Check out this not-very-flattering profile of Jeremiah Wright by Dayo Olopade of TNR. The story links to a full transcript of a Wright sermon here; the article is excerpted below.
Why wouldn't Wright take the hint that Obama
seemed to be offering and quietly slink into the background, at least
until November 2008? Two months ago (long before his most inflammatory
sermons had surfaced), I visited Wright's church on a Sunday morning.
And what I witnessed that day makes the answer quite clear.
To put it mildly, Jeremiah Wright is a man who is comfortable in
the spotlight. Over the past 36 years, he has built Trinity Church, on
Chicago's South Side, into a wildly successful institution comprising
8,000 members. The church sponsors two senior centers, an
addiction-recovery program, two daycare sites, student mentoring,
prisoner visitation, yoga in the mornings, and "singles sermons" on
Friday evenings. But, come Sunday morning, all the attention is on one
man. On the day I visit--the morning after Obama's landslide victory in
South Carolina--three cameras in the main sanctuary are trained on
Wright, dressed in one of his trademark dashikis, as he flaps and
struts through the Gospel of John, wherein Jesus thwarts his enemies
not with force, but with words. The syncopated speaking style politicos
have come to expect from Obama has the audience of thousands
transfixed. Wright's gravelly tenor hums through the Trinity
loudspeakers, and the worshippers are on their feet, murmuring amens.
Even choir members can be seen scribbling in their bulletins during the
sermon, on the blank, lined pages reserved for such note-taking. (The
fine print below? "Sermons copyrighted by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright,
Jr.") A scant 30 minutes after the sermon's conclusion, I was able to
purchase a copy of Wright's message on DVD in the church bookstore.
