Oprah + Obama Use Chicago Church For Personal Gain. Winfrey Had Sense To Get Out Early, Leaving Wright Furious

REV. LAINIE DOWELL -- ON FAITH 

Black Liberation Theology Brought To Media Attention Long Ago, But Ignored 

As I recall, it was during the 1990s when I wrote to Oprah Winfrey about the problems in the Black Baptist Church in America and the NAACP and I asked her to investigate.  I never received a response from Winfrey's show which is produced in Chicago, Illinois.

I now recall how, in 1985, I was a Preacher at the First Baptist Church of Guilford (FBCG), in Columbia, Maryland.  The Pastor at the time was Rev. John L. Wright (no relation to Jeremiah Wright--but both are black Baptist ministers and promote the same Black Liberation Theology) and he is still there today.

At that time, Oprah Winfrey was a noted celebrity in Baltimore, Maryland, at Channel 13, on a television show called, "People Are Talking," with Richard Scherr.  And she also lived in Columbia, Maryland.

In 1986, just before Oprah announced she was leaving Maryland to go to Chicago, she was invited to speak at an evening service at FBCG (Columbia, MD).  I never saw anything like it.  When Oprah arrived, she was escorted down the center aisle of our church.  She had on dark sunglasses and the feathers from her sweater were blowing around her face, as she strutted down the aisle.  She was escorted to the pulpit and delivered a message (not a sermon) pretty much in the way she acted in the movies with the "cullod" accent.  I don't know how I could have forgotten that, but it just came back to me during a recent Greta Van Susteren interview (On the Record--FOX News) of Allison Samuels, a Newsweek reporter.  Samuels recently wrote a feature for Newsweek which detailed why Winfrey left the Trinity United Church of Christ.  Of late, the Chicago church has dominated news coverage because of its fiery leader, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his relationship with Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama.

I guess my question is -- How could Oprah Winfrey have been a member of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright's Church, since 1984, when she was living in Maryland and appearing daily on a local television show?  I'll be sure to be looking for a follow-up report on this subject.

Samuels stated she believes Oprah may have left the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in the 1990s because she did not think her growing TV audience would appreciate Winfrey having anything to do with the kind of preaching that was being done by Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  Also, Samuels told Van Susteren, after Oprah left the Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright began lambasting her from the pulpit, saying Oprah left because she didn't want to give up any money.  What he did is called, "Preaching on people," and while the congregants laugh, the one "preached on" knows who the Preacher is talking about -- and the congregants know, too.

Over twenty years is a long time to sit under that kind of goings-on in the church and not come away without bringing it with you.  There's no way Obama could not have known what was happening at his place of worship.  Obama was too close to Wright and the inner-workings of the church to have missed it.  Obama was in the Rev. Wright's inner circle of the trusted and the "helped along."  Perhaps Obama and Winfrey originally came to the same church for the same reasons...political power and connections.  But Winfrey was just a tad smarter and left Rev. Jeremiah Wright's flock before any further damage could be done to her or her career.

I saw the same kind of things happening in my church.  Many men and women were coming in primarily for political reasons and for the sake of money and social advancement with the noted religious and political personalities.

I actually conversed with Van Susteren via direct e-mail at the same FOX News TV studio in 2002, along with a number of other media personalities during that time period.  I tried to impress upon Van Susteren that the black Baptist Church and NAACP needed to be investigated.  I still have the e-mail.  At that time, Van Susteren expressed regret and wished me luck with the situation, rather than show interest in the subject of hate coming from some African-American pulpits.

The irony of it all is Greta Van Susteren interviewed Samuels about Oprah and her relationship to the Trinity United Church of Christ and its Pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., but Van Susteren was aware of the issue long ago.

Today Van Susteren, and the news media in general, are expressing deep shock and surprise about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's actions in the church pulpit.  I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Rev. L. Dowell, Five-Fold Minister
Contact:  revldowell-clergywomen@erols.com
Advocacy url:  http://www.clergywomen.org/dowell_sundaysun.html
Ministerial callings:  http://www.clergywomen.org/in_call.html

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Comments

[Debbie]

Very interesting and thanks for sharing the article with me. I'm not shocked any more at the media. Seems they all have an agenda or are just too lazy to do a thorough job of investigating at times.

Listening to Obama today, I am again reminded that he cannot form a complete sentence without a script. He looked pathetic trying to answer farmers questions. He was totally clueless.