Trinity United Church of Christ

17 Stories

Wright: 'Them Jews' Won't Let Me Talk to Obama

(Newser) - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has no hard feelings against President Obama and will speak to him again when able, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press reports. Wright, at a ministers conference, said, “them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter,...

Obama's Unique Road to Faith
 Obama's Unique
 Road to Faith 
Jul 13, 2008 3:19 PM CDT

Obama's Unique Road to Faith

How the presumptive nominee found a religion, and now seeks a church

(Newser) - As a young man, Barack Obama experienced a lonely, drawn-out crisis of faith—and now finds himself churchless as the whole world watches, Newsweek reports. His father was an atheist Muslim, his mother a Christian who turned secular, and Obama eventually embraced Chicago's Trinity United after years of church-based activism....

Former Obama Pastor in Church Power Battle

Refusing to relinquish leadership

(Newser) - Barack Obama's former Chicago church is in turmoil over a battle to retain power by firebrand preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Time reports. A rift has opened between Wright, who was supposed to retire from the church he nurtured for 36 years, and his hand-picked successor, whose qualifications he's now questioning.

Boo Hoo: Firebrand Priest Suspended

Mocked Hillary from the pulpit, takes leave

(Newser) - The controversial Catholic priest who mocked Hillary Clinton in a guest sermon from the pulpit of Barack Obama's church has been suspended from his own parish, reports the Chicago Tribune. Father Michael Pfleger was ordered to take a weeks-long leave of absence by Chicago's cardinal, "to reflect on his...

Obama Quits Trinity Church
 Obama Quits
 Trinity Church 
May 31, 2008 6:01 PM CDT

Obama Quits Trinity Church

Hopeful resigns by letter after latest pulpit controversy

(Newser) - Barack Obama quit his longtime church today in an apparent attempt to quell its latest pulpit controversy, Politico reports. Obama resigned by letter to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where a reverend accused Hillary Clinton this week of acting "entitled" to the presidency because she is...

Obama Repudiates Preacher Over 'White Tears' Slam

'Renegade priest' mocked Hillary Clinton from pulpit

(Newser) - Barack Obama has had to apologize for another troublesome preacher at his home church, reports MSNBC. The Rev. Michael Pfleger—a white Catholic priest widely known as Chicago's "renegade" priest for his liberal social activism in the city’s black community—mocked Hillary Clinton in a guest sermon, saying...

Wright Is a Wife-Snatcher: Ex-Parishioner

Rev. got hitched to woman after giving her marital counsel

(Newser) - Barack Obama's controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright was making passes at a parishioner's wife when he was supposed to be giving the couple marriage counseling, the New York Post reports. "People were telling me that my extremely attractive wife was seen with the pastor," said Delmer Reed, who says...

Oprah Also Turned On Rev. Wright

TV star didn't want to offend her audience, friend says

(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...

Church Builds Wright $1M Home in Pricey Chicago 'Burb

Meanwhile, Northwestern yanks honorary degree offer

(Newser) - Jeremiah Wright is set to retire to a $1 million mansion paid for by Trinity United Church of Christ. The 10,400-square-footer is in a tony Chicago suburb, and comes with butler’s pantry, elevator, and whirlpool, the New York Post reports. The church is listed as owner; an unexplained...

Wright Lashes Out at Media
 Wright Lashes Out at Media 
Apr 28, 2008 6:40 AM CDT

Wright Lashes Out at Media

Pastor controversy rears up again for Obama and McCain

(Newser) - The controversial pastor who triggered trouble for Barack Obama delivered a fiery, unapologetic speech to a sold-out NAACP crowd in Detroit yesterday, blasting "corporate media" for painting him as un-American. "I am not running for the Oval Office," said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  "I have...

Wright Received Death Threats
Wright Received Death Threats
Apr 27, 2008 9:39 AM CDT

Wright Received Death Threats

Controversial pastor returns to public eye as critical primary looms for Obama

(Newser) - Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose controversial rants scuttled Barack Obama's "post-racial" campaign, reemerged in the headlines yesterday just ahead of the Dems' primary showdown on May 6. Asked by PBS' Bill Moyers if he’d received death threats, Wright says: “Yes, and bomb threats at the church. People (are)...

Rev. Wright Slams 'Devious' Media Coverage

Obama pastor defends sermons, says he was portrayed as 'a fanatic'

(Newser) - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says the media made him out as "some sort of fanatic" by repeating snippets from sermons out of context—part of a "devious" agenda to denigrate the campaign of Barack Obama, the Chicago Tribune reports. In an interview with Bill Moyers to air on...

Wright Takes Cross Over Racial Divide

Rebel preacher aims to free gospel from 'whiteness'

(Newser) - Barack Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright built his Chicago church on black liberation theology, which directs Christianity at African Americans, Kelefa Sanneh writes in the New Yorker. The movement’s founder aimed to “emancipate the gospel from its ‘whiteness,’” but also from Frederick Douglass’ belief that antebellum...

Obama Takes Image Rehab to The View
Obama Takes Image Rehab
to The View
Mar 28, 2008 1:02 PM CDT

Obama Takes Image Rehab to The View

Candidate says he was gone from church if pastor Wright wasn't

(Newser) - Barack Obama "wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church" had Jeremiah Wright not retired this year, he said today on The View. Obama reiterated his denunciation of his ex-pastor’s sermons, saying Wright had “deeply offended people,” CNN reports. He also told Barbara Walters &...

Obama Recalls Sparring With Preacher
Obama Recalls Sparring With Preacher
Mar 24, 2008 10:41 AM CDT

Obama Recalls Sparring With Preacher

Candidate says he had to 'agree to disagree' with Wright

(Newser) - “This is not a crackpot church,” Barack Obama told a conservative Philadelphia radio host in an interview defending Trinity Church, Politico reports. The Democratic hopeful says that despite Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “very offensive views,” he built “one of the finest churches in Chicago. Witness...

Wright Sermons Weren't 'Black Equivalent of a Klan Rally'

Parishioner decries focus on Obama pastor

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s pastor is a good man, says a fellow churchgoer, and though his “going off on white America” kept T. Shawn Taylor—a black woman—from inviting white friends to worship, it didn’t stop her from marrying a white man. Taylor writes in the Chicago Tribune...

Firebrand Pastor Worried Obama Campaign Early

Aides uninvited Wright from Barack candidacy announcement

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s campaign uninvited his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright from speaking at his candidacy announcement last year, reports the Los Angeles Times. The campaign didn’t want to "make him the target and a distraction on a day when Senator Obama was going to announce his candidacy,...

17 Stories