Letter from Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor: New York Times: Jodi Kantor

Jodi Kantor
The New York Times
9 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036-3959

Dear Jodi:

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest
misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in
sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two
hours. You told me you were doing a Spiritual
Biography of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I
shared with you how I thought he was the most
principled individual in public service that I have
ever met.

For two hours, I talked with you about how
idealistic he was. For two hours I shared with you
what a genuine human being he was. I told you how
incredible he was as a man who was an African
American in public service, and as a man who refused
to announce his candidacy for President until Carol
Moseley Braun indicated one way or the other whether
or not she was going to run.

I told you what a dreamer he was. I told you how
idealistic he was. We talked about how refreshing it
t would be for someone who knew about Islam to be in
the Oval Office. Your own question to me was, didn't I
think it would be incredible to have somebody in the
Oval Office who not only knew about Muslims, but had
living and breathing Muslims in his own family? I told
you how important it would be to have a man who not
only knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis
prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office, but also how
important it would be to have a man who knew what
Sufism was; a man who understood that there were
different branches of Judaism; a man who knew the
difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews,
Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who
was a devout Christian, but who did not prejudge
others because they believed something other than
what he believed.

I talked about how rare it was to meet a man whose
Christianity was not just in word only. I talked
about Barack being a person who lived his faith and
did not argue his faith. I talked about Barack as a
person who did not draw doctrinal lines in the sand
nor consign other people to hell if they did not
believe what he believed.

Out of a two-hour conversation with you about
Barack's spiritual journey and my protesting to you
that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had
not mentored him or made him the man he was, even
though I would love to take that credit, you did not
print any of that. When I told you, using one of
your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to
how God asked Moses,What is that in your hand?, that
Barack was like that when I met him. Barack had it
in his hand. Barack had in his grasp uniqueness in
terms of his spiritual development that one is hard
put to find in the 21st century, and you did not
print that.

As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi,
out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately
five to seven minutes on Barack's taking advice from
one of his trusted campaign people a and deeming it
unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of
his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and
what do you print? You and your editor proceeded to
present to the general public a snippet, a printed
sound bite and a titillating and tantalizing article
about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the
day of his announcing his candidacy.

I have never been exposed to that kind of
duplicitous behavior before, and I want to write you
publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it
and will not be party to any further smearing of the
name, the reputation, the integrity or the character
of perhaps this nations first (and maybe even only)
honest candidate offering himself for public service
as the person to occupy the Oval Office.

Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even
mention that makes me doubt your credibility, and I
am looking forward to see how you are going to
butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator
Obama's ?S pi ritual Biography.? Our Conference
Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white
woman who belongs to a Black church that Sanity of
Sanity and Comes is trying to trash, set the record
straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms
of who we are as the church to which Barack has
belonged for over twenty years.

The president of our denomination, the Reverend John
Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your
confused head what Trinity Church is even though you
spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to
interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the
Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to
roll on making the truth what it wants to be the
truth. I do not remember reading in your article that
Barack had apologized for listening to that bad
information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did
your editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to
worry about hearing anything else from me for you to
edit or spin because you are more interested in
journalism than in truth.

Forgive me for having a momentary lapse. I forgot
that The New York Times was leading the bandwagon in
trumpeting why it is we should have gone into an
illegal war. The New York Times became George Bush
and the Republican Party's national blog. The New
York Times played a role in the outing of Valerie
Plame. I do not know why I thought The New York
Times had actually repented and was going to exhibit a
different kind of behavior.

Maybe it was my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of
Roshashana. Maybe it was my being caught up in the
euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatever it is
or was, I was sadly mistaken. There is no repentance
on the part of The New York Times. There is no
integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do
well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight
in my face and told me a lie!

Sincerely and respectfully yours,

Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor
Trinity United Church of Christ