The American Spectator

In a recently resurfaced television interview from 1995, Barack Obama describes Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a “wonderful man” who “represents the best of what the black Church has to offer.”

The pro-Obama blog Old Man McCain posted a three part video interview of Obama, in which he was discussing his memoir, Dreams From My Father.

At one point the interviewer, Connie Martinson says, “wonderful man there, Rev. Wright.”

To which Obama responded:

“Wright, who is my pastor, and he is a wonderful man…He’s a pastor of a large congregation in Chicago, and one of the interesting things that I discover in my journey to discover what my identity is and who my father is, is also discovering my own faith, which is not necessarily a traditional faith. I don’t come out of an institutionalized religious setting, but what becomes important to me as I work with churches in the South Side of Chicago and low income neighborhoods is to realize that all of the stories and songs of the Church, the hope that is embodied in the Church, the sense of liberation that is embodied in the historically African American Church, is really something that moves me deeply, and I think is probably the main pillar around which a lot of inner city communities are going to be built, and Rev. Wright, my pastor who I speak about in the chapter in the book, I think represents the best of what the black Church has to offer.”

What’s also interesting is that here, Obama talks about his faith in terms of its ability to help build black communities, but these days (most recently in the Saddleback Church forum), his discussions of faith are much more religious, and rooted in biblical quotations.

Video below (the excerpted portion around the 2:40 mark):