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The Associated Press

Jeremiah Wright's preaching has dominated Trinity United Church of Christ, where Barack Obama worships.

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Is Obama's pastor a liabilty?

ABC News

Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America." The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the claim that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with."

But is that answer good enough from a candidate for president of the United States? Should Barack Obama explicitly repudiate Wright's preaching? Or do Wright's words say nothing important about Obama's candidacy?

Ben likes: Audacity of hate

Paul Mirengoff/Powerline

Obama has also said that Wright is "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with." But who takes spiritual guidance from hate-spewing old uncles?

Wright isn't just someone with whom Obama is friendly. To criticize Obama for having friends with controversial, or even abhorrent, views would constitute guilt by association. But Wright is Obama's spiritual leader. To be sure, no thinking person always agrees with his minister, priest, or rabbi on political and social issues. But it's unusual for a thinking person to retain an affiliation with a church whose leader attacks his country unless, at a minimum, that person considers those attacks not "particularly controversial."

Joel likes: Crazy like an uncle

TPMCafe

If there's a single theme to Obama's intellectual achievements, it's been his ability to seize upon powerful words and themes, lifting them out of their original context and reframing them to be inclusive and uplifting. Thus, Rev. Wright's fiery sermon on "The Audacity to Hope" in a racialized world becomes the title of Obama's serene meditation on the possibilities of transcending political and racial polarization. That seems to hold true more broadly. It's how Obama is able to credit the honorable motives of his opponents even as he disagrees with them. It's how Obama took the best of what Reverend Wright had to offer -- community, inspiration, rebukes for his congregation's shortcomings -- and set aside the anger and divisiveness that seemed to him relics of an earlier time.