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REV JEREMIAH WRIGHT ON BILL MOYERS JOURNAL

Barack Obama's pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright appeared on PBS Bill Moyers Journal broadcast on April 25th. The interview with Reverend Wright examined the message of the Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) ministry and went beyond the re-looped sound bites which have been played over and over again on channels from ABC, FOX, NBC and CNN. Reverend Wright explains that the sound bites were used for "nefarious purposes" during a heated political campaign. There was also discussion on Bill Moyers Journal about the amount of  inaccurate information that is being fed to the American people. Bill Moyers did an excellent job as a "fair and balanced" journalist to allow Reverend Wright to speak about his views and explain his sermons in context. The interview will be re-broadcast on Sunday on PBS.  We recommend viewing of the episode if anyone missed it the first time. Watch highlights from the Bill Moyers Jeremiah Wright interview below.

Listen to the full sermons in context.  Click here to read a transcript of the show.

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In a much-anticipated interview aired on PBS Friday night (we reported on excerpts Thursday), Wright accused networks that aired controversial sound bites of his sermon of wanting to paint him as "un-American" or "some sort of fanatic" to bring down Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

While the interview with Moyers didn’t break new ground on the meaning of Wright’s sermons, it did shed light on how Wright’s message and ministry have evolved, his present feelings about Obama and the long-term impact of the sound bites.

What man meant for evil, God meant for good, Wright reminded Moyers, borrowing a biblical phrase.

“Those sound bites, those snippets were taken for nefarious purposes. That God can take that and do something very positive for it- with it,” Wright said. “That, in Philadelphia, in response to the sound bytes, in response to the snippets, in Philadelphia Senator Obama made a very powerful speech in terms of our need as a nation to address the whole issue of race. That's something good that's already starting.”

Though Wright preached his final sermon at Trinity in February and officially retires next month, his ministry has continued. This Sunday, he will deliver a sermon at a Dallas church, then jet to Detroit to speak to the local branch of the NAACP. He will speak at the National Press Club on Monday. But until now, he has declined all interview requests. His appearance on Bill Moyers' Journal was the first.

In the interest of full disclosure, Moyers also revealed that he too is a member of Wright’s denomination, the United Church of Christ. Decades ago, when Wright served as a cardiopulmonary technician in the U.S. Navy, he had assisted doctors operating on President Lyndon B. Johnson. A black and white photograph shows a young Moyers standing behind him in the role of White House press secretary.

It wasn't too long after that moment was captured on film that Wright returned to school and answered the nagging call to ministry, a call he had abandoned when he moved to the South and discovered a different and disappointing side of Christianity.

"The civil rights movement showed me a side of Christianity that I had not seen in Philadelphia. I had not seen Christians who, as I saw in Richmond, Virginia, who loved the Lord, who professed faith in Jesus Christ and who believed in segregation, saw nothing wrong with lynching, saw nothing wrong with Negroes staying in their places," Wright told Moyers. "I knew about hatred. I knew about prejudice. But I didn't know Christians participated in that, in that kind of thinking."

He echoed a similar thought later when he described bomb scares and death threats conveyed by so-called Christians during the recent controversy.

source

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BILL MOYERS INTERVIEWS REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT WHO GIVES FIRST TELEVISION INTERVIEW

Barack Obama's pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright gives his first television interview since the controversy surrounding his sermons hit television and the internet. The Reverend Wright interview airs Friday on PBS  Bill Moyers Journal. Click here to listen to pastor Jeremiah Wright's sermons in context.

Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told PBS host Bill Moyers that inflammatory statements from his sermons were taken out of context, but he said he didn't begrudge the Democratic candidate for denouncing them. "He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two different worlds," said Wright, who recently retired from Trinity United Church of Christ on the south side of Chicago, where Obama has attended services for 20 years. Wright's interview with Moyers, excerpted today, is scheduled for broadcast Friday night on PBS and represents his first high-profile appearance after the firestorm broke. He will speak at the National Press Club on Monday, seeking to put his remarks in context of African American religious traditions. Referring to Obama's race speech in Philadelphia last month, delivered after Wright videos became an Internet and cable TV sensation, the former pastor told Moyers, "What happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician." Wright is a well-known preacher and theologian, but often combative at the pulpit. He has been a lightening rod for Obama since the start of the Illinois senator's campaign, but he has kept a low profile, even as the current controversy unfolded. source

REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT FULL STORY BEHIND 9/11 AND GOD DAMN AMERICA SERMONS IN CONTEXT

CNN Contributor Roland Martin decided to examine Reverend Jeremiah Wright's  9/11 and God Damn America sermons in context after media coverage on FOX, ABC,NBC,MSNC, CNN and other outlets dissected the pastor's speeches into sensationalized sound bites. The journalist wrote an examination of the sermons on his Anderson Cooper 360 blog. Watch Thomas Cahill's definition of genocide and racism on Bill Moyers Journal.

This sermon was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001 and is titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” Note that the “chickens coming home to roost” comment was attributed not to Wright but former Ambassador to the Iraq, Edward Peck. It comes around the 20-minute mark.  source

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One of the controversial statements about "chicken's coming home to roost", was actually a quote from U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck.

This is the nearly 40-minute sermon Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave on April 13, 2003, titled, “Confusing God and Government.” For those of us watching and listening to the media in the last week, it is better known as the “God Damn America” sermon.
Wright’s scriptural focus was Luke 19:37-44 (reading from the New Revised Standard Version).

In this sermon, Wright spoke about the military rule during biblical days, led by Pontius Pilate. It was clear, through his language, such as “occupying military brigade” that he was making an analogy to the war in Iraq.

“War does not make for peace,” he said. “Fighting for peace is like raping for virginity.”

“War does not make for peace. War only makes for escalating violence and a mindset to pay the enemy back by any means necessary,” he said.

He then gets to the thesis of his sermon, saying, “y’all looking to the government for only what God can give. A lot of people confuse God with their government.” source

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Barack Obama's Church reacted to his race speech and discussed the controversy with their former pastor.

Obama's Church reacts to race speech

A Trinity United Church of Chicago member has created a blog at Truth About Trinity and a Trinity YouTube Channel.  The Church's new pastor, Reverend Otis Moss III has called the media coverage of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright sermons, "a public lynching." Click here to watch Reverend Otis Moss' sermon in context. CBS News has reported that conservative  FOX News media mogul Rupert Murdoch is a fan of Hillary Clinton and even hosted a fundraiser for the presidential candidate.

My new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, is now the target their anger and outrage for using the word lynch to describe the way our Senior Pastor and our church is being demonized. I thought these "journalist" were supposed to be so smart! One definition for the word Lynch is to put a person to death without due legal process or authority. On this Easter Sunday, Pastor Moss reminded us that Jesus himself had been lynched, his life thrown into the hands of an angry mob without proof of his guilt or innocence. Being the master of words that he is, Pastor Moss then used the word Lynch as a METAPHOR to describe the way OUR PASTOR AND OUR CHURCH was being charged, judged, and sentenced without a fair trial or due process. Can any American Citizen cast judgment on our church's ministry based on under a minutes worth of evidence?

We have posted the full audio for both sermons so they can be heard in context. Click to  read the ABC News report on the story.

As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I’ve been saying all week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what the heck is going on.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation. I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001.

He was quoting Peck as saying that America’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril:

“I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday did anybody else see or hear him? He was on FOX News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators to no end, he pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, he pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, he said Americas chickens, are coming home to roost.”

“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

This doesn’t explain anything away, nor does it absolve Wright of using the N-word, but what it does do is add an accurate perspective to this conversation.

The point that I have always made as a journalist is that our job is to seek the truth, and not the partial truth.

I am also listening to the other sermons delivered by Rev. Wright that have been the subject of controversy.

And let me be clear: Where I believe he was wrong and not justified in what he said based upon the facts, I will say so. But where the facts support his argument, that will also be said. source

Frank Schaeffer commented about the Reverend Wright controversy on the Huffington Post. John McCain's spiritual advisor Rod Parsely who is white has made similar controversial statements about African-American genocide in the United States.

However Rod Parsely's sermons criticizing the government have not been called "treason" and been the subject of as much media scrutiny during the presidential campaign. Senator John McCain spoke on Hannity & Colmes and admitted some of the people who support his campaign may have controversial ideas too.

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton. source