Black ministers focus on Obama
'REAL ISSUES' | Seek to shift emphasis away from Wright
About two dozen Chicago area black ministers crowded around a small pulpit Friday, pledging their support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign despite the candidate's split from an outspoken pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
''We know that there have been controversial matters that have appeared in the news media as relates to the sermons of Rev. Wright,'' said the Rev. Leon D. Finney Jr. of the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church. At the news conference, ministers refused to speak specifically about Wright.
''We're not here to comment on the sermons of Rev. Wright,'' Finney said. ''As a matter of fact, we want to make sure that we help to turn the interest and focus not on Rev. Wright or what he said, but on the real issues.''
As a lawyer, Obama worked on housing projects developed by Finney and another pastor at the news conference, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God.
Wright, former senior minister at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, has made several comments about the United States that have hurt Obama's presidential campaign.
Among the most remarked-upon sound bites was Wright proclaiming from the pulpit, ''God damn America,'' for its racism. He accused the government of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs and claimed the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community.
In the last week, Wright has said the criticism of his fiery anti-government sermons was an attack on the black church. After Wright's spirited appearance before the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, Obama denounced Wright's comments as ''divisive and destructive'' and broke with the man who has been his spiritual mentor for 20 years.
Messages left with the Obama campaign were not returned Friday.
The ministers represented at least eight African-American denominations. One preacher, Bishop Cody Marshall of the Church of God in Christ in Chicago, said Obama will be victorious despite setbacks.
''This is the man of the hour,'' Marshall said. ''This is the one that we look to for leadership.''
Instead of Wright's comments, the ministers said Americans are really worried about poverty, gas prices, health insurance, home foreclosures and global warming. They argue their experiences with Obama prove he is the candidate to fix those problems.
AP
