New Pastor At Obama's Church Speaks Out

NY Times:

The new pastor of Senator Barack Obama's longtime church in Chicago took it upon himself to issue a statement Sunday to defend the record of his predecessor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose incendiary sermons have been played on cable television and the Internet in recent days.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, has distanced himself from the controversial sermons of Mr. Wright, whose remarks have been characterized as anti-white and anti-American.

Read the whole story: NY Times

Comments

[caj]

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions. . . " Thomas Jefferson

[mjc]

Freedom of speech certainly allows a minister like Jeremiah Wright to make statements such as he made. And other blacks assure us that there are worse preachers out there who trounce on the US for the previous injuries and hurts to blacks, essentially since Reconstruction. But nevertheless there are two issues here: one, Obama says he never heard such comments from the pulpit, in the 20 years he has been a "member" of this church, and second, he wasn't aware of those kinds of comments. It is the latter that bothers me the most. In 20 years, running as Obama was for various offices, he did not know of that kind of sentiment in the pastor he "reveres". That to me is basically impossible for anyone at all astute as Obama seems to be.