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Obama tries to quell pastor row
27/03/2008 12:07 - (SA)
Greensboro, North Carolina - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday sought to quell concerns over anti-American remarks by his former pastor, saying people are paying too much attention to a small number of "stupid" comments.
Obama gave a sweeping speech on race and condemned the incendiary remarks of Rev Jeremiah Wright last week, but the words of the former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago continue to dog the candidate. Reflecting the campaign's concern about the fallout, Obama used a question about religion at a town hall forum as an opportunity to address the issue.
"This is somebody that was preaching three sermons at least a week for 30 years and it got boiled down ... into a half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country," Obama told an audience in this central North Carolina city.
"There are misunderstandings on both sides," the Illinois senator said. "We cannot solve the problems of America if every time somebody somewhere does something stupid, that everybody gets up in arms and forgets about the war in Iraq and we forget about the economy."
Wright cancels appearances
Meanwhile, Wright cancelled plans on Wednesday to receive an award at a summit on black churches.
The Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth announced on its Web site that Wright will not attend the State of the Black Church Summit and awards banquet in Dallas. The school was planning to present Wright with an award on Saturday.
Wright has also cancelled plans to speak at three services in a Houston church Sunday. He cancelled plans on Tuesday to speak at a church in Tampa, Florida.
The Rev Marcus Cosby, pastor at Houston's Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, told Houston television station KTRK and the Houston Chronicle that safety concerns had prompted Wright's decision.
Videos of remarks Wright has made have been circulating widely on the internet and news programmes. Wright's sermons to his predominantly black congregation have included him shouting "God damn America" for its treatment of minorities. He has said the US government invented Aids to destroy "people of colour" and has also suggested that US policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
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