The pastor delivered his final sermon last month and retired
as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama has
attended the church for 20 years and calls Wright his spiritual
adviser
.
Click here
to visit the Trinity United Church of Christ's Web site.
In a fiery sermon in April 2003, Wright said: "The government
gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike
laws and wants them to sing God Bless America.
"No! No No!"
"God damn America ... for killing innocent people.
"God damn America for threatening citizens as less than
humans.
"God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God
and supreme."
Wright can also be seen questioning America's role in the
spreading of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS. In another speech,
made in the days after 9/11, he suggested that American foreign
policy invited the terror attacks.
"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far
more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never
batted an eye," Wright said.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians
and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff
we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard.
America is chickens coming home to roost."
The pastor also said: "The government lied about inventing
the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The
government lied."