It is, to be sure, one of the most explosive political stories of the year thus far-a story for which everyone seems to have an opinion. Most of the continued dialogue has centered in on the impact the revelations arising from the recent release of fiery and controversial sermons made by the recently retired Jeremiah Wright, Senator Barack Obama's former pastor, will have on his White House bid.

That will be decided by voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and the six remaining primaries leading up to the Democratic showdown between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at the national convention in Denver in August.

      Alas, we have all, by now, seen the powerful tapes of Wright in action in a media campaign that is seemingly synchronized in its efforts to turn a respected Chicago mega church pastor into the buffoonish caricature of a crazed cult leader.

      The controversial Wright, who helped organize the 1995 Million Man March; has welcomed gay and lesbian worshippers; and in 1984, traveled with Farrakhan in Libya to meet with Muammar el-Qaddafi, has accused the United States of importing drugs, exporting guns and supporting state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans as well as inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color; referred to the United States as the 'U.S. of K.K.K.A'; and characterized “9-11” as a result of our own foreign policies.

      Labeled as one of the most influential and well-known black preachers in America, Wright is known for his charismatic, in-your-face style of preaching, outspokenness and political activism, which meshes scriptural analysis, Afro centrism and social justice with deeply rooted passion.

      Political pundits have all gone on record with their views and the all too familiar and predictable media spin of “what-did-Obama-know-and-when-did-he-know-it” as the senator offered up one public disavowal after another of Wright's words leading up to a powerful speech on race that is certain to be recorded in the annals of political history as a watershed moment in the 2008 election season,-win or lose.

      The Reverend Otis Moss III, Wright's successor at the Chicago-based, Trinity United Church of Christ, labeled the media coverage as character assassination and “an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”

      “Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ," Moss stated. "This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright's ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound byte."

      In standing by Wright, UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas decried the media coverage, stating, “One is tempted to ask whether these commentators ever listen to the overcharged rhetoric of their own opinion shows. Even more to the point is to wonder whether they have a working knowledge of the history of preaching in the United States from the unrelentingly grim language of New England Election Day sermons to the fiery rhetoric of the Black church prophetic tradition.

      "In the United Church of Christ," he went on, "we honor diversity. For nearly four centuries we have respected dissent and have struggled to maintain the freedom of the pulpit. Not every pastor in the United Church of Christ will want to share Pastor Wright's rhetoric or his politics. Not every member will rise to shout 'Amen!' But I trust we will all struggle in our own way to resist the lure of respectable religion that seeks to displace evangelical faith. For what this nation needs is not so much polite piety as the rough and radical word of the prophet calling us to repentance.”

      All the controversy has given way to even greater discussion in the black church community relative to the controversy sparked by a peer- and in many cases-a mentor or good friend.

      Fact is, for more than two decades, Wright has been a fixture at revivals and speaking engagements in the Los Angeles church community. And while a great many pastors chose to steer clear of the controversy-citing Wright as a friend-others had plenty to say about not only the controversial statements' impact on the black church, but the reflection of a community harboring some of the same sentiments that ignited the media firestorm.

      But before we get to what the church community thinks, just who is Jeremiah Wright?

      The Philadelphia-born son of a Baptist minister holds two master's degrees, a doctorate and spent six years in the military, both in the Marines and the Navy. As a U.S. Navy Corpsman, he tended to President Lyndon B. Johnson, subsequently receiving three presidential commendations. A former Chicago Theological Seminary professor, Wright has published four books-including What Makes You So Strong?: Sermons of Joy and Strength and What Can Happen When We Pray: A Daily Devotional-and numerous articles.

      The father of four-who shares his life and his ministry with his wife, the Rev. Ramah Reed Wright- came to Trinity United Church of Christ in March of 1972. The membership back then numbered 87. During his 36-year pastorate, Wright help to grow the church to 8,000 members, including more than 50 ministries spanning everything from tutorial and computer programs, social justice, and assisted living facilities for senior citizens to scholarships for youth and domestic violence programs.

      Located on Chicago's impoverished Southside, “Trinity UCC” is the largest congregation in the 1.2 million-member strong, mostly white United Church of Christ denomination which ascribes to the following four tenets: 'Christian, Reformed, Congregational and Evangelical'.

      Barack Obama met Jeremiah Wright while working as a community organizer in Chicago before attending Harvard Law School.

