Obama's ex-pastor speaks out about church, sermons - CNN.com

• CNN|Obama's ex-pastor speaks out about church, sermons
• Baptist Press|Wright defends controversial remarks
• Christian Science Monitor|Wright Brings Race Issue Back to '08 Race

Mr. Wright has repeatedly complained that his controversial comments have been taken out of context and used unfairly against him. Responsible journalist certainly have a duty to place any comments he has made in their proper context. After all, he may be quoting and condemning someone else's comments, as he claims in this article. But when given the opportunity to place his "chickens coming home to roost" comment in it's proper context, he berates the CNN reporter who asked the question. He repeatedly asks her, "Have you heard the whole sermon?" When she admits she has not, he says, "Well that nullifies the question."

How does one complain about being taken out of context on the one hand, and then respond that someone who does not already know the context has no right to ask what the context was? Yet he then goes on to explain the context to us anyway. First he says that he was quoting the Iraqi ambassador. That explanation might fly if he was quoting him to discredit him. Yet as he continues to explain we see that he must have been agreeing with the Iraqi ambassador. He quotes Jesus teaching known to millions as the golden rule:

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matthew 7:12

He then does us the kindness of interpreting the text to mean that the United States could not do acts of terrorism without expecting to be victimized by terrorism. Funny, that's exactly what I thought he meant back when he was being taken out of context.