2.....If Barack had left the church, would Michelle and their children have left with him? The family was deeply involved in the life of that church in that community. (It was easy for Oprah Winfrey, a childless individual, to walk out when she decided it was bad for her business to be so closely identified with a black community. A family leaving a church is another matter.)

3.....I am of the same liberal denomination as Trinity Church, Jeremiah Wright, and the Obama family. A local Christian church is a community whose leadership changes: Jeremiah Wright is no longer pastor of Trinity Church. As a pastor, I sought so to build up the community I was responsible for that my leaving would hardly be noticed: pastors come and go, communities abide.

4.....Jeremiah Wright, a graduate of the very liberal University of Chicago Divinity School, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and encouraged his black community with an “Afrocentric” pride without which that black community would not have made the human advances it did make during his 36-year pastorate. Unrealistically, some criticize him for not preaching Martin Luther King’s “not the color of their skin but the content of their character”; but King admitted that that was a “dream,” not a program.

5.....As a charismatic preacher, Wright shocked his hearers into thinking, and the shocks were usually biblical. He did not say “God damn America,” as the American public has heard him say millions of times; he said, “God damn America, it’s in the Bible!”

6.....In the Bible, God blesses and condemns (in street language, “damns”) his people, depending on their behavior. Wright was deliberately countering the numberless times we Americans have heard our leaders conclude their speeches with “God bless America!” Our nation’s self-idolatry is a danger to ourselves and the world. 9/11 hits, and we mindlessly hit back: “They did something wrong!”

7.....In the biblical-prophetic tradition, the people are to say – when trouble hits – “We must have been doing something wrong.” The Bible is equally clear at the personal level. When troubles come upon individuals, they are not to look for scapegoats to blame but are to say, “I must have been doing something wrong.” Instant guilt; repent first and then ask questions; that’s the Bible’s way....

8.....and that’s Jeremiah Wright’s way. 9/11 hits, and he preaches the sermon I heard on “The chickens have come home to roost.” Somehow, we deserved 9/11: let’s do some self-searching as Americans and as America. Of course THEY did something wrong. But if we give all our attention to what THEY did wrong, we’ll not get around to what’s wrong with America but will take self-righteous umbrage and ill-considered action against the invasive evil....

9.....and that’s what happened. The American people were softened by terror, and the American government fell for the war-mongering rhetoric of Washington’s neo-cons. Obama and Wright were steadily opposed to pre-emptive war against Iraq. If we had listened to Jeremiah Wright instead of George Bush, we wouldn’t have made the tragic mess we’ve made in Iraq. America needs more preachers like Jeremiah Wright and more politicians like Barack Obama.

10.....None of the above should be read as excusing Wright's occasionally making a fool of himself. Nor can an influential old man be excused for letting jealousy move him to undermine a more influential younger man.