Originally Posted by
gonefishcrazy
http:///forum/post/2548439
Jerry Kellman, who hired Obama as a community organizer and is now a lay minister for Chicago's Catholic archdiocese, said Trinity offered a kind of home for Obama, particularly after he got engaged and was planning a family. Its members ranged from the wealthy and well-educated to families just scraping by, he said.
"When Barack joined the church, he wasn't giving his allegiance to Wright. He was joining a community," Kellman said.
Trinity, like other United Church of Christ churches, relies heavily on the membership to make decisions through boards and committees, he added. Even as senior pastor, Wright did not single-handedly control Trinity's direction.
Trinity was an early leader in ministering to people with HIV and AIDS. It offers housing and employment programs to people in need. It has scholarship programs and services for cancer patients, domestic abuse victims, drug addicts and more.
Members are expected to volunteer for one or more of these ministries. They usually announce their choice on the same day they're baptized, said Jane Fisler Hoffman, a United Church of Christ minister who joined Trinity.
"There's this kind of constant encouragement to live your faith, learn your faith," she said.
The church proclaims itself "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian." It supports charity work in Africa, gives some of its ministries Swahili names, uses Africa-themed decorations.
People familiar with Trinity compare its emphasis on African culture to the way some Catholic churches play up Irish or Italian roots. And they emphatically reject the accusations in widely circulated e-mails that the church is separatist or turns away white members.
"That's such a bunch of hooey," said Hoffman, who is white.
She tells the story of a group of young Germans visiting the church. Wright met with them before the service and prayed with them in German, she said. Later, he delivered part of his sermon in German and the choir sang in German.
"To me, it's a testimony that this is not a church that rejects people of other cultures and races," she said.
She and others say Wright is far from the hothead he may appear to be in video excerpts. They describe him as a serious biblical scholar who thinks carefully about issues.
"Wright is one of the most respected pastors in the African-American church in the United States," said Kellman, who nevertheless says Wright "blew it" in a few sermons.
Pfleger, one of Chicago's most outspoken members of the clergy, said Wright and Obama are similar in their intellectual approach. "They examine things, they study things. They are not quick to make judgments," he said.
Wright's sermons, even when they included strong critiques of racism and inequality in America, were always grounded in the Bible, church members said. Wright sometimes used harsh, painful language, his supporters acknowledge, but mostly he was well within a black tradition of emotional, social commentary.
"It's just speaking a different language to a slightly different culture," said Dwight Hopkins, a Trinity member and a theology professor at the University of Chicago, "and I can see how someone in the suburbs in the high Episcopal church would see those snippets as angry."
No matter what you say, people like Journey, Darth, Reefraff, Streb, will be those people who are angry. This should be an issue that people can get past. Neither Obama or his wife are racist... I have a greater respect of him because he acknowledged his pastor's wrongs while not denouncing him... and he spoke very intelligently on an issue that no one else is willing to touch. This attack did in part accomplish its goal, by putting race back into the election and giving Barack's newest electorial base, white males, reason to question his candidatcy... But it failed in derailing his campaign.... He still is a viable candidate who is still favored to win the election. People need to be smart on who they vote for... and stop following the distractions that make us loose focus on what really is important.
