An Open Letter to Jodi Kantor from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
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 others 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 that 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 even 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 to roll 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 whatever 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.
12 Comments, Comment or Ping
ObamaSpeaksWithForkedTongue
Now, Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., who is the ‘TRUE LIER’. We have seen and heard your HATE sermons. You sound clearly reminiscently ‘Hitleresque’. You are just, ‘using’ the Jewish people for a means to an end. To your Hate Agenda. I would have never believed there was a Church or Reverend like this. Not until I witnessed your Satanic Hitleresque preaching style, Reverend Wright. You gave a what Award to Louis Farrakahn? A ‘Trumpeter Award’ Reverend Wright, to Louis Farrakahn…For what Reverend Wright, spewing Hate against the Jewish people…I do believe so, Reverend Wright. A Trumpeter Award from YOU to Farrakahn for HATE spew…You ill sick man. Go away. You are clearly Demonically posessed. You bring up a ‘trembling’ feeling within me that the only time I experienced it was visiting the Holocust Memorial and looking deeply into the eyes of the Jewish people in the photographs, and listening to your Hate. You have an Evil Agenda, there is no doubt. Obama wants eagerly to talk with the leader of Iran, but not Hamas. Obama and shall we just say, you Wright, wants to care for Africa, not Israel. Very little talk about Israel, more about other places like Iran and Africa. As a Christian that you say you are Wright. Would not Israel be the utmost important place on this entire earth? Israel is where the Messiah is to return according to Christianity doctrine, is it not? The Mount of Olives I believe is where Christian Doctrine, like yours, believes that Jesus Christ will return on the Mount of Olives in all his power and glory. So, then why, Reverend Wright do you not pump that Israel is in fact the most Important place on this planet? We all want to help Africa, and the Jews have poured millions in help to the African people, you cannot deny that. As well as the Jewish people and communities pouring millions into the education of Black people. We know that you call yourself, a Conservative Black Church. However, I grew up on the Lynwood-Compton border and frequented Conservative Black Church’s, and never, ever did I hear sermons anywhere remotely similar to your Hate sermons. I remember in Inglewood, Dr.Fredrick K. Price and how when I walked out of that Black Church, seeing the Auratic Glow of LOVE on the Black congregation’s faces, full of LOVE, not your HATE! And, Reverend T.D. Jakes, what a powerful and beloved man he is, nothing like your sermons of HATE. I tell you I hear your VOICE and could cut a face picture out of Hitler and paste it right on YOUR FACE, Reverend Wright. You have for 20 years now, pumped pure and total hate into Obama’s brain and HEART. You have destroyed any of the goodness that was within him. Your Seed is planted in him and will sprout, and everyone that is not of your HATE ilk, must live in total fear. I see the eyes of Ann Franck and think of your voice, Reverend Wright, and get chills of some forboding element of darkness and total evil. You, go away, you evil and totally hateful sick man. You are rich off of the people’s money for filling their hearts and minds with you hate seeds. “Get Thee Behind Me Satan”, Reverand Wright. “Satan is a Lier” and so are you and Obama. According to a man that has devoted so much time and research, a Black Man, Larry Elder, author of “Stupid Black Men”, Obama is a complete lier! There will be an evidentairy tape that will surface, just like your tapes of hate surfaced, and there Obama and his wife Michelle will be cheering Demonically in your congregation as you spew you Hate. It will surface, someone will ‘sell out’ for a cool million. You know your Church Doctrine says, that Jesus was born in Africa and was Black! What, you are condeming the entire Vatican and Pope and Roman Catholic church by your Doctrine! All Christians except your Hate type knows Jesus was a Jew, born in a small Jewish town and he read the Torah, he was a Rabbi…Where in the Sam HIll did you come up with that, Reverend Wright. You want to take that up with the Vatican, Pope, all of Crisendom? Being a big shot is fun while you ride the high surf of power, but your time has come to step down, down into Hell where you came from and you shall return, Reverend Wright.
Mar 16th, 2008
Eric
The last time I checked, Obama and Wright were two different people, freely entitiled to their personal points of view independent of the opinions and beliefs of others.
To hold one accountable for the ideas of the other is patently absurd. To judge either of them solely based on media dispensation of information is woefully irresponsible if not opportunistic.
When we as Americans and global citizens learn to assume responsibility for the careful and meticulous research of information we choose to respect, we will take the first step toward independence from an agenda driven media, and toward a state of self-empowerment where we hold ourselves accountable for our own ignorances.
