A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith (Obama)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html?hp

Members of Trinity United Church of Christ squeezed into a downtown hotel ballroom in early March to celebrate the long service of their pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

One congregant stood out amid the flowers and finery: Senator Barack Obama, there to honor the man who led him from skeptic to self-described Christian.

Twenty years ago at Trinity, Mr. Obama, then a community organizer in poor Chicago neighborhoods, found the African-American community he had sought all his life, along with professional credibility as a community organizer and an education in how to inspire followers. He had sampled various faiths but adopted none until he met Mr. Wright, a dynamic pastor who preached Afrocentric theology, dabbled in radical politics and delivered music-and-profanity-spiked sermons.

Few of those at Mr. Wright’s tribute in March knew that the relationship between pastor and star congregant has begun to endure strains as Mr. Obama pursues the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Wright’s assertions of widespread white racism and his scorching remarks about American government have drawn criticism, and prompted the senator to cancel his delivery of the invocation when he formally announced his candidacy in February.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Wright seems to fit into Obama's need for Intellectual stimulation and as a father figure

It's a pity that on the right, they are so closed minded that they do not accept different forms of preaching or ideas.
On the left, we tend to be suspicious of religion alot and then become just as closed minded in not seeing the spiritual need people have. And we forget the importance religion played in civil rights and in the black community as a whole.
Because of the rise of the theocracy movement and the Bushies evangelical fevor, we on the left have become more suspicious of religion. We also forget it played a large role in clinton's acceptance with the black community and in his campaign.
There is a difference between the intellectual and spiritual needs of religion and the devisive and repressive evangelical type like the Bushies use.