Posted on 04/28/2008 11:49:31 AM PDT by The_Republican
"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," said Rev. Jeremiah Wright this morning at the National Press Club, explaining why he was emerging before a national audience, regardless of what harm it might do to the candidacy of one of his parishioners, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. "This is an attack on the black church."
With that justification -- however sincere or self-serving -- in mind, Wright continued his publicity blitz, arguing that he's compelled to speak out because he does not operate in the world of politics.
"On November 5 and on January 21, I will still be a pastor. In our community we got a thing called 'Playing the dozens,'" he said, referring to the African-American tradition of trading clever insults in a competition. "If you think I'm gonna let you talk about my momma and her religious tradition, and my Daddy and his religious tradition,…you got another think coming."
Watch a portion of Wright's speech HERE.
Obama's controversial former pastor was defiant as he spoke to a room packed with non-journalistic supporters, defending himself, dismissing Obama's criticism of him as mere political expedience, and jokingly offering himself as a vice presidential prospect. He clearly was not doing Obama any favors, not only by reappearing before a ravenous media thus distracting from Obama's attempt to relate better to white working class voters in Indiana and North Carolina, but by implying Obama's condemnation of some of his sermons was not sincere.
"Politicians say what they say and do what they do because of electability," Wright said, arguing that Obama had not seen the sermons played in the media that Obama has called "offensive." "He had to distance himself because he's a politician...Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."
Wright -- throughout his speech and a Q&A period -- argued that many of his critics had not heard his whole sermons and that the media had twisted his words.
But he didn't distance himself from any of the sentiments underlying the clips shown on television. Indeed, the former pastor embraced the most controversial items he has said.
On his contention that the U.S. government had created AIDS as a method of committing genocide against African-Americans, Wright referred to a hotly-disputed 1996 book "Emerging Viruses: AIDS And Ebola : Nature, Accident or Intentional?" by Leonard G Horowitz, which contends that AIDS and the Ebola viruses evolved during cancer experiments on monkeys.
He also referenced "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present" by Harriet Washington, and said based on the Tuskegee experiment -- in which the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a 40-year study on 400 poor black men in Alabama with syphilis whom they did not properly treat -- "I believe our government is capable of anything."
"Have you heard the whole sermon?" he asked a questioner about his infamous post-9/11 sermon in which he seemed to blame the terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania as blowback from U.S. foreign policy, saying "America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Wright said he was quoting a previous U.S. Ambassador to Iraq -- in a quote that none of his supporters has been able to find -- and relaying Biblical proverbs, "whatever you sow, that is what you shall reap," and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"You cannot do terrorism on other people and not expect it to come back on you," Wright said. "Those are Biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright 'bombastic' principles."
Asked about those who wondered about his love of the U.S. in light of his "God d--- America" comments during a sermon, Wright said "those citizens who say that have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me...I served six years in the military, does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?"
He underlined that whatever he has said about America was "about policy, not the American people."
Wright was also asked about his relationship with Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, whom Wright described as merely haven once said that Zionism -- not Judaism -- was a poisonous weed. (Farrakhan has far more than that one comment in his collection of anti-Semitic statements.
Farrakhan, Wright said, is "one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century," noting the Million Man March. "When Louis Farrakhan speaks, it's like when E.F. Hutton speaks...Black America listens."
The media asking him to condemn Farrakhan reminded him of one time when Ted Koppel asked Nelson Mandela about past statements he'd made in praise of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's "love for human rights and liberty," Wright said.
"Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy," Wright said, since Farrakhan had not enslaved Africans and brought them in chains to the U.S.
Wright argued that his fiery nature was appropriate since the leaders of the U.S. have never apologized for slavery or racism.
Wright simply proves some people should never get near a microphone.
It is clear that his earlier words were NEVER taken out of context. He provided the full context today and it is just as we thought.
...and he's proud of it.
Obama’s church is like Bin Laden’s madrass. If Obama finds a way to get to the white house. Pastor Wright & Sharpton will be calling the shot from its basement. He is Wright’s puppet.
I’m not a Bush/Cheney fan, but this guy is simply certifiable.
