The Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr. considers the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. to be a tremendous pastor and a brilliant theologian. But sitting in the audience of the National Press Club in Washington this week, Hathaway found himself wincing at some of the remarks by Sen. Barack Obama's embattled former pastor.
"When Jeremiah Wright says an attack on him is `an attack on the black church,' that's kind of stretching things," said Hathaway, pastor of Baltimore's Union Baptist Church. "I think it's potentially dangerous."
He is not the only one who thought so.
On Tuesday, Obama condemned Wright's remarks, characterizing them as disrespectful, offensive and not accurately portraying the perspective of black churches.
Wright's plunge back into the national spotlight - in which he has defended his fiery remarks, praised the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan and accused the media of distorting his words - has sparked an intense reaction in Baltimore's black faith community. Some pastors assert that Wright is not the spokesman of the black religious tradition - one as diverse as the black community itself.
Others have defended Wright's remarks as rooted in a rich history of black ministers using the pulpit to challenge injustices. They fear that the Wright backlash has overshadowed the black churches' history, value and good deeds.
"Many of us pastors are pained," said the Rev. Johnny Golden, pastor of New Unity Church Ministries in Baltimore and president-elect of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. "We see a lot of what he is saying and we understand it, but his comments have wounded the opportunity of Mr. Obama to make gains and opportunity for America to embrace its ideals."
Wright, who served as Obama's spiritual mentor when Wright was pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, found himself at the center of a political firestorm last month when portions of his sermons over the years began circulating in media reports.
Video clips show Wright alleging that the federal government "lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color," and asserting that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks revealed that "America's chickens are coming home to roost." Obama then denounced the remarks, describing his relationship with Wright in the context of the nation's complex racial history.