      In the years that followed, Obama would join Trinity in 1980, forging a strong bond with the pastor he would come to call his spiritual advisor. Wright not only officiated the Illinois senator's wedding ceremony, baptized his two daughters and dedicated his house, but Obama-who often spoke on church panels and debates-is reported to have studied Wright in adopting his own oratorical style.

      Trinity's motto-proudly proclaiming: 'Unashamedly Black, unapologetically Christian", and its ties to black liberation theology have also drawn fire.

      In response, Obama has observed, “There has been some distortion with regards to what this church is all about.”

      Black liberation theology is the idea that the African American struggle for liberation is consistent with the gospel--every theological statement must be consistent with, and perpetuate, the goals of liberation, which involves empowerment and seeks the right of self-definition, self-affirmation and self-determination.

      Critics have charged that black liberation theology promotes racial exclusivity, but Wright maintains it's just “Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history.”

      “It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation,” Wright has said. “We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a black worship service and ministries which address the black community.”

      To that end, the leadership of Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System, which ascribes to the following 12 precepts: commitment to God (1); the black community (2); to the black family (3); dedication to the pursuit of education (4); the pursuit of excellence (5); adherence to the black work ethic (6); commitment to self-discipline and self-respect (7); disavowal of the pursuit of “Middle-classness' (8); the pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the black community (9); to allocate regularly, a portion of personal resources for strengthening and supporting black institutions (10); a pledge of allegiance to all black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System (11); and personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System (12).

      One school of thought is that those who condemn Wright's message as anti-white, do not understand it.

      "His message is part of a social gospel teaching that has been popular in black churches”, said Ron Hill of Love & Unity COGIC.

      “But social gospel preachers need to be very careful because inevitably what you will find yourself doing is preaching your personal feelings and views. When I start talking about my social feelings and what I believe should be happening on a social level." Hill continues, "I start bringing my experiences and baggage with me, and I will express myself in a way that may or may not fly with people. So it can be very dangerous.”

      Such is the furor surrounding Wright's remarks tied to the HIV virus having been invented as a means of genocide against people of color.

      “There is a school of thought that raises questions about the root cause of HIV and Wright is not the first to say it,” says Rev. Clyde Oden, senior pastor of Bryant Temple AME. “Right now, no one knows the cause of the disease. I don't agree with Wright but I understand it. And there's a difference between disagreeing with him and saying he's crazy. He's not crazy because diseases have been intentionally created and people have been intentionally infected. The question really is 'Can you trust the government?'

      “Just as there are still questions in some areas about who is behind the assassination of JFK? Who is behind the assassination of MLK? Who is behind the assassination of Malcolm X? Is there a single school of thought about that out there? Of course not.”

      Controversial or not, most pastors do not expect their parishioners to agree with them all the time.

      Adds Hill, “There are some things I promote in the pulpit that people don't agree with, but they stay with me because they love the rest of me.”

      Obama took a similar tone, refusing to renounce Wright, though tension reportedly surfaced between the two with the decision on the part of Obama's camp to rescind an invitation for Wright to give the invocation at the February 2007 announcement of Obama's presidential bid. It is just as widely reported that Wright understood Obama might have to distance himself when controversial statements from the pastor surfaced in a Rolling Stone expose last February.

      Farrakhan, the topic of another Obama ruffle, has said that if Obama was avoiding controversial black leaders like himself, it would be an acceptable price to pay for an presidential victory.

      The media depiction of Wright in the pulpit has given a lot of pastors reason to pause.

      “You say a lot of things in the heat of the emotions in the pulpit-things we didn't plan to say," Apostle Beverly “BAM” Crawford of Bible Enrichment Fellowship reveals. "I have on occasion instructed my staff not to release a tape or to edit something out. It happens. We can say things we didn't plan to say“.

      "Remember, this is church, not heaven," states Pastor Ron Gibson of the Riverside-based, Love Church of God In Christ. "We are not perfect yet. We all make mistakes.”

      When asked last year if he thought Barack would be president, Wright said no, going on to say, “Unless Barack pulls off nationally what he was able to pull off locally, and wins the hearts and minds of people who have been perennially anti-black. Racism is so deeply engrained in this country that he could be flawless in terms of his policies. But he's still a black man in this country, which has a sorry history in terms of how it sees African-American males. That's my 65-year-old, jaded perception of where this country is. I was pleasantly surprised in the Senate election. I would like to be as pleasantly surprised in the presidential election.”

