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• The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. was the pastor of the Trinity United Church Of Christ, a liberal, black-oriented church in Chicago, Illinois, until his retirement in 2008.

  Reverend Wright became minister of the church on March 1, 1972. He helped the congregation grow from 87 members to its current membership of somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 members. Wright rose to national prominence during the 2008 presidential election, due to President Barack Obama's longtime membership at Trinity.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: September 22, 1941
  2. Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  3. Wife: Reverend Ramah Reed Wright
  4. Elizabeth Payne claimed she had an affair with WrightNew York Post: O Pastor in Sex Scandal (September 9, 2008)
  5. Has 5 children
  6. Former U.S. Marine

• Controversy

  Reverend Wright and the Trinity Unity Church came into the spotlight in March, 2008, because of their association with former church member, President Barack Obama.

  Video segments of Reverend Wright voicing controversial opinions on political topics were circulated extensively by opponents of the Obama campaign. Opponents sought to use them as evidence that Obama secretly held views at odds with those he publicly professes. Obama's response was the "race speech" of March 18, 2008.

  The former reverend to the President of the United States stated in an interview that the reason why he hasn't seen Obama in a year is because "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me." He went on to state that he thinks that Obama will eventually come back and speak to him once his presidency is over, or while in a lame duck period. The interview was conducting in June of 2009. The day after he made the comments, Write flippantly stated that he misspoke and meant to say Zionist instead of Jews. An official apology was made by Write on his Facebook page on June 12, 2009.FoxNews: Rev. Wright Says 'Them Jews' Won't... (June 10, 2009)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/11/jeremiah-wright-on-jews-a_n_214481.htmlhttp://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-jeremiah-wright-apology.j12,0,6641310.story

• Unfair Portrayal?

  On April 24, 2008, during a television appearance with Bill Moyers, Reverend Wright said that the videos of his sermons were taken unfairly out of context to make him appear fanatical. He claimed that the segments shown were edited from a large amount of footage, but presented as though they were representative, in order to hurt his reputation and Obama's.

• Elizabeth Payne

  In September 2008, a woman came forward with claims that she had been involved with Wright in an extramarital affair.New York Post: O Pastor in sex scandal (September 9, 2008) Elizabeth Payne—a former secretary at an affiliate church who is 30 years younger than Wright—told the New York Post that she had been romantically involved with the preacher as recently as early 2008.New York Post: O Pastor in sex scandal (September 9, 2008)

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  Elizabeth Payne | Trinity United Church Of Christ | Michael Pfleger | Jeremiah Wright NAACP | Jeremiah Wright Bill Moyers | Barack Obama | Clinton Wright Photo | Reverend Wright

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