U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounces his
preacher's racially-charged sermons, but says he cannot disown him, in a
speech urging Americans to move past racial division.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES (March 18, 2008) (NBC) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced his
preacher's racially-charged sermons, but says he cannot disown him, in a
speech urging Americans to move past racial division in Philadelphia on
Tuesday (March 18).
    Obama sought to quell a political firestorm ignited when news outlets
called attention to sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United
Church of Christ in Chicago, which the Illinois senator attended for two
decades.
   Wright, who retired recently, has railed that the Sept. 11 attacks were
retribution for U.S. foreign policy, called the U.S. government the source of
the AIDS virus and expressed anger over what he called racist America.
"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,"
said Wright in 2001.
   The Obama campaign has announced that Wright is no longer serving on the
Obama campaign's African-American religious leadership committee.
  Obama, however, said that he can not disown Wright.
   "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He
strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children,"
said Obama. "Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk
about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he
interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the
contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served
diligently for so many years."
Hillary Clinton's advisers have had little to say about the controversy
involving Wright, deflecting questions by saying the issue was something
voters would have to keep in mind.