He was pretty entertaining;I wonder if there was a two drink minimum?
He just won’t stop digging in that hole he’s in, will he?
I guess its going to be Hillary after all. God help us
He seems to forget that slavery started in Africa and continues there to this day. He also seems to forget that it was fellow blacks who met the slave traders on the beach and traded other blacks for whatever it is they traded for. He also seems to forget that America led the way in ending slavery in most of the world.
There is no power or money in that for a just another common garden-variety sleazy Race Hustler.
“Vengeance is mine!”
Jeremiah 4:28
Wright - the living definition of hypocrisy. He's injected himself into politics by super-gluing himself to the coattails of Obama and is 'dirty riding' Obama's candidacy to give himself a national platform and notoriety that he could never have achieved on his own. No sympathy for Obama - at a minimum, he condoned this man & his views for 20 years by sitting silent before him in his pews. Forget about mere 'chickens' coming home to roost - the vultures are circling the Obama campaign, attracted by the rotten stench of the Wright association and at this point, no amount of sanitizing by Obama will get rid of the smell.
Speaking for myself -- this is absolutely correct.
There is no such thing as a "black" church. Or a "white" church. Or a "brown" church.
It is the Church of Jesus Christ.
We all are descended from one man and one woman.
And we are all suffering from the same ailment: sin.
With the wages of sin leading to death.
And we all have only one cure: Jesus.
For this vile person to create a warped version of those who worship our Saviour as having to belong to a race conscious 'church' is an abomination. I understand mental illnesses strike many people. I'd like to dismiss Mr. Wright's rantings as such -- but I am more disappointed with the fact that after his 'message' has been made public - he has not been massively rebuked and flushed. Between Mr. Obama's mild 'tut-tuts', and the media's excuses for Mr. Wright's behavior - it feels almost like Alice in Wonderland. Up is down, and bad is good...
There is no excuse for Mr. Wright's behavior and word's (except for the excuse that he is insane), and less of an excuse for those that tolerate his blasphemy.
He's not preaching Christ. He is preaching the anti-Christ: hatred.
ANSWER: Despite heart problems that would have caused lesser men to find easier work, Vice President Cheney spent most of his adult life in service to our great nation, including a stint as Secretary of Defense.
Exactly what has Barrack Hussein Obama done in service to our great nation?
In name only. I've heard his speeches and I've never heard Jesus mentioned.
I find it very odd that Wright’s little play acting where he imitated JFK’s speech pattern during one of the most compelling quotes of all time, where JFK says “ask not what you can do for your country,” is getting very little ink.
Wright was admiting, in essence, that many blacks have a hard time with the work “ask.” That’s the part of JFK’s speech that he picked out, saying kennedy was says “isk” or something like that. Why is he getting a pass on that?
He AIN'T apologizing to Whitey for nothing.
True. I meant what should go without saying: There is the Church of Jesus Christ -- No "black churches", or any other invention of man.
Your point is well taken though, I remember when I first looked at the tucc.org's 'About Us' page (last year), and it had about half a dozen references to black/African, several references to racists, two mentions of God, and ZERO references to Jesus. They have since updated their website (probably in the past couple of weeks), and shoved a 'reasonable' sounding Doxology - which mentions Jesus several times - on top of their racial screed. But the 'funny' thing about their 'reasonable' sounding Doxology. It painfully avoids recognizing Jesus as God manifest in the Flesh... These aren't JW's mind you, but allegedly a Church of Christ... To the end they want to deny Christ's Deity (i.e., they are antiChrists).
I now think even LESS of the race baiting SOB - and I didn't think it was possible.
One caller (who should be a pundit) conpaired his sermon to DECON for rats.
95% wholegrain and 5% pure, deadly poison. I think he got it right, so to speak.
So, oh ya, ‘Bama, this guy is a GREAT help to your campaign.
This “black liberation theology” crap is no different than the attempts by the Nazis to “de-judaize” Christianity to make it more “Aryan”.
They and he were/are listening to the same demon.
If he does not repent, he will face the same fate — the eternal flames of hell.
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