[Marxism] Obama's former minister replies to distortions in NY Times article

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following was sent to the Change-Links list in Los Angeles. No source
was provided. Since it sounds authentic, I am being lazy at 330 in the
morning and not providing it, hoping that other comrades will make up my
failing. I think his view of Obama, though hardly conclusive, is nonetheless
interesting.
Fred Feldman

Subject: Reply to NY Times article by Jeremiah Wright 

Subject: Re: Obama's Pastor rips NY Times March 11, 2007 
Jodi Kantor The New York Times 
9 West 43rd Street New York, New York 10036-3959 

Dear Jodi: 

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth
I have ever seen in sixty-five years. 

You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a
"Spiritual Biography" of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with
you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service
that I have ever met. 

For two hours, I talked with you about how idealistic he was. For two hours
I shared with you what a genuine human being he was. I told you how
incredible he was as a man who was an African American in public service,
and as a man who refused to announce his candidacy for President until Carol
Moseley Braun indicated one way or the other whether or not she was going to
run. I told you what a dreamer he was. I told you how idealistic he was. 

We talked about how refreshing it would be for someone who knew about Islam
to be in the Oval Office. Your own question to me was, Didn't I think it
would be incredible to have somebody in the Oval Office who not only knew
about Muslims, but had living and breathing Muslims in his own family? 

I told you how important it would be to have a man who not only knew the
difference between Shiites and Sunnis prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office,
but also how important it would be to have a man who knew what Sufism was;
a man who understood that there were different branches of Judaism; a man
who knew the difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative
Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who was a devout Christian, but who did
not prejudge other s because they believed something other than what he
believed. 

I talked about how rare it was to meet a man whose Christianity was not just
"in word only." 

I talked about Barack being a person who lived his faith and did not argue
his faith. I talked about Barack as a person who did not draw doctrinal
lines in the sand nor consign other people to hell if they did not believe
what he believed. 

Out of a two-hour conversation with you about Barack's spiritual journey and
my protesting to you that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had
not mentored him or made him the man he was, even though I would love to
take that credit, you did not print any of that. When I told you, using one
of your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to how God asked Moses,
"What is that in your hand?," that Barack was like that when I met him.
Barack had it "in his hand." Barack had in his grasp a uniqueness in terms
of his spiritual development t hat one is hard put to find in the 21st
century, and you did not print that. 

As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi, out of two hours of
conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on... ... Barack's
taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise
to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy
for the Presidency and what do you print? 

You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a
printed "sound byte" and a titillating and tantalizing article about his
disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.


I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before, and I
want to write you publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it and
will not be party to any further smearing of the name, the reputation, the
integrity or the character of perhaps this nation's first (and maybe e ven
only) honest candidate offering himself for public service as the person to
occupy the Oval Office. 

Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even mention that makes me doubt
your credibility, and I am looking forward to see how you are going to
butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator Obama's "Spiritual
Biography." 

Our Conference Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman who
belongs to a Black church that Hannity of "Hannity and Colmes" is trying to
trash, set the record straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms of
who we are as the church to which Barack has belonged for over twenty years.


The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to
try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even
though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me
for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times
continues t o r oll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth. 

I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for
listening to that bad information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did your
editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to worry about hearing
anything else from me for you to edit or "spin" because you are more
interested in journalism than in truth. 

Forgive me for having a momentary lapse. I forgot that The New York Times
was leading the bandwagon in trumpeting why it is we should have gone into
an illegal war. The New York Times became George Bush and the Republican
Party's national "blog." The New York Times played a role in the outing of
Valerie Plame. I do not know why I thought The New York Times had actually
repented and was going to exhibit a different kind of behavior. Maybe it was
my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of Roshashana. Maybe it was my being caught
up in the euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatev e r it is or was, I was
sadly mistaken. There is no repentance on the part of The New York  Times. 

There is no integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do well with
that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie! 

Sincerely and respectfully yours, Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. , Senior
Pastor Trinity United Church of Christ

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