Trinity UCC has an impressive amount of community involvement, including health care, early childhood education, and economic development. In his >30 years at Trinity, Wright has said some stupid things on a few occasions … but he is also responsible for many amazing accomplishments in his community and in the wider UCC church.

Chicago’s Trinity UCC is ‘great gift to wider church family’
Located in the heart of Chicago’s impoverished Southside, Trinity UCC’s vast array of ministries include career development and college placement, tutorial and computer services, health care and support groups, domestic violence programs, pastoral care and counseling, bereavement services, drug and alcohol recovery, prison ministry, financial counseling and credit union, housing and economic development, dozens of choral, instrumental and dance groups, and diverse programming for all ages, including youth and senior citizens.
…
Among Trinity UCC’s crowning achievements, [UCC General Minister and President John H.]Thomas says, is its work with young people.

“While the worship is always inspiring, the welcome extravagant, and the preaching biblically based and prophetically challenging, I have been especially moved by the way Trinity ministers to its young people, nurturing them to claim their Christian faith, to celebrate their African-American heritage, and to pursue higher education to prepare themselves for leadership in church and society,” Thomas says.

Obama’s Minister Committed “Treason” But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero
by Frank Schaeffer
Take Dad’s words and put them in the mouth of Obama’s preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America, white conservative Americans and top political leaders called our words “godly” and “prophetic” and a “call to repentance.”

We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.

My dad’s books denouncing America and comparing the USA to Hitler are still best sellers in the “respectable” evangelical community and he’s still hailed as a prophet by many Republican leaders. When Mike Huckabee was recently asked by Katie Couric to name one book he’d take with him to a desert island, besides the Bible, he named Dad’s Whatever Happened to the Human Race? a book where Dad also compared America to Hitler’s Germany.

The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister’s words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to “bear arms” as “insurance” to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s) roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as “fallen away from God” at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.

Obama is now out of his comfort zone and it’s showing in his responses to questions regarding the Rev. Wright and his black separatist church. Until recently, Obama has never had to answer any tough questions about his past or his beliefs on issues beyond “change”, now it’s begining to take a toll. If you notice, Obama isn’t quite as elequont as he’s been in previous months…he is speaking more like GW Bush now because he’s trying to cover up his “roots”

The fun now begins for the Democratic Party

When this half-baked reverend stated that the USA created the HIV virus to kill blacks, he lost ALL credibility with me and 95% of the people in the world. There is absolutely no evidence at all to back up this inflamatory statement by Rev. Wright, which was only meant to anger his black congregation to continue hating this country.

I have a question for the Rev. Wright - If this country is so “racist” and bad, how did Obama make it this far in the election process? Only 13% of the population is “African-American”, so a whole lot of white people must not be that racist. Rev. Wright is a black racist who gets a pass because of the assumption that blacks can’t be racist - it makes no sense to any logical person.

Until people of all colors/creeds take responsibility for his/her own actions, this racism problem will never end.

I would like to ask Rev. Wright about his assertion that the HIV virus was invented by the government to kill blacks, when it was primarily spread through homosexuality and drug use. What is Wright saying about blacks?

#42,

Thanks for your posting. We will always have people with wicked motives such as these ones who are coming so strongly against Rev. Wright.

Many are too blind people and can’t see the two value systems they have formed in their hearts and our society, one that is for Whites and one that is for Blacks and other minorities.

Happy Pants:

African Americans are not in denial about the high percentage of needle use in Black urban communities, nor are African Americans in denial of the down low men (closet men having sex with other men) in the Black community. Both are realities that are problematic in the African American communties.

You don’t attend a church for 20 years, get married by the Rev Wright, have him baptize your children, and write a book referencing Rev Wright without agreeing with the fundamental “beliefs” of the church. Anyone who believes that Obama doesn’t share many of the same beliefs as Reverend Wright is a moron.

Obama is now entering the difficult stage of his campaign…the stage where he has to defend his political positions and personal beliefs. It’s downhill from here for Obama.

REV WRIGHT IS A STRAIGHT UP RACIST…PERIOD!

Gaucho,

The only people who cannot grasp the truth of Rev. Wright statements, even though they could have been said using less offensive wording, are bigots and those who are in denial, both Blacks and Whites. This subject is much like the subject of sex to many, they are embarrassed and ashamed by it and prefer to not discuss or express anything about it. A no, no, hush, hush subject.

Well, there will never be any change with that attitude which is what the racists and Satan want. They have a need and must operate under the cloak of darkness and refuse to bring it into the light.

Also Gaucho, the reason Obama is doing so well is not because racism doesn’t exist, but because wise Americans of all races have decided and recognize that we must move pass race, along with taking a stand against the moral corruption of our government against us the citizens of all races here in America.

We want change and Obama offers this. It is diffinitely a beginning. I am very proud of the people and our Democratic leaders who have this vision and can see. We recognize that most of the past have been harmful to our country and citizens. Obama is also proof that we the people can truly be part of the direction and change we want this country to go.

D. Walker,

Basically, I disagree with Rev. Wrights words, because to me, they go against white values and counter to what anglo-Europeans believe to be important in life. He seems to disparage the white work ethic, the white community, white institutions and white leadership.

Happy Pants,

I understand you all too well, Happy Pants.

Yes, you appear to have a problem with Rev. Wright because he also work tirelessly to encourages the African Americans in the community to rise above their circumstances through a identity in Christ, education, and strong work ethics.

Ones like yourselves fear you are going to lose something of value by not being bigots, not realizing that you are only bring to yourselves curses by such a heart and attitudes. In fact, people like you love to see African Americans allow circumstances to destroy them without realizing or understanding that it is a stain to all and the country.

The problem with your warped thinking is that you believe a lie. That somehow this America belongs to a race without any regard that you must still live under the rule of God’s law in any society in order for it to not fall.

Blacks must understand this also irregardless of how we are treated in this country or anywhere else. It is okay to be angry about injustices, in fact, one have better be angry about injustices. Just don’t allow it to cause you to sin against another or self destruct and use that anger to do good things as Rev. Wright has.

One must understand and know that when people refuse to do right, God has His ways of bringing people and a country to its knees, its His way.