Had the honor of interviewing living Black History. The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Senior Pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Rev. Wright is visiting Indianapolis March 3rd to speak at Christian Theological Seminary. To many the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright only became known in the spring of 2008 when media clips took a sermon out of context and used it to embarrass Rev. Wright to get at them presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. Rev. Wright was then Mr. Obama’s Pastor. But the media firestorm didn’t diminish the years of service to his church and congregation of this groundbreaking Black minister. A Philadelphia native, Jeremiah Wright left Virginia Union College and joined the Marines, later becoming a Medical Corpsman serving at Bethesda Naval Hospital where he treated President Lyndon Johnson and received three letters of commendations. After the Marines, Wright earned Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Howard University, a Masters from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological College, where he studied under Rev. Samuel DeWitt Proctor, a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1972, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright became pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side growing the church from 87 to over 8,000 members. In the exclusive Afternoons with Amos interview, Rev. Wright talked about the state of the Black church today in America and discussed criticism of the Black church by some African-Americans. He talked about the impact media coverage, both news coverage a reality shows about ministers, has had in distorting the real work of the Black church. Making it more about the size of a church’s membership rather than the quality of its ministry and stewardship. Rev. Wright talked about the assault on African-Americans who speak out publicly on the problems impacting the community. Rev. Wright also talked about parents and their older or grown children who stray from Faithfulness and Obedience. Are parents to be blamed? In a revelation to Afternoons with Amos listeners, Rev. Wright spoke with pride about one of his Trinity Church’s members, the rapper Common who just won the Oscar for Best Song for Selma. Rev. Wright described Common as a faithful member of his church and related that to the problems the Black church today has in reaching out to young people and the unchurched. The Afternoons with Amos Interview with Rev. Wright is open, honest and will make you think about your Faith and Faithfulness with your church. Click the Media Player to hear the live, unedited Afternoons with Amos interview with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Runs 25 Minutes ©2015 WTLC/Radio One.