Rev. Jeremiah Wright sorry, but gets ripped by Jewish group ADL

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright apologized and said he "misspoke" and meant "Zionists" when he said earlier this week that "them Jews" were keeping him from talking to President Obama.

Wright, according to Sirius Radio, called into Mark Thompson’s daily show on the network to explain his comments to the Daily Press of Newport News, Va. Wright called in from the Hampton Ministers' Conference, an annual gathering of African-American ministers in Virginia.

Wright, who was Obama's pastor in Chicago, had told the Daily Press he hadn't spoken to Obama since he became president: "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office."

Wright issued a statement Thursday that he was “disturbed and deeply saddened” that his comments were stirring discussion.

“I apologize for the way I framed my comments. I misspoke and I sincerely meant no harm or ill-will to the American Jewish community or the Obama administration,” Wright said. “I have great respect for the Jewish faith and the foundational (and central) part of our Judeo-Christian tradition.”

But Lonnie Nasatir of the Anti-Defamation League's Chicago office said Wright was expressing "classic anti-Semitism."

The ADL issued this statement: "Reverend Wright’s comments claiming that 'them Jews' are preventing him from communicating with President Obama are inflammatory and false. The notions of Jewish control of the White House in Reverend Wright’s statement express classic anti-Semitism in its most vile form. In a short succinct sentence, Reverend Wright manages to both label some of the president’s closest advisers solely by their religious beliefs and give them powers superior to the president himself."

Here's the transcript of Wright's radio interview, with notes from Sirius radio:

(Thompson plays audio from the interview that was posted by The Daily Press)

REV. WRIGHT: Well, I hope he posted the entire time we walked from the worship service to the car:

MARK THOMPSON: …he’s only posted a minute and 45 seconds.

REV. WRIGHT: Well, that’s exactly what happened... I got stopped by one of my students…[he introduced me to the reporter] he said…this is [the reporter] he’s also a journalist, he did some good work on you last year when you were being crucified in the media…and I categorized him with you Mark and with [radio host] Cliff Kelly, he said he wants to ask you a couple of questions.

I said well he can ask me questions as we are walking to the car, I am not going to stop and give an interview. We started walking to the car and as you can hear from the[ poor quality of the] sound we were inside the worship service leaving, and we walked outside…and the interview went on for another 20 minutes. I said you’re holding me up, I’m supposed to be out of here.

He started off saying…do you have any regrerts?

I said regrets about what? What do you mean regrets? Regret about the way I’ve been preaching for fifty years? … How can I regret that they purchased sermons going back 20 years to try and see what the Presidential candidate has been listening to?

What are you talking about regrets for my sermons? No, I don’t regret my sermons. I regret that the media made a farce out of this whole thing

I said…I have 7,999 other members [of my congregation] other than the then Senator, and I resent having my whole 36 years of ministry reduced to a conversation about the Senator, now the President. Is that all you want to talk about?

And he said…no let’s talk about the importance of The Hampton Minister Conference and then we started talking about The Hamptons Minister Conference and its historical relevance, how it was set up for clergy who were not at the seminary. How persons who did not have the benefit of a seminary education could come to Hampton for a week every year and have worship in the morning, worship in the evening… and hear lectures..on theology and church history and ethics…and get…credit and have a chance to talk to professors.

And he went from there to talking about the youth and what do we do about the youth of today and the hip hop culture and how did your church address these issues?

But just like last year, all the things that are substantive about my ministry…all of the things we talked about in terms of the importance of the Hampton Ministers Conference…all of that that does not get played. Why? Because he, like the other egregious journalists, wants to stir up stuff – that’s all.

And I said that to him…that’s all you want to talk about? You said you wanted to ask me some questions, but that’s not all we’re going to talk about..and then …by the time we got off the bridge, crossing over from the convention center all the way to the parking lot and then about fifteen more minutes in the parking lot…[the conversation] was about the Hampton Ministers Conference, was about the training of clergy, was about the seminary, was about the youth, was about the problems of the day.

None of which did he post...

Wright explains that when he was talking about “Jews” he was referring specifically to Zionists:

MARK THOMPSON: Of course people are keying in, Dr. Wright, on the statements you made regarding Jews.

REV. WRIGHT: Well let me say…I misspoke. Let me just say, Zionists.

And I quote Jews when I say that… I quoted Jews before the Society of Christian Ethics. I quote Mark Ellis a Jewish rabbi…and I quote Ilan Poppe, a Jewish historian who wrote the book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine…and when I quote Jewish authors… persons who are Zionists call them “self-hating Jews” …. I am not talking about all Jews, all people of the Jewish faith. I’m talking about Zionists.

In fact Mark Ellis’ book is entitled Judaism Is Not Israel, and he talks about in his book the ethnic cleansing – Mark Ellis, a Jewish rabbi, the guy who wrote The Jewish Liberation Theology of the Palestinians and refers to Ilan Poppe’s book which details the ethnic cleansing that started in 1947 and 1948 and continues to 2009.

I’m talking about fact, historical fact. I’m not talking about emotionally charged words or the fact that like Jimmy Carter’s book, because he used the word that Jews themselves use – “apartheid”– and he gets labeled as anti-Semitic. Now they can jump on that one phrase if they want to, but they can’t undo history, and they can’t undo the facts of Jewish historians and Jewish theologians who write about what’s going on. .

Wright expands on the background and context of the circumstances of his conversation with The Daily Press:

MARK THOMPSON: …I want everybody to be clear that when you say… “them Jews won’t let him talk to me” you were specifically referring to Zionists.

REV. WRIGHT: Exactly. And as Hillary [Clinton] misspoke about being under fire as the camera showed her walking calmly walking from her plane to a limousine, I was walking from a worship service to my car trying to talk rapidly, trying to..answer this guy and trying to get him to get off the Barack Obama kick.

MARK THOMPSON: And to focus on what you were there for..the historic Hampton Ministers Conference.

REV. WRIGHT: Exactly…40 years before Barack was born I was coming to the Hampton Ministers Conference.

On what the Hampton Ministers' Conference is:

REV. WRIGHT: For 95 years now the clergy, the seminaries here in the state of Virginia have offered an opportunity…at a time when most African-American clergy could not dream of ever going to seminary…95 years ago it started in a small manner…[an opportunity] for clergy to come to the campus and spend a week where the days are structured with worship service in the morning followed by classes until the evening…followed by worship services to close out the day.

Thompson asks Wright to comment on the murder that took place at The Holocaust Museum:

MARK THOMPSON: …Let me also give you the opportunity, this story breaks with an unfortunate bit of timing…a shooting…on the part a white supremacist at The Holocaust Museum, an African-American security guard dead….the shooter injured..he is a known white supremacist who says the Holocaust never happened…

MARK THOMPSON: You like the rest of us..decry…that kind of incident, correct?

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Absolutely. I decry…violence. I decry killing…one human being taking another human being’s life.

On having respect for the Jewish faith:

MARK THOMPSON: …and of course…as a theologian and a student of Judeo-Christianity, you have respect for the Jewish faith…

REV. WRIGHT: It’s our faith, it was Jesus’ faith.

MARK THOMPSON: …but you draw a distinction of course between Judiasm and Zionism?

REV. WRIGHT: as does Mark Ellis the Jewish theologian.

MARK THOMPSON: I make no bones about it, as a journalist and a talk show host, while I’m objective I’m not into sensationalism …I wanted Dr. Wright to come on here to kill foolishness before it gets started...

It has been made plain.