PBS has released excerpts from their upcoming interview with bigot--er, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The results don't help either Wright or Obama.
BILL MOYERS: What do you think they (people questioning Wright's sermons) wanted to communicate?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am
un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That's what they wanted to communicate.
They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to do as a church and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to be together. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning
but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.
No one has questioned that Wright's church has a variety of worthwhile programs available to help various constituencies. But, er, Mr. Wright, that's what church's are supposed to do. What they're not supposed to do is make whacked out accusations about white people, the government, and anyone who questions their minister. If you say the government invented AIDS to kill black people, it's really quite normal to question why someone would make such an idiotic and paranoid statement.
Worse for Barack Obama, was Wright's explanation for Obama's "speech" on race (which didn't address what went on in his church but, instead, tried to find equivalencies between things that weren't equivalent at all):
BILL MOYERS: You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet, he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about you. How did those words...how did it go down with you when you heard Barack Obama say those things?
REVEREND WRIGHT: It went down very simply. 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.
I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician. (Emphasis mine)
Shorter Wright: Obama lied because it's what he needed to do.
One would think that Wright would try, in some way, to help Obama by stating that his racist diatribes were wrong. Instead, Wright's statements show that he is unrepentant and that Obama lied to save his political hide. It's hard to see how this helps Obama in any way. But it makes great footage for some enterprising 527.
BTW, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has this post in which ABC provides the context that Wright says is needed for his comments. It doesn't help.
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