IN A defiant public appearance yesterday, Barack Obama's former pastor said that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church in the United States and rejected those who have labelled him unpatriotic.
"I served six years in the military," the Reverend Jeremiah Wright said. "Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (vice-president Dick] Cheney serve?"
Rev Wright spoke at the National Press Club in Washington to reporters and a supporti
ve audience of black church leaders beginning a two-day symposium. He said the black church tradition is different and misunderstood by the "dominant culture" in the US.
He said he hopes the controversy "just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible".
"It is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright – it's an attack on the black church," he said to applause.
Rev Wright said criticism comes from people who only have heard soundbites playing repeatedly on television and have never listened to his entire sermons.
He said members of the congregation at his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago have fought in the military, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"My goddaughter's unit just arrived in Iraq this week while those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to avoid military service while sending over 4,000 American boys and girls to die over a lie," he said.
Rev Wright seemed to relish the chance to speak out after weeks of being derided in the press.
He has been Mr Obama's pastor for more than 20 years. The preacher brought Mr Obama to Christianity, and inspired the title of his book The Audacity of Hope. He officiated at his wedding and baptised his daughters.
Rev Wright also told reporters that he prayed privately with the Obama family before Barack announced he was running for president.
