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Three things factor into why the "controversial pastor" phenomenon wasn't nearly as momentous as it ought to have been: 1. Many Americans are prepared to overlook black racism. Last week in this space and citing Rev. Wright, I disputed the idea that blacks still had legitimate reasons to perpetuate resentment of slavery and segregation. I also pointed out the fact that those who engage in this are "given a pass" by whites motivated by a misplaced sense of guilt or the fear of denigration for denying blacks their response to past social injustice. 2. Spirituality isn't important anymore. While making...

What does Democratic presidential front-runner Illinois Senator Barack Obama, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a man named Larry Sinclair and Trinity United Church of Christ’s murdered homosexual choir director have in common? According Mr. Sinclair, maybe quite a bit. According to Sinclair, he has given new evidence to Chicago police linking Obama to the murder . . .

Rev. Lainie Dowell -- On Faith -- The Rev. Otis Moss has taken over leadership of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. For those who think Moss will offer a change in philosophy to the much-maligned Rev. Jeremiah Wright, they are grossly mistaken. Moss preaches ...

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Activists fear gay African-Americans are being targeted for murder. Two openly gay men were killed recently on the South Side, as CBS 2's Mike Parker reports. African-American gay and lesbian groups are talking about the murders of two openly gay Black men in the past month. On November 17, 24-year-old Larry Bland was shot to death in his Englewood home. Bland, a security guard at Northwestern Hospital was shot more than once after struggling with a man who had entered the house through an unlocked basement door. Then on December 23, 47-year-old Donald Young, the choir director...

To the question of the moment--What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?--I answer, Obama knew everything, and he's known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright's disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor's political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year's worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright's glossy national "lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious," makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise. Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a "church newspaper"--primarily for his own congregation, one gathers--to "preach...

Bulletins at Obama's Church Carry Their Own Controversy By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 09, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) recently said his relationship with his long-time pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright "changed" after what Obama called the clergyman's "divisive and destructive" remarks at the National Press Club. Later, however, Obama stressed his loyalty to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he has been a member for many years. Articles published in the Trinity United Church of Christ bulletin in 2007 carried controversial comments written by people other than Jeremiah Wright. Those comments...

Barack Obama has finally distanced himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright after a_20-year_relationship, but the pastor who is replacing Wright at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ is likely to be just as controversial. New Trinity pastor Otis Moss has called Biblical patriarch Abraham a “pimp” and made other statements many would consider offensive. After Obama called Wright’s comments “divisive and destructive,” a questioner noted that Rev. Moss has defended Wright and asked if Obama would continue attending the church. “Well, the new pastor, the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor,” Obama responded. “And as I said,...

JERUSALEM – More pastor problems for Sen. Barack Obama? The man slated to become chief pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ has called blacks "lepers" with a "skin disease," claimed U.S. entertainment corporations operate with "disdain" for black people, and in a fiery sermon claimed retired pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright was "lynched" by the media and compared the embattled pastor to Jesus. Otis Moss III, lauded this week by Obama as a "wonderful young pastor," also recently refused to deny claims by Wright that the U.S. government was involved in distributing illegal drugs to minorities or spreading the...

Ministers said they heard in Mr. Wright’s language “the same kind of passion and hyperbole as the Hebrew prophets,” said the Rev. Richard Wagoner of Union Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ church in St. Louis Park, Minn. Clergy members have cited the prophet Amos, who cursed all the nations, saving his harshest words for his own. But many congregants heard something different, Mr. Wagoner said, and were angry about Mr. Wright’s sermons. After his speech at the National Press Club, more frustration surfaced. “Many in our congregation are resonating with Obama’s talk of raising the discourse and that...

I've been keeping careful tabs on Obama's church for over a year. The site has been continually changing, and I thought I would document it for FR. Last year it was very marxist and black separatist. Then it became still radical, social justice oriented, but a lot of the most severe separatist stuff was removed. Tonight I checked and suddenly it is overtly Christian. Either the church has changed substantially or somebody is trying to deceive the public. Here is the statement from the statement of faith in 2006: "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian......

