Why Obama Picked Trinity

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30 Apr 2008 01:19 pm

In Jeremiah Wright's own words from March last year:

Q: He knew you a long time before he responded to an altar call. What do you think moved him to do that?

A: I don't know. I would like to -- somebody said last week did you ever think one of your sermons would be used as a mantra in a Democratic convention speech and a title to a book of a presidential candidate? No, I did not. I think, okay, if I were a person caught up in ego I would say "my powerful preaching." I think it's that he found a church that -- and you know he checked out a lot of churches. And probably more the conversations we had outside of church, and outside of the sermons, than my preaching or worship experience --he found a church that was firmly committed to both arms of the cross. The personal spirituality, the personal piety, and the social action -- that when the benediction was over, what are you doing?

As he mentions from time to time, the Free South Africa sign caught his attention. What's a church on South Side Chicago? Most people don't even know where Johannesburg is. They think it's in Mississippi somewhere. Steve Biko? You're talking about Steve Biko? Black consciousness movement? Who's Nelson Mandela? Well, after Tutu and Mandela became media events -- but here we were in the '70s talking about it. That fascinated him, because the average church was talking about the pastor's anniversary and chicken dinners and car washes. And here we are talking about the connectedness of the people of God across the globe. That intrigued him.

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