Obama mentor's sermons could be fiery, uplifting
By Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has condemned racism in U.S. history, yet found room for hope and betterment.

Preaching in South Los Angeles eight years ago, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. lived up to his legend by providing fiery oratory that brought down the house.

Wright -- the longtime Chicago pastor to Barack Obama whose incendiary pulpit remarks have put him into the political spotlight -- provided searing social commentary during his appearance at West Angeles Church of God in Christ. He contended that history is written, and distorted, by oppressors. And he talked of the harm done to African Americans by "the fires of forced servitude, the brutality of rape."

Yet Wright also provided uplift. He affirmed the resiliency of the black family, invited married couples in the pews to stand and be cheered, and eventually focused on how to save failing relationships.

Declaring that blacks have forgotten God and fallen into promiscuity, he urged: "Don't give up on God! . . . Don't give up on the process of marriage!"

The sermon in many ways mirrored Wright himself, a man of contradictions whom acquaintances describe as both scholarly and histrionic, a leader who is attentive to individual members of his vast flock but who also can come across to fellow clergy as aloof.

Obama on Wednesday spoke of his own contradictory feelings about Wright. "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me," the candidate said.

According to the Trinity United Church of Christ website, Wright, 66, was born in Philadelphia. He interrupted his college studies to spend six years with the Marine Corps and the Navy.

Wright later resumed his education, earning master's degrees from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a doctorate from the Ohio-based United Theological Seminary.

The church website says that when Wright came to Trinity in 1972, it had 87 members. Today, it is a major force in Chicago's civic life and African American community, with more than 8,000 members.

Dwight N. Hopkins, a theology professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Trinity member for 12 years, said Wright had established Trinity's reputation among black clergy nationally "as a place to hear good preaching."

Hopkins also cited Wright's ability, despite his church's size, to keep in close touch with members going through spiritual crises. "Somehow, even when he's speaking in other parts of the world . . . he's able to e-mail or call."