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I wish Jeremiah Wright had made his point about America’s failings without saying “God damn America.” But not for a moment do I wish he had been less prophetic. The great biblical prophets did and said outrageous, controversial things, which consistently got them in trouble and occasionally landed them in jail. I wish Wright had not said “America’s chickens are coming home to roost” about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. But he claimed to be paraphrasing a commentator on TV who—quite reasonably—had pointed out objectionable and self-defeating U.S. foreign policies.

If you were to visit Trinity United Church of Christ, a predominantly African-American congregation on the Chicago’s South Side, you would be warmly welcomed. You’d experience spirited singing that comes deep from the soul. You’d feel the palpable pain of the people, many of whom live in neighborhoods where innocent children are caught in the crossfire of warring gangs, where police officers are regularly accused of engaging in racial profiling, and where the rates of incarceration and unemployment are extremely high.

Jeremiah Wright needs no defense from me. Anyone who has built a congregation from 87 members to some 8,000 and whose congregation has created models of ministry in one of the poorest areas of Chicago has a body of work that speaks for itself. A recent press release from Trinity United Church of Christ, issued by its new senior