Something Wasn’t Wright: Why Oprah Winfrey Left Rev. Wrights Church … Didn’t Want to Offend Audience, then Why Did Obama Want to?

OPRAH … Something wasn’t Wright.

How is it that Oprah saw and heard the hateful message in Wright’s sermons, but Barack Obama did not? By all accounts this means that there is no way that Barack Obama could not have been present for a hate filled, racist preaching by Rev Wright. How could Oprah see it and Obama not?

Friends say she was blindsided by the pastor’s personal assault on Obama. Why, Wright hates all who do not bow down before him.

If Barack Obama thinks that the Revered Wright controversy is going to go away any time soon, he best think again. Obama has been continually asked, how could anyone for 20 years sit through Wright’s sermons and not get offended. How could anyone sit by, especially some one with political aspirations and think that this was the wrong message to associate with? Obama will be compared to Oprah, who in the 1990’s said no to the church and to Wright. 

For any spiritually minded, up-wardly mobile African-American living in Chicago in the mid-1980s, the Trinity United Church of Christ was—and still is—the place to be.

In a Newsweek article, associates of Oprah Winfrey tell why she left the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. To no one’s surprise her main issue for leaving was Reverend Wright and the tone of his sermons.

A major reason—but by no means the only reason—was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

According to two sources, Winfrey was never comfortable with the tone of Wright’s more incendiary sermons, which she knew had the power to damage her standing as America’s favorite daytime talk-show host. “Oprah is a businesswoman, first and foremost,” said one longtime friend, who requested anonymity when discussing Winfrey’s personal sentiments. “She’s always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn’t be smart. She’s been around black churches all her life, so Reverend Wright’s anger-filled message didn’t surprise her. But it just wasn’t what she was looking for in a church.”

Is there a difference between a TV audience and an electorate? Not really. In both cases, one certainly does not want to offend the masses and main stream America. Especially when you are Obama, who claims to have a message of inclusiveness Oprah saw that not only was Wright a problem, so was his message. That is code for … what is this crazy person spewing and why would I want to be connected in any way to this. Interestingly enough, Oprah knew that by going to this church, she would be connected to the hateful message that Wright was talking and have to answer for it. If Oprah saw this, why didn’t Obama?

Why did Barack Obama attend Trinity? He needed to go to church to find his identity as an “African-American and, more importantly, as an African-American man”. That’s why one goes to church? I always thought it was to enhance your relationship with God and to declare that Jesus Christ had dies for your sins and was your Lord and Savior.

“[His] reasons for attending Trinity were totally different,” said one campaign adviser, who declined to be named discussing the Illinois senator’s sentiments. “Early on, he was in search of his identity as an African-American and, more importantly, as an African-American man. Reverend Wright and other male members of the church were instrumental in helping him understand the black experience in America. Winfrey wasn’t going for that. She’s secure in her blackness, so that didn’t have a hold on her.”

However, once secure in his blackness and no longer politically expedient to use … Barack Obama finally divorces himself from Rev. Wright.