Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday repudiated the “inflammatory and appalling remarks” made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired pastor of Obama’s church in Chicago.
Wright, who has acted as Obama’s spiritual mentor, has long been known as a radical leftist who routinely denounces the U.S. as a “racist” and “imperialistic” nation dominated by “white arrogance.” In recent days, he has been engulfed in fresh controversy after video surfaced showing him shouting “God damn America,” using racial slurs, and belittling Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Recommended Stories
“I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country…” Obama wrote in an entry on Huffington Post.
When Obama decided to become a Christian 20 years ago, he chose to join Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side. Wright baptized Obama and presided over his wedding to Obama’s wife, Michelle. Obama’s memoir, “The Audacity of Hope,” takes its title from a sermon by Wright, whom Obama described as his “sounding board.”
In one sermon recently made public, Wright said: “Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a n—–.”
Wright also lambasted the United States as an oppressor of African-Americans and exhorted blacks to change the lyrics of “God Bless America” to “God damn America.”
Conservative bloggers and talk-radio hosts reacted with outrage to Wright’s “God damn America” tirade. They recalled Obama’s decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin and Michelle Obama‘s remark that she had never been proud of America until her husband’s landmark quest for the presidency.
Obama said Wright’s pronouncements “were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”
“I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served his nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country…,” Obama said.
With Wright’s retirement, Obama said, “Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good.”