Mar 16th, 2008
ObamaSpeaksWithForkedTongue
Looks like alot of people feel the same way about Obama. Oh well, you can be the lone person that likes the hate..
Mar 16th, 2008
Eric
Whether ‘alot of people feel the same way about Obama’ or not, does following the crowd make one “right?”
To paraphrase a bit of wisdom, if the crowd you are a part of runs and jumps off a cliff, would you jump also?
Allow me to offer a correction.
I know that, regardless of how his words may have been taken out of context, spun, and cast, Jeremiah Wright is NOT a hate-monger, but has consistently shown himself as a man of love dedicated to uplifting the spirits and minds of the congregation given to him, for the glorification of the God of Abraham, David, and Jesus.
To be hell-bent on casting dispersions about a person you do not know clarifies for me your intention and motive.
Mar 17th, 2008
Brightmeadow
Interesting in view of this weekend’s news coverage!
Mar 17th, 2008
Jake Barlow
Thanks for posting this Eric. ObamaSpeaksWithForkedTongue is a typical blog trolling coward, probably a sociopath, who enjoys posting hateful remarks while cowering in anonymity.
Mar 19th, 2008
The True Truth
I’m so glad someone has posted this. It kills me that some of the people who call Obama supporters quick to jump on his bandwagon, are people who are doing the same thing ( ObamaSpeaksWithForkedTongue is an example of that).
I’m not saying I don’t understand anyone taking offense to what the media has taken and presented to be offensive; however…there is more to the story, more to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., and more to Barack Obama. I’ve had the opportunity to hear Rev. Wright speak on many occassions, and I can say from experience, the media has made him out to be one-dimensional, and he is more than that.
Mar 21st, 2008
open minded
If we are going to demonize Obama for his pastor’s beliefs, what about the Catholic church where thousands of young boys (not men) have been molested – isn’t this part of all of their beliefs? And what about the bombing of innocent Palestinians because of a faction in there culture (aka Hamas). Let’s just bomb those we know aren’t responsible! Once again we tear down a man and his beliefs to advance ours…
Mar 24th, 2008
CharDa
This letter is from last year….digging, digging, and continue to dig! Let it go, Jeremiah Wright, Jr. is not running to be President.
Do not respond to this blog!
Mar 26th, 2008
Jerry
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/25/pastor-of-clintons-forme_n_93418.html
Sam Stein
On Tuesday, March 25th, Sen. Hillary Clinton re-stoked the flames of the controversy surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor, saying she would have long ago distanced herself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright if she had attended his church.
“He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton told a gathering of the campaign press corps, repeating a line she used earlier in the day on a Pittsburgh radio program. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.”
But the pastor at the church that Clinton did once attend has recently expressed public support for Wright. He’s even proclaimed it a “grave injustice” to make a judgment on Wright based off of “two or three sound bites,” and criticized those who would “use a few of [Wright's] quotes to polarize.”
Last week, Dean Snyder, the senior minister at the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. — which the Clintons famously attended while in the White House — released a little noticed statement offering a sympathetic defense of the totality of Wright’s work.
“The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times,” Snyder wrote. “He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize.”
Snyder, it should be noted, was not the pastor at Foundry during the Clinton years. That was the previous minister, J. Philip Wogaman. Moreover, there seems to be confusion as to exactly what church Clinton now attends. Her campaign did not return requests for comment.
However, Foundry was cited on numerous occasions as a steady presence during the first couple’s time in the White House. And in January 2001, Bill Clinton gave a farewell speech to the congregation, thanking the church for its work in the city as well as for its “courage” to welcome gay and lesbian Christians.
Mar 26th, 2008
sistviobe
But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who was a
brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal education and
lived in New Jersey. Edison’s first major invention in 1877, was the
phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of American homes, where
it basically sat until 1923, when the record was invented. But Edison’s
greatest achievement came in 1879, when he invented the electric company.
Edison’s design was a brilliant adaptation of the simple electrical circuit:
the electric company sends electricity through a wire to a customer, then
immediately gets the electricity back through another wire, then (this is
the brilliant part) sends it right back to the customer again.
This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch of
electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since very few
customers take the time to examine their electricity closely. In fact the
last year any new electricity was generated in the United States was 1937;
the electric companies have been merely re-selling it ever since, which is
why they have so much free time to apply for rate increases.
– Dave Barry, “What is Electricity?”
—————————————————————————————————-
http://blurty.com/users/davewebbpq
May 13th, 2008
Reply to “An Open Letter to Jodi Kantor from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.”