It's Time For Let's Completely Destroy Jeremiah: Wanna Play?

Now Obama's Pastor Is Accused Of "Wife-Stealing"

We are clearly passed the absurd and have now crossed into "Funkytown" with this story about Rev Jeremiah Wright stealing the woman of a parishioner who went to the pastor him for marriage counselling.

Delmer Reed has told friends he believed it was no coincidence that his former wife, Ramah, divorced him and married Mr Wright shortly after the Chicago pastor gave him advice on their troubled marriage in the early 1980s. THE EARLY 80's FOLKS!!!

Roosevelt Thomas, a lawyer who handled the Reeds’ divorce in 1983, confirmed to the New York Post that Mr Reed long believed Rev Wright moved in on his wife after counselling them.

The allegation, which is flatly denied by the Wright family, compounds the embarrassment that Mr Obama has already suffered from his links with Rev Wright. How it does this is beyond me when this took place 25 years ago when Barack was STILL IN COLLEGE!!!!!

Senator Obama has known the Rev Wright for more than 20 years but he was forced to end their friendship last week over repeated claims by the pastor that America was to blame for the 9/11 attacks and for spreading the Aids virus.

Reed, 59, a former investigator for the Illinois secretary of state, told the Post that he and his wife went to Rev Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for help when his long working hours started to damage their marriage.

He said he spoke with Rev Wright four times over a few months. Ramah remarried six years after she divorced Mr Reed but she and the pastor, who have a teenage daughter, were reportedly a couple for years before they wed.

Reed said he had promised his children he would not say anything negative about their stepfather, whom he said he had forgiven. However, he admitted he initially hadn’t believed rumours linking his wife with the pastor, but belatedly conceded he was wrong.

Why Won't People Shut The F*** Up? Is it really that difficult to comprehend that these weapons of mass distraction have nothing to do with them and has everything to with Barack political assassination

“People were telling me my extremely attractive wife was seen with the pastor. I thought, ’So what?’” Harold Davis, a Chicago youth leader, told the Post it had been “common knowledge” . He added: “Jeremiah knew all the weaknesses of the couple, and he started focusing on the wife, her vulnerabilities, and started doing things she wanted Delmer to do - spending time with her, taking her to the movies, that sort of thing.”

A spokesman for the Wright family denied the allegation, saying: “They had problems throughout the course of their turbulent marriage and the couple never received marriage counselling from Rev Wright or anyone else.”

By Tom Leonard

Folks Are Praying That Reverend Wright Did Not Cost Barack The Nomination

Obama Still Tainted By Pastor

With voters stampeding to the polls in Indiana and North Carolina today, most Americans say Sen. Barack Obama has failed to distance himself from his former pastor"s incendiary remarks, the new Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll finds.

In the poll, 66 percent said the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who lost Oprah as a member of his church back in the 90's, hurt the biracial Black man. And an overwhelming majority (likely excluding minorties, particularly African Americans) said Mr. Obama's repudiation of his former pastor did not rescue his presidential campaign.

Only 24 percent said Mr. Obama's denunciation made them "more likely" to support the senator's presidential campaign, compared with 27 percent who said they were "less likely" and 43 percent who said his explanation had "no impact" on their decision.

While wife Michelle makes goo-goo eyes over Will Smith, Mr. Obama had to field questions about Mr. Wright yet again yesterday morning as he made the rounds of television news programs on the eve of the two most important primaries of the Illinois senator's career in light of the cheap shots everyone in the media has been taking at him.

The history making Democrat said voters will judge him separately from Mr. Wright. "I think the American people recognize that I'm somebody who's always been about bringing people together, not dividing them," Mr. Obama said on NBC's "Today" program.

If Mr. Obama wins the Democrats' nomination over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he may not have to endure any more attacks regarding Mr. Wright. Sen. John McCain, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, says the pastor will not be a campaign issue.

"It won't. I have said that I will not discuss the issue further," the Arizona senator said, though he did say Mr. Wright's comments were "outrageous."

Continue...

CITING IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES, BARACK ASKS REV. WRIGHT FOR A DIVORCE!!!

"Whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright, that relationship will not be the same."

Presidential candidate Barack Obama was dissed and put out on front by his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright and now the fit has hit the shan. Antithetical to his 2008 presidential bid, Obama characterized Wright's comments as contradictory to who he is, his wife and his campaign. Denouncing Wright clearly and unequivocally by couching the controversial African American minister's positions as "ridiculous propositions and rants", this spectacle has erupted to a fever pitch.

