Marathon Pundit: Obama rescinded invitation to his pastor for invocation at his presidential announcement

Monday, March 05, 2007

Obama rescinded invitation to his pastor for invocation at his presidential announcement

Bloggers, including myself, and to a lesser extent the mainstream media, have raised questions about the Afro-centric nature of Chicago's Trinity Church of Christ. Obama joined the congregation in the late 1980s; the title of his best selling book, The Audacity of Hope, comes from the senior pastor at Trinity, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Recently Wright gave one wild sermon, which a Rolling Stone Magazine reporter witnessed:

And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country. Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, "Fact number one: We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he intones. "Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!" There is thumping applause; Wright has a cadence and power that makes Obama sound like John Kerry. Now the reverend begins to preach. "We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!” The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: "And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!"

The New York Times is reporting this evening that the Reverend Wright was asked in January by the Illinois senator to give the invocation prior to Obama's official presidential announcement in front of Springfield's Old State Capitol last month. However, probably feeling that Wright might become an issue for his campaign, Obama rescinded his invitation to Wright--the night before Obama's February 10 announcement.

Rev. Otis Moss III, Wright's successor as regular pastor at Trinity was then invited to give the invocation....he declined.

The Reverend Al Sharpton heard about the treatment Wright received from Obama, and he isn't happy about it, telling the Times:

I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor.