Wright Decries ‘Attack on the Black Church’

WASHINGTON — An unapologetic Reverend Jeremiah Wright said the uproar over his incendiary sermons signaled “an attack on the black church,” and he chastised his critics and the press for being ignorant about its history and theology.Rev. Wright, Senator Obama’s former pastor, made a combative appearance yesterday morning before the Washington press corps as he sought both to explain his reading of the black religious experience and to defend himself against a broad verbal assault that has defined him in the public eye as a radical, anti-American cleric.“It is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It is an attack on the black church,” he said.Referencing Ralph Ellison’s seminal book, “Invisible Man,” Rev. Wright characterized the black religious experience beginning with Africans brought to America through the slave trade in the 1600s as “invisible to a dominant culture that knows nothing about those whom Langston Hughes calls ‘the darker brothers and sisters.'”He also dismissed Mr. Obama’s criticism of his most fiery remarks as the reaction of an ill-informed politician, saying he warned the Illinois senator that he would “come after” him if he wins the presidency.Mr. Obama has been forced to address his longtime pastor during the last two months after clips of Rev. Wright’s sermons circulated widely on the Internet and were played on a virtual loop on television. The clips include snippets in which Rev. Wright exclaims “God Damn America” and, in a sermon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, says: “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”The Democratic presidential candidate has denounced those and other comments as offensive, but he has refused to disown the man who performed his wedding and baptized his children, and whom he credits with introducing him to faith and good works.In a move causing headaches for the Obama campaign, Rev. Wright has embarked on a press tour of sorts after staying out of the public eye for weeks. He taped an interview with Bill Moyers for PBS last week and spoke to the NAACP in Detroit on Sunday night. Before the NAACP, Rev. Wright spoke about differences in education and linguistics between black and white children. “African and African-American children have a different way of learning,” he said, citing research by the scholar Janice Hale indicating that “European-American children” learn from a left-brain-oriented style that is analytical, while African-American children are oriented from a right-brain style that is more “creative and intuitive.”Rev. Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club yesterday came at the outset of a two-day conference of black church leaders.He commended Mr. Obama for attempting to start an honest dialogue on race with his speech last month in Philadelphia, but he suggested that in criticizing his comments, the senator was responding to the same out-of-context clips that the press and critics have seized on.“He said I didn’t offer hope. How would he know? He didn’t hear the rest of the sermon,” Rev. Wright said of Mr. Obama. He repeated his characterization of the candidate’s reaction as political. “Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability,” he said.Rev. Wright said his harsh assessment of the nation’s government was “about policy, not the American people.” And he said that wouldn’t stop with an Obama presidency. He said he told Mr. Obama, “If you get elected November 5, I’m coming after you.”Mr. Obama responded to Rev. Wright yesterday in North Carolina, telling reporters that his former pastor’s decision to speak out was in no way connected to his campaign.“Some of the comments that Reverend Wright has made offended me and I understand why they offend the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign.”Appearing later on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Mr. Obama’s top strategist, David Axelrod, called Rev. Wright’s re-emergence a “needless distraction” and said it “isn’t helpful.”After delivering a 25-minute speech yesterday, Rev. Wright answered questions submitted by journalists seeking his reaction to a range of hot-button issues, from President Clinton’s association with race during the campaign to a joke about Rev. Wright by the comedian Chris Rock.Although he emphasized his role as a pastor and not a politician, Rev. Wright joked about his prominence in the political season: “I’m not running for office. I am open to being vice president,” he quipped to laughs.He also took a sharp shot at the current officeholder when asked about his patriotism. “I served six years in the military. Does that make me unpatriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?” he said.Rev. Wright also was asked repeatedly about Israel and his association with Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has been roundly criticized in the Jewish community for anti-Semitic statements.“Everyone wants to paint me as an anti-Semite because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago,” Rev. Wright said, calling the Nation of Islam leader “one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century” but adding that he does not agree with him on everything. Yet he also defended Minister Farrakhan by saying he had said, “Zionism — not Judaism — is a ‘gutter religion.'”Rev. Wright pointed out that President Carter had likened Israeli policies to apartheid, although he denied doing so himself: “Israel has a right to exist and Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconcile one to another.”

Wright Decries ‘Attack on the Black Church’

Wright Decries ‘Attack on the Black Church’

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