Not only has it caused Obama's relationship with his church to be strained, perhaps permanently, it's painful to watch the biracial brotha from Illinois speak of not vetting the man who officiated his marriage to Michelle and baptised his two daughters.

Whenever you call your own pastor a "caricature of himself" you know it's on!

Clearly the gauntlet has been slammed down and this is historic in the implications that Obama's news conference will have on this country. (Read Entire Transcript)

Great damage now exists between these two Black men, as the Illinois senator stated that he was "appalled, outraged and angry" over comments that "contradict everything he and his campaign stands for." Obama has now built a moat between he and the good reverend, denouncing all the comments the former Trinity Church leader made.

The anguish is palpable. But the truth is, both men are pandering to their respective audiences, like Black rival gang leaders of the Crips and the Bloods.

Why did Wright have to go three straight days to "defend not himself, but the Black church?" This is a mess, with African Americans and the country as a whole completely in the middle of what would otherwise be a moment of pride and inspiration. Whatever relationship they once had is now clearly severed, but can you really blame Barack?

Rev. Jeremiah Wright Ain't Shuckin' Or Jivin Fo Nobody, God Damn Barack Historic Bid

For Obama, More Wright Means More Problems

Vowing to fight back against attacks on the Black church in America from those who know nothing of its history and traditions, Rev. Jeremiah Wright strode defiantly into the belly of the beast with both barrels blazing.

His theatrical performance at the National Press Club, in he which he was at times flippant, at other times confrontational, the 66-year-old pastor virtually guaranteed more problems for the Democratic presidential bid of Barack Obama, just as the Illinois senator is redoubling efforts to win the support of blue-collar workers in the white heartland of the Midwest.

While claiming to safeguard the honour of his church, Wright seemed bent on personal redemption, at any cost to Obama, his parishioner for 20 years. He didn't back away from any of his comments that many found offensive, including the role of American foreign policy in the 2001 terror attacks in the U.S.

While complaining that his preachings have been reduced to sound bites and taken out of context, he provided new fodder for Obama's opponents.

It was his third public appearance in four days, effectively rekindling a controversy Obama has struggled to put behind him for more than a month.

The controversy, Wright said, might force Americans to understand the teachings of African-American churches. "Maybe that religious tradition will be understood, celebrated, and even embraced by a nation that seems not to have noticed why 11 o'clock on Sunday morning has been called the most segregated hour in America," he said.



This as Hillary Rodham Clinton now leads John McCain by nine points in a head-to-head presidential matchup, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that bolsters her argument that she is more electable. Barack Obama and McCain are running about even.



Helped by independents, young people and seniors, Clinton gained ground this month taking a 50% to 41% over McCain. Obama bests McCain 46% to 44%.

Meanwhile, his calls for racial reconciliation and a staunch defence of the deeds of his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago were swamped by his more controversial and glib statements, all met with enthusiastic applause by black church leaders in the audience.

When asked whether "the chickens had come home to roost" with the 2001 terror attacks, he said: "Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,'

"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles." Wright, who is retiring from his post, presided at Obama's wedding and the baptisms of Obama's daughters.

Obama has credited his words as the inspiration for the title of his best-selling book, The Audacity of Hope.

But YouTube clips of his sermons, including one in which he railed against a government that discriminates against blacks then asks them to sing "God Bless America" – "No, no, no, God damn America," he says on one – have tainted Obama by association.

In mid-March, Obama tried to deal with Wright's comments in a widely praised speech on race in America. Wright defended himself against claims he is being unpatriotic by citing his military service.

"I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (U.S. Vice-President Dick) Cheney serve?" he asked.

Regardless of whether Obama is elected president, Wright said he will still be a pastor and he is accountable to a different person. "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington (a popular political website), whoever's doing the polls," he said.

"I am not running for office." Then he deadpanned: "I am open to be vice-president."

He said Obama had to distance himself from his remarks because of the way the media reported them. "I said to Barack Obama, last year, 'If you get elected ... I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people," Wright said.

He also defended his association with Louis Farrakhan, the founder of the Chicago-based Church of Islam, who Obama has condemned as anti-Semitic.

"Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy," Wright said. "He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this colour." After Wright's latest comments, Obama said, "None of the voters I talk to ask about it.

