Obama distances himself from outspoken Pastor

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the September 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

Mr Obama posted a blog about his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his church, Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, on the Huffington Post.

Rev Wright brought Mr Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptised his daughters and inspired the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope”.

Mr Obama wrote that he has looked to Rev Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he has been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor’s comments for which he had not been present.

Mr Obama told MSNBC that Rev Wright had stepped down from his campaign’s African American Religious Leadership Committee.

“I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies,” Mr Obama said in his blog posting.

“I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.”

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Rev Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev Wright said.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ’God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

He also gave a sermon in December comparing Mr Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticising his rival Hillary Clinton.

“Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people,” Rev Wright told a cheering congregation. “Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger.”