Outspoken Minister Out Of Obama Campaign

By Peter Slevin 
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 15, 2008; Page A01

CHICAGO, March 14 — A campaign spokesman said Friday night that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., former pastor at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, is no longer affiliated with Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential race after coming under fresh scrutiny for controversial comments that the Illinois Democrat called “inflammatory and appalling.”

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. performed Barack Obama’s wedding ceremony and held a largely ceremonial role on a campaign committee. (By E. Jason Wambsgans — Chicago Tribune)

Wright, who presided over Obama’s wedding and supplied the “audacity of hope” line that has become one of the candidate’s signatures, has been a source of controversy for Obama for months because of the inflammatory words and themes of some sermons.

Last month, in a meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland, Obama said Wright was “like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with.”

But more examples of Wright’s rhetoric surfaced this week, including a speech Wright delivered in 2006 at Howard University in which he said: “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country was run. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” The speech was quoted in an op-ed article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031404218.html?hpid=topnews

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Race Issue Marring Election Unnecessarily

Obama’s Pastor Known for “Inflammatory Rhetoric”