UCCtruths

Presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to be distancing himself from spiritual advisor and UCC pastor Jeremiah Wright. From the New York Times:

In Monday’s interview, Mr. Wright expressed disappointment but no surprise that Mr. Obama might try to play down their connection.

“When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli” to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Mr. Wright recalled, “with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.” Mr. Wright added that his trip implied no endorsement of either Louis Farrakhan’s views or Qaddafi’s.

Mr. Wright said that in the phone conversation in which Mr. Obama disinvited him from the announcement, Mr. Obama cited an article in Rolling Stone, “The Radical Roots of Barack Obama.”

According to the pastor, Mr. Obama then told him, “You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.”

Wright blew this one by trying to grab his 15 minutes of fame at Obama's expense. The issue was never really about Wright himself. Before Obama, most people didn't know who Jeremiah Wright was. The issue was about Obama and whether or not he subscribes to the "Liberation Theology" Wright pushes in the pulpit.

Obama's people did the best they could to mop up after the snub:

“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself,” Mr. Burton said.

Instead, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Wright’s successor as pastor at Trinity, the Rev. Otis Moss III, to speak. Mr. Moss declined.

Wright should have taken the hint. His insistence on doing national television shows and the New York Times interview after he was politely being asked to back off says a great deal about Wright's ego and priorities.