      Wright preached his last sermon on Sunday, February 10th and was on sabbatical leave from the church from March until May.

      In his closing sermon, he remarked, 'The Lord has a new chapter for me, and the Lord has a new chapter for you. The Lord has some new challenges for me, and the Lord has some new challenges for you. Listen, the Lord has given me a new testimony...."

WHAT SOME L.A.-AREA PASTORS HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE RECENT JEREMIAH WRIGHT CONTROVERSY

Dr. Beverly  “BAM” Crawford

Bible Enrichment Fellowship International

“I don't believe that anger is a motivator and my concern for that type of motivation or inspiration is that it promotes a type of entitlement, which to me is not productive to our community. I'm not condemning the man. I've said some things in my pulpit that have had some political indignation and could have been taken out of context. I just think we need to use our pulpits more productively. People go through Hell and mess all week long; when they go to church they need to get a spiritual word-a productive word.

I know there are a lot of things wrong with America, but there's a lot right with America as well. You have to bring balance.”

Dr. William Epps

Second Baptist Church

“This is larger than Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. They are just collateral damage.  I see it disparaging the African-American prophetic preaching tradition and relegating the black church through irrelevance unless it conforms with what is acceptable culturally.  I see a trend emerging that will shape the way our faith finds expression and if it's counter to anything the predominant culture says is okay, then you’ll be seen as unpatriotic, and unchristian.

“The larger discussion that this has created is more significant then whether Barack wins or loses, and whether Jeremiah continues to be presented in the media as a crazed, retiring, elder uncle for this reason: everything that Jeremiah said- if you listen to the full text of his sermon— you will find documented in the bible.”

Rev. Ron Gibson

Life Church of God In Christ

“He didn't get hysterical, he got historical and told them the origin of where racism spun in the U.S., and why Jeremiah's worldview and philosophy of life is what it is has to do with his experiences in that generation. 

“If they really understood Jeremiah they would find he's a man who loves everyone-a mentor. They just took some snippets of what he said out of context to make it as a pretext for what they wanted to say next.” 

Rev. Ron Hill

Love & Unity COGIC

“I came from the same generation that Jeremiah Wright came from and in a real sense I understand what he's saying- some things I don't agree with, but this is America. He has the right to say what he wants to say.

“I find it surprising for white America to be so upset. What about the time their pastors did not preach love for everyone. Many of them would put on sheets at night and participated in  KKK activities. This man is obviously hurting for his people and just expressing it for his people. Let's just see it for what it is and move on.”

Bishop Noel Jones

City of Refuge

“I understand liberation theology from the point of view that if you're liberated from sin and you get to know Jesus Christ, then you should want social justice and for people to be ameliorated and financially emancipated from all the ills that society has brought, but at the same time it's a ministry of reconciliation, and reconciliation means we don't confront anyone to destroy and we don't belittle anybody because we're all human beings living in an earth that is full of all kinds of difficulties. So for us to make the white man into a devil, and to promulgate and perpetuate anything even close to hating is wrong, but saying that I want you to also put on the record, that we will not negate all the wonderful things that Jeremiah Wright has done.”

Rev. Lewis Logan

Bethel AME Church

“The brother is telling the truth.  He's telling what people don't want to hear just as his namesake, the prophet Jeremiah did. I would have chosen different words, but in my opinion, America current polices - foreign and domestic- are wicked which is why we are facing tremendous economic, social and community turmoil.

“When God is angry with a nation and God raises up the voice of prophets, God speaks in a word and a language that the people will hear and respond to and it may enrage some, but the truth is the truth. I don't condone the profanity but God is not pleased with what America is doing. And the black prophetic tradition in the church should never be stifled by the government or the media.  You want the rhetoric to stop, change your policies.  Treat people right.

Rev. Clyde Oden:

Bryant Temple AME Church

“The national media knows the truth.  They've now bought enough of Jeremiah Wright's videos to know he's not the crazy, lunatic, anti-Semitic, hate-filled person that they've created with this caricature to try and scare people. And it will only have a marginal effect.  Those who were looking for an excuse not to support Barack now have one.  They weren't going to support him anyway but they didn't have anything on him, now they do.  This gives them plausible cover even though it's based on a lie.