overcoming Racism Through the Gospel" lays it all out in plain view.