Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. returned to his infamous pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ on Sunday for the first time since his retirement. And it sounds like he was back up to his old tricks.
Wright, the former pastor of Trinity, found himself in the media spotlight because of controversial remarks made before and during President-elect Obama's campaign. The resulting media ambush motivated Rev. Otis Moss III, Wright's successor, to ban cameras and recording devices from future worship services.
Wright returned to Trinity to help celebrate the church's 47th anniversary. Reporters were turned away from the service, but the ceremony was streamed live on the Internet.
The former pastor didn't pull any punches:
"Jesus said upon this rock I will build—listen to the promise—my church," he said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "And the gates of hell—listen to the promise—the gates of hell—neither ABC nor CNN—the gates of hell—neither Hannity nor O'Reilly—the gates of hell—neither Time, Time Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune ... the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Nothing will be impossible with God."
Wright also pointed out that religion has always been involved with politics, saying that "Luke the evangelist, not Wright the radical" spoke out against the Roman government in Jesus' time.
"Any preacher who dares to point out the simple ugly facts found in every field imaginable is demonized as volatile, controversial, incendiary, inflammatory, anti-American, and radical," he said.
Rev. Wright didn't stop there. The Sun-Times reports that he alluded twice to "that dumb broad" on ABC's "The View." While he avoided saying her name outright, he was likely referring to Elisabeth Hasselback, who has criticized Wright more than once on the daytime program.
The preacher didn't belittle everyone though. Although President-elect Barack Obama made a "bad decision" in publicly distancing himself from Wright, "he's still my child," Wright said.
"The hatred of the media and the haters in politics may have caused him to distance himself from us, but the love of Christ will never allow me to distance myself from him," he said. "I can no more disown him than I can disown any other child of mine who makes [a] bad decision."
