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Oprah Also Turned On Rev. Wright

Posted May 4, 08 3:19 PM CDT in Politics 

(Newser) – Like Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey attended Jeremiah Wright's church but ultimately gave up on it, Newsweek reports. She went for nearly a decade, starting in 1984, and wasn't surprised by his angry sermons. But "Oprah is a businesswoman, first and foremost," a friend said. "She's always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn't be smart."

Her reasons for going were different: Unlike Obama, she wasn't seeking a sense of her black identity. "She's secure in her blackness, so that didn't have a hold on her," an Obama adviser said. Winfrey says she just grew weary of organized religion. "There is the Church of Oprah now," her friend said, laughing. "She has her own following."

Source Newsweek

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Oprah Winfrey attend Reverend Wright's church regularly from 1984 to 1986, and then sporadically through the early 1990s.   (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., his wife Michelle, left, and Oprah Winfrey wave to the crowd at the end of a rally in Manchester, N.H.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and the former pastor of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Barack Obama  • Democratic presidential candidates  • Oprah Winfrey  • president  • Democratic campaign  • Trinity United Church of Christ  • Rev. Jeremiah Wright


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