New pastor to head Obama's 8,000-member Chicago church Apr 30 04:14 AM US/Eastern By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) - When the Rev. Otis Moss III takes to the pulpit before a congregation that includes Barack Obama, he's as likely to preach about Tupac Shakur or one of his favorite authors as he is the Apostle Paul. The 37-year-old "hip-hop pastor," as he's called by congregants, will become the head of Trinity United Church of Christ in June, taking over at a time of turmoil for the 8,000-member church, the nation's largest United Church of Christ congregation, Moss'...

N.B. bold red-letter emphasis is mine. The original article's emphasis is making the case that Barack Obama is a Muslim. My emphasis is that Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ claims to have "many Muslim members." --Dajjal http://www.sonsofapesandpigs.org/2008/02/press-release-america-is-being.html Press Release: America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! [posted by] ibn Misr on February 15, 2008 We ask for your immediate attention, and viral dissemination of this news. America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! "YES, MUSLIMS ARE MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH." "WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH WHO ARE MUSLIMS." I am Usama K. Dakdok,...

Obama's pastor replies to critics Clips of Rev Wright's sermons caused a storm in March Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of the US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, has hit back at critics of his fiery sermons. In two speeches, to journalists and African-American activists, Mr Wright said that attacks on him were attacks on the black church. And he said that his six years of service in the military was proof of his patriotism. Senator Obama rejected Mr Wright's language in a speech last month. Publicity campaign Mr Wright remained silent when old sermons containing politically charged remarks...

In his eloquent Philadelphia speech, Mr. Obama likened Rev. Wright to a beloved, but politically extremist, family member with whom one profoundly disagrees but whose rage one understands. But this comparison just doesn't work for me. I don't get a chance to choose my family members. I do get a chance to choose my spiritual or religious leader and my congregation. And I do not have to remain silent or, more importantly, expose my children to the spiritual leader of my congregation who spews hate that offends my conscience.Mr. Obama made a choice to join the church and to ask...

A young Barack Obama was searching for answers, and perhaps a place to belong, when he decided to visit a fast-growing church recommended by friends. What he heard left him in tears. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preached that day about suffering — about the seemingly endless problems of the world and of individuals. But he also talked about the importance of hope, the audacity of believing things can be made better. "Hope is what saves us," Wright said. That message moved Obama to embrace Trinity United Church of Christ, along with its philosophy of translating faith into action. But it's...

The church where Sen. Barack Obama has worshipped for two decades publicly declares that its ministry is founded on a 1960s book that espouses "the destruction of the white enemy." Trinity United Church of Christ's Web site says its teachings are based on the black liberation theology of James H. Cone and his 1969 book "Black Theology and Black Power." "What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity,...

It's bad enough that Barack Obama's church took sick joy in 9/11 for "racist white America" supporting "Zionists." Now we learn that it also is a mouthpiece for anti-Israeli terrorists. Last July, Trinity United Church of Christ reprinted a Hamas manifesto written by a terrorist fugitive wanted by the FBI. It was published across two pages of the "Pastor's Page" section of the church bulletin. Rev. Jeremiah Wright's name is copyrighted at the bottom of the pages. For those who don't know, Wright is the anti-American, anti-Israeli bigot that Obama has consorted with for the past two decades. In his...

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the popular Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and spiritual mentor to Senator Barack Obama, thought he knew what he would be doing on Feb. 10, the day of Senator Obama’s presidential announcement. After all, back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation. But Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation. Some black leaders are questioning Mr. Obama’s decision to distance his campaign...

Trinity United Church of Christ is building Barack Obama's controversial former pastor a million-dollar Tinley Park home complete with an elevator, whirlpool, butler's pantry, circular driveway and four-car garage, building plans show. The four-bedroom home being built for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is in the Odyssey Club neighborhood, which boasts some of Tinley Park's largest homes and a mix of town homes. It backs up to the Odyssey Country Club and golf course.See link for the full story.

Church builds mansion for Obama's former pastor March 29, 2008 By Kristen Schorsch, Staff writer The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's four-bedroom home in Tinley Park will feature an elevator, a large family room with a fireplace and bar, a butler's pantry, a rubberized exercise room, a circular driveway, a four-car garage, a spare room for a future theater or swimming pool and a master bedroom with a whirlpool and custom shower as well as a fireplace and under-counter fridge, building plans show. He would add to the mix of townhomes and multimillion dollar single-family homes that make up Odyssey Club, which...