America-Hating Minister: The Company Obama Chooses to Keep

Don't miss Obama and the Minister

What I want to know is how Obama can stand to be around someone publicly berates America so unforgivingly and so often?

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.

Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service

Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."

Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."

Considering this view of America, it's not surprising that in December Mr. Wright's church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. "His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening," Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest."

You are known by the company you keep -- usually quite accurately.

I submit that a man who truly loves America will not long find it pleasant, nor worthwhile, to trek church week after week to hear one anti-American diatribe after another.

Wright has something Obama wants and needs, and it isn't spiritual solace to which I refer at the moment.  One can find spiritual solace in many peaceful Christian houses of worship that welcome members of all races.  What you won't find in those places is the generous helping of anti-American hatred that Reverend Wright is so fond of serving up to his listeners week after week.