Tonight, the PBS series "Bill Moyers Journal" will feature the first interview with Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ since controversy erupted over his sermons.
During the hour-long show, the former pastor tells fellow United Church of Christ member Moyers that snippets from his sermons have been taken out of context and offer a faulty picture of his views.
“I think they want to communicate that I am unpatriotic,” Wright says in the interview.
When asked by Moyers his reaction to Obama denouncing the more controversial parts of his sermons, Rev. Wright responded: "It went down very simply. He’s a politician, I’m a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two different worlds. I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the soundbites, he responded as a politician.”
Moyers asked: “In the 20 years that you’ve been his pastor, have you ever heard him repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?”
Wright anwered: “No. No. No. Absolutely not. I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.”
Check local listings at www.pbs.org/moyers for the airtime in your area.
Meanwhile, Rev. Wright is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the NAACP Detroit Branch on Sunday. On Monday, he's due to speak at the National Press Club as part of a divinity conference of black church leaders. The event will be open to all media.
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