Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial racially- and politically-charged sermons caused a near-fatal blow to the dreams of Senator Barack Obama. Now Obama’s former pastor has been accused of helping destroy the marriage of a staff member of his spiritual son’s church in Dallas, Texas.
HALLANDALE BEACH – THE VOICE magazine/Advancing Christian Life & Culture
Elizabeth Payne, a 37-year-old Caucasian, told the Post that she and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a 67-year-old African-American, had a steamy sexual relationship this year. Payne also told the paper she was fired from her job after the affair was made public.
Payne had been working at Friendship-West Baptist Church as a secretary to the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a longtime Wright protégé, before the scandal.
“I was involved with Rev. Wright, and that’s why I lost my job and why my husband divorced me,” Payne said. “I’m not a member of the congregation anymore and I’m not even allowed on the premises,” she said, adding that she has filed a wrongful-dismissal claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to get her job back.
Payne’s husband, Fred, aged 64, said he learned of the affair in late February, when he discovered about 80 e-mails between his wife and Wright. In those e-mails, Wright said he was going to leave his wife. Payne, who had married Elizabeth in October 2006, didn’t hesitate and headed straight for divorce court.
Rev. Wright has been married to his second wife, Ramah, for more than 20 years. However, there seems to be a pattern with Rev. Wright. He reportedly wooed Ramah away from her first husband in the 1980s, when the couple came to marriage counseling at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama’s decision to join Rev. Wright’s megachurch, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, in the 1980s is one of the cornerstones of his autobiography, and he borrowed the name of his book “The Audacity of Hope” from one of Rev. Wright’s sermons.
But last year, Obama began distancing himself from Rev. Wright, whose teachings have been criticized as racially inflammatory and unpatriotic.
Rev. Wright has said that the 9/11 attacks were a case of “America’s chickens coming home to roost,” and he has suggested that the government inflicted AIDS on black people. However, he is most known for what was widely interpreted as being an unpatriotic and deeply offensive statement damming America.
In April, after Rev. Wright seemed to step up his derisive public comments about the government, Obama called a news conference to denounce the man who had presided at his wedding and baptized his daughters, accusing Mr. Wright of “giving comfort to those who prey on hate.” Rev. Wright retired from Trinity in February, 2008.
The Voice contacted Rev. Otis Moss, III, current pastor of Trinity United Church and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Both declined to comment.
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Character will always stand the test of time. Although Senator Obama has distanced himself from Rev. Wright now, who’s to say they won’t re establish their relationship especially if Senator Obama becomes President Obama. It’s a sad day in America when you can’t find a leader who stands and surrounds himself/herself with people of character. People who are honest, who believe in integrity, who take responsibility and create opportunities for other people to prosper.
There has never been a time when Americans need to come together and pray for the healing of our nation. May God truly bless America with wisdom and with strength. We’re going to need it.