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Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (born September 22 1941) is a former pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), a largely African-American megachurch in Chicago, Illinois with 10,000 members. In early 2008, Wright retired after 36 years as the senior pastor of his congregation. Following retirement, Wright's beliefs and manner of preaching were scrutinized by the media when controversial segments from his sermons were publicized in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Background

Wright was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Jeremiah Wright, Sr, was a Baptist minister, who pastored Grace Baptist Church of Germantown, from 1938 to 1980.

From 1959 to 1961, Wright attended Virginia Union University, a historically black school in Richmond, but left to join the United States Navy, where he worked as a medical technician. Wright then enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master’s degree in English in 1969. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1990 from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor. He also has eight honorary doctorate degrees and has taught courses at seminaries and universities in the United States.

Relationship with Barack Obama

Barack Obama, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, first met Wright and joined his church in the 1980s, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago before attending Harvard Law School. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were later married by Wright, and both their children were baptized by him. Obama's book The Audacity of Hope was inspired by one of Wright's sermons and he credits his own introduction to Christianity to Wright.

The public invocation before Obama's presidential announcement was scheduled to be given by Wright, but Obama withdrew the invitation the night before the event. In late 2007, Wright was appointed to Barack Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee, but is no longer serving.

Wright's church has criticized the media for recent coverage of his past controversial sermons, saying in a statement that Wright's "character is being assassinated in the public sphere."

Controversy

Church

During 2008 Presidential campaign, Wright's alleged beliefs and previous remarks became heavily scrutinized, due to his relationship with Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Wright had officiated at Obama's marriage, baptized his children, and Obama was a member of the congregation of the Trinity United Church of Christ for over 20 years. Critics have accused Wright of using Black liberation theology to promote black separatism. Wright has rejected this notion by saying that "The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history."

Sermons

Wright once stated that Zionism has an element of "white racism", but the Anti-Defamation League says it has no evidence of any anti-Semitism by Wright.

In March 2008, ABC News caused a public uproar by broadcasting spliced sound bites from a sermon that Wright gave shortly after September 11, 2001, in which Wright quoted Edward Peck, former U.S. Chief of Mission in Iraq, former deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism under the Reagan Administration and former U.S. Ambassador to a number of countries, as allegedly having said: "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye...and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." Wright went on state: "Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that."

In other sermons, he said "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color", referring to AIDS origins theories, and "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people...God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme".

Libya Trip

In a peace mission that resulted in the freeing of United States Navy pilot Lt. Robert Goodman, who was shot down over Lebanon, Wright traveled to Libya and Syria with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan. U.S. President Ronald Reagan welcomed Lt. Goodman at the White House January 4, 1984, hours after he arrived back in the U.S. and said the "mission of mercy" had "earned our gratitude and our admiration." Twenty three years after the peace mission, Wright was quoted as saying that "When enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit Colonel Gadaffi with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell." He added that his trip implied no endorsement of either Louis Farrakhan’s views or Gadaffi’s.

Works

• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. and Jini Kilgore Ross, What Makes You So Strong?: Sermons of Joy and Strength from Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Judson Press, November 1993, ISBN 978-0817011987
• Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and Colleen Birchett, Africans Who Shaped Our Faith (Student Guide), Urban Ministries, Inc., May 1995, ISBN 978-0940955295
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. and Jini Kilgore Ross, Good News!: Sermons of Hope for Today's Families, Judson Press, December 1995, ISBN 978-0817012366
• William J. Key, Robert Johnson Smith, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. and Robert Johnson-Smith, From One Brother to Another: Voices of African American Men, Judson Press, October 1996, ISBN 978-0817012502
• Jawanza Kunjufu and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., Adam! Where Are You?: Why Most Black Men Don't Go to Church, African American Images, June 1997, ISBN 978-0913543436 (also African American Images, 1994, ISBN B000T6LXPQ)
• Frank Madison Reid, III, Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Colleen Birchett, When Black Men Stand Up for God: Reflections on the Million Man March, African American Images, December 1997, ISBN 978-0913543481
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr., What Can Happen When We Pray: A Daily Devotional, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, June 2002, ISBN 978-0806634067
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr., From One Brother To Another, Volume 2: Voices of African American Men , Judson Press, January 2003, ISBN 978-0817013622
• Iva E. Carruthers (Editor), Frederick D. Haynes III (Editor), Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (Editor), Blow the Trumpet in Zion!: Global Vision and Action for the 21st Century Black Church, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, January 2005, ISBN 978-0800637125
• Ernest R. Flores and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Tempted to Leave the Cross: Renewing the Call to Discipleship, Judson Press, November 2007, ISBN 978-0817015244

Wright has written several books and is featured on Wynton Marsalis's album "The Majesty of the Blues," where he recites a spoken word piece written by Stanley Crouch.

Notes

1. ^ Pastor Trinity United Church of Christ
2. Barack Obama spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., preaches last sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ Margaret Ramirez, Chicago Tribune, February 11, 2008
3. Banks, Adelle (2008-03-22). "Obama Finds Pulpit in Center of Racial Divide". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-03-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
4. Jeremiah A Wright Jr. Corinthian Baptist Church
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference brachear1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ A More Perfect Union Speech, Barack Obama. March 18, 2008. Excerpted from YouTube
7. Disinvitation by Obama Is Criticized Jodi Kantor, The New York Times, March 6, 2007
8. Renowned Faith Leaders Come Together to Support Obama, Democracy in Action, December 4, 2007
9. Wright leaves Obama campaign Ben Smith, Politicio, March 14, 2008
10. Obama's Church Blames Media, Jake Tapper, ABC News Political Punch, March 16, 2008
11. ^ A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith Jodi Kantor, The New York Times, April 30, 2007
12. Obama's Pastor: Rev. Jeremiah Wright transcript, Fox News: Hannity & Colmes, March 2, 2007
13. ^ Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11 Brian Ross and Rehab el-Buri, ABC News, March 13, 2008
14. Extended video of Wright's sermon from which quotes had been excerpted. Wright misidentifies Peck as Ambassador "Anthony" Peck
15. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-rev-jeremiah-wrights-911-sermon/
16. Obama denounces rhetoric but stands behind his pastor Abdon M. Pallasch, Chicago Sun-Times, March 16, 2008
17. Obama decries pastor's remarks Seattle Times, March 15, 2008
18. Walters, Ronald (2007). Freedom Is Not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates, and American Presidential Politics (American Political Challenges). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, p. 34. Excerpt at Google Books.
19. Nostalgia Central
20. Stanley, Alessandra. "An Officer and a Gentleman Comes Home". Time Magazine, 16 Jan 1984. Available online.
21. Dirt begins to fly at Obama London Sunday Times, January 13, 2008
22. The Majesty Of The Blues - Track list

External links

• "Audacity to Hope" - sermon that brought Barack Obama to Christianity and from which he derived the title of his book, Audacity of Hope
• Biography from Trinity UCC
• Biography from Corinthian Baptist Church includes lists of awards and honorary degrees
• Biography from The HistoryMakers
• Numerous videos from Trinity church's channel
• Photo of Bill Clinton with Jeremiah Wright

• 1941 births
• Living people
• Barack Obama
• Clergy of predominantly African American Christian denominations
• Howard University alumni
• People from Chicago
• People from Philadelphia
• United Church of Christ
• United States Navy sailors
• University of Chicago alumni