In Easter Sermon, Trinity United Pastor Compares Rev. Wright to Jesus


Sunday, March 23, 2008
The new pastor at Barack Obama’s church used his first Easter sermon on Sunday to compare controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans.
Sunday’s sunrise sermon, delivered by Rev. Otis Moss III, was called “How to Handle a Public Lynching” and focused primarily on the media firestorm that has focused international attention on this Chicago ministry, which is the church attended by the Democratic presidential candidate.
Moss did not directly mention his spiritual mentor by name, but implied to the congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ that Wright, who has delivered sermons in which he likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and said it is (*)(*)(*)(*)ed for its state-sponsored terrorism, is facing the same challenges Jesus did.
“No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching. The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching?” he said.
The Sunday services made clear that the criticism surrounding Wright has not softened the church’s sermons, and that the controversy has in a way served as a rallying cry for this 8,000-member congregation.
“If I was Ice Cube I’d say it a little differently — You picked the wrong folk to mess with,” Moss said to an enthusiastic congregation, standing up during much of the sermon.
The Wright controversy seemed an unspoken thread to Sunday’s services, as the pastors repeatedly alluded to the matter without calling out Wright by name. And they defiantly defended their method of worship.
Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie in her sermon talked about visionaries like “King” and “Gandhi” and “Jeremiah” (it was unclear whether she meant Wright), and argued that their words weren’t about “anger,” but about “a passion that demands confrontation.”
“The purveyors of information are trying to be judge and jury over prophetic utterances,” she said.
Moss issued several pleas to congregants to donate to what he called the “Resurrection Fund,” stressing that during this time of battle, money is needed to defend the church. He offered no additional specifics about the fund, telling churchgoers he didn’t want to get into it because Trinity is streaming the service live on the Web and the services are available for purchase on DVD.He concluded with another analogy, saying, “In order to crucify him you’ve got to lift him up … he had more visibility on the cross than he did during his entire ministry.” …

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