"There may be people who are troubled by it and are polite and not asking about it. It's not what I hear," he told The Associated Press in North Carolina.

"I have said before and I will say again that some of the comments Rev. Wright has made offend me and I understand why they have offended the American people. Certainly what the last three days indicates is we're not co-ordinating with him."

Most analysts saw further damage ahead for Obama. "If this man cares one whit about electing an African-American to the highest office of the land, he should get off the national stage," David Gergen, a political analyst at Harvard University, told CNN. "He should go away. Go back to the pulpit."

In a spirited defence of his church, Wright said his congregation took a stand against South African apartheid when the U.S. government was supporting the racist regime in Pretoria, and was feeding the homeless and needy while Washington was spending billions fighting an unjust war in Iraq. His congregation has sent members to fight the war in Vietnam, the first Gulf War and the two ongoing wars, he said.

"Those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to avoid military service, while sending more than 4,000 American boys and girls of every race to die over a lie," he said.

Jeremiah Wright At Detroit NAACP Is NOT Seeking Different Educational Standards For Blacks

DON'T GET HIS WORDS TWISTED!!

Jeremiah Wright spoke at the NAACP National Conference in Detroit Michigan. And once again, he told it like it is. He told the truth, but everyone you will hear this week can't handle the truth. But check out how these intellegent Black folks set Geraldo Rivera straight



Commentary By: Montel and Geraldo Rivera, Dr. Benajmin Chavis & Rev. Myron Cloyd

The Mis-Education Of Jeremiah Wright

Earl Ofari Hutchinson Breaks It Down

The much discussed, much defended, and much reviled pastor Jeremiah Wright can't be blamed for his gross naiveté on politics.

After all, he's a preacher, and as he told Bill Moyers in an interview on PBS that he only talks "about the things of God." That's the way it should be for men of the faith.

But that's not the way it is when one of your flock is a politician who's at the top of the heap in the dash for the White House.

It doesn't do much good as countless Wright defenders have shouted that he is being held to the old racial double standard when much of the media and the public dump on him and call him a racist, hatemonger, and anti-American for his racially inflammatory remarks, but do not pound on white preachers who rail against abortion, gay marriage, and make borderline gender and racially offensive statements. The issue in that case is not the color of the preacher or the notoriety of the member of the flock that hears the preacher's message; it's the timing of the message.

Whether Wright's statements were taken out of context, deliberately mangled and twisted, and packaged to make him look bad is irrelevant. In fact, his remarks weren't even blown up necessarily to make Obama look like a closet radical and racial panderer. Wright's words in context or not were sensational, shocking, and made in heaven news soundbits. Since Obama is a member of his church flock that made them ripe for a political spin.

But Wright should have known that. He's no babe in the wood when it comes to controversy. Sooner or later his words would be fodder for a You Tube loop and for a media whose antenna is sky high for even the slightest bit of campaign titillation. There were just too many hints of that. The early rap of his Southside Chicago church, his fiery preaching style, and his outspoken afro-centric activism on racial and social issues, were plums for the news and political pickings. Early on in the Obama campaign Wright purportedly warned him that his church membership might eventually be made an issue. He even wrote a letter to a New York Times writer lambasting her for allegedly doing a hatchet job on the church and his preachments a year before the storm broke.

His oblique dig at Obama in the Moyers interview for as he put it doing what politicians do showed he knew something about the penchant of politicians to do and say anything to win. Presumably what Wright meant in Obama's case, was that he had to do racial damage control and distance himself from his views.

Wright also learned that in politics timing is everything. The quotes that he screams were skewed and taken out of context are from older sermons and talks. There was no need to make an issue of them then because Obama was still an unknown on the national scene. Even after he tossed his hat in the presidential rink in February, 2007 it still took many months of debates, hard campaigning, and then spectacular wins in a slew of Democratic primaries and caucuses before Democratic Party top guns, much of the media, and public and that included the majority of blacks, not to mention the GOP watchdogs, really believed that he had a real shot at the presidency. There was simply no need to fasten Wright as a political albatross around Obama's neck at that point.

Wright also relearned another lesson about race and politics. It's still a touchy, volatile, and always polarizing issue that politicians step gingerly around whenever they can. That's especially true for Obama. Though he's done everything humanly possible to sell himself and his candidacy as the incarnation of inclusiveness, race neutrality, and unity, there are still the whispers and worries that a racial intent lurks just under the surface in his agenda.

For the Obama doubters and those downright suspicious of him, Wright confirmed their suspicions. There is no hard evidence that Wright did much to contribute to Obama's Pennsylvania primary loss. But the gaping racial rift between white Democrats and black Democrats in the vote there on Clinton and Obama is an inferential sign that Wright may have been on the minds of more than a few white voters.

There's no inference or guesswork that he's on the minds of North Carolina state GOP leaders. Their hit ad that welded Obama at the hip with Wright was splattered all over the state. Though John McCain quickly denounced it and demanded that it be yanked, party leaders there essentially told their man to take a hike.

Wright has retired from the pulpit at Trinity United. However, his alleged out of context and distorted remarks won't be retired. They're too much of a political goldmine and that's something that Wright got a fresh education on.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

White Mainstream Media Gets It Wrong About The Black Church, And Don't Even Get Me Started About Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Not So Fast On Making Brotherman The Bogeyman

With the continued hand-wringing over the "explosive, controversy" remarks Jeremiah Wright made on the pulpit to a chorus of "Amens" and "Preach Pastor," a backlash of humongous proportions is beginning to surface.

The sermons courtesy of Youtube by Senator Barack Obama's former pastor have critics charging that the US mainstream media have distorted Wright's comments, failed to understand the African American church, and sought to punish the Democratic Party presidential hopeful through "guilt by association" while ignoring equally incendiary remarks made by white clergy on the religious right.

At the center of the storm that engulfed Barack Obama's presidential campaign is his spiritual mentor, the reverend who once presided over Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago's south side. Someone who married Barack and Michelle Obama and who baptized his two little girls.

Wright's comments prompted Obama to give a groundbreaking speech on race in the United States - the first time in decades that this issue has been addressed by a candidate for the presidential nomination. In the speech, Obama said he rejected Wright's more inflammatory statements, but refused to disown his longtime spiritual advisor.

Among the former US Marine's remarks: The government gives them [African Americans] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike [felony] law and then wants us to sing "God Bless America". No, no, no, Goddamn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. Goddamn America for treating our citizens as less than human. Goddamn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.

We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans and now [post 9/11] we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.

Both have other pastors been given a free pass? Dr George Hunsinger of Princeton University, an ordained white Presbyterian minister, believes the mainstream US media has distorted Wright's remarks.

"I think we are looking at some basic questions of fairness," he told Inter Press Service. "Is it really fair to take a minister's remarks, no matter how provocative or ill-advised, out of context and to broadcast them incessantly, as if they were the only thing that minister ever said or believed? What purposes are served by this sort of propaganda?"

Another prominent theologian, Reverend Martin Marty of the University of Chicago Divinity School, said he "does not excuse some of the indefensible comments of Wright that have now been bludgeoned into our consciousness to the exclusion of all else.

But he says, "The four s's charged against Wright - segregation, separatism, sectarianism and superiority - don't stand up." He said Trinity "has made strenuous efforts to help black Christians overcome the shame they had so long been conditioned to experience. People do not leave Trinity ready to beat up on white people; they are charged to make peace."

In his March 18 speech, Obama called on the country to begin a national conversation on race and ethnicity. Most polling data suggest that the Wright controversy has not damaged Obama's presidential bid.

But Harold Ickes, a senior advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton, his competitor for the Democratic Party nomination, is quoted as saying that the Clinton campaign would use it as a way of persuading party insiders - known as superdelegates - that Obama is not electable. And this is why Hillary is losing and has completely lost any hope of connecting with African American voters.

Meanwhile, theologians in Texas expressed support for Wright at a symposium last weekend on the "State of the Black Church". Dr Stacey Floyd-Thomas, associate professor of ethics and director of black church studies at the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said, "What is eminently clear is the degree to which the black church is still largely misunderstood and routinely caricatured in US popular culture."

In contrast to the Wright-Obama furor, criticism of right-wing clergy has been muted or nonexistent. For example, Mike Huckabee, a former candidate for the Republican nomination for president and an ordained Baptist minister, has said, "I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives ..."

Also attracting little attention in the US mainstream press are endorsements by prominent conservative clergy of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain of Arizona. One of them, Reverend John Hagee, has said Roman Catholicism is "A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years." He said that the Catholic religion has "produced a harvest of hate". Hagee has confirmed that McCain sought his endorsement. McCain has said he was proud to have Hagee's support.

Another prominent McCain supporter, Reverend Rod Parsley, has said, "America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore." (Inter Press Service)

Finally the Black Clergy Speaks Out About Reverend J-Wright And The Chickens Determined To Roost At His Expense!

Time To Play Hardball Family!

I was wondering what was taking so long for Clergy to defend this great pastor. He was left out there alone for too long. Farrakhan too but I guess folks will only go so far.

"Bill [Clinton] did to us just like he did to Monica Lewisky, he was riding dirty." - Jeremiah Wright

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery commentary about America went beyond the usual political discourse but reflected long-held frustrations that African-Americans often release at churches and other social settings, local black pastors say.

It's those stark observations, created by generations of oppression and racism, that Barack Obama attempted to put into context Tuesday for Americans troubled by sound bites of Mr. Wright's sermons that "damned" the United States and blamed the nation's own actions for the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Many black Dallas pastors view Mr. Wright as a longtime hero and mentor, defending his message and bridling at what they call media misrepresentation of it.

Analysis: Barack Obama takes big risk by addressing race conflict

"I have preached at Trinity [Mr. Wright's church in Chicago] and he has preached here," said the Rev. Tyrone Gordon, pastor at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in Dallas. "One thing I said to the church on this past Sunday is that a lot of us are taking it personally because it is an attack on the whole black prophetic experience."

But for whites who have never been in a black church, Mr. Wright's words could have seemed extremist and even bizarre.

"Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear," Mr. Obama said Tuesday. "The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America."

Supporters acknowledge that the Wright controversy could be difficult for Mr. Obama to overcome, but they say he made a good first step by introducing Americans to the black church experience.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, an Obama supporter, predicted that some voters will abandon Mr. Obama because of the presidential contest's sudden racial tone.
"There's a segment of the voting populace with folks looking for an excuse to be against him," Mr. Kirk said. Many black Dallas pastors say Mr. Wright's comments have been misinterpreted by whites unfamiliar with the black experience in America.

"There is a huge disconnect that is rooted in ignorance," said the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Oak Cliff. "Unfortunately, it took the media lynching of Jeremiah Wright for us to once again deal with the unresolved issue of race in this country."

Dr. Gordon, who said he counts the pastor he calls "Daddy J" as a spiritual mentor, rejects any suggestion that Mr. Wright is himself racist.

Traditional black preaching -- particularly from men of Mr. Wright's generation -- carries a style and cadence far different from that found in most white churches. It is frequently delivered in Old Testament prophetic style, in which sins are recounted, punishment promised, repentance called for -- with emotion and entertainment value at a premium.

"Black preaching is provocative and steps on everybody's toes," said the Rev. Sheron Patterson, senior pastor at Highland Hills United Methodist Church in Dallas. "Black preaching is cathartic for the preacher and for the congregation."

Black audiences familiar with the style probably hear a more nuanced theology in some of Mr. Wright's quotes than what comes across from the videos filling the newscasts and Web sites.

Take the sound bite that is getting the most play, the 2003 sermon in which he repeatedly said: "God [condemn] America." It's part of a longer passage that condemns the U.S. government for a number of transgressions against blacks, including "treating our citizens as less than human."

And that, some other black pastors say, is a traditional use of the prophetic voice by a preacher named after the Old Testament prophet who condemned the nation of Israel in the name of God.

"Shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?" Jeremiah says, speaking for God. "They shall become as dung on the face of the earth. And death will be preferable to life for all that are left of this wicked folk." But both the contemporary and biblical Jeremiahs are the truest of patriots, Mr. Gordon said.

"They preached it because they did love their country and wanted their country to be a spiritual leader in the world," Mr. Gordon said.

But what about the controversial claims by Mr. Wright that have nothing to do with theology: that the U.S. government distributes illegal drugs to blacks and that the government created the AIDS virus as a means of genocide against people of color?
"I don't have the facts to address that," Dr. Gordon said. "I have heard that, and not only from him."

Mr. Haynes said some in the media are distorting Mr. Wright's overall message.
"They have yet to play the sermon in its entirety," Mr. Haynes said. "Anytime you take a text out of context, it's for your own pretext and you end up conning people."
Mr. Haynes said the country must be honest about its troubled past.

"Dr. Wright has said all the time, you cannot fix what you will not face," he said.