Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, has been in the news for some controversial comments that have surfaced this week.
Wright, the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side, said that he blames America for the attacks on 9/11 due to its own "terrorism".
"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," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," the preacher told his congregation.
In addition to his views on 9/11, Rev. Wright denounced the American government and its treatment of African-Americans.
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," Wright said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
Obama has said that although Wright has said some controversial things, he said "Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with."
Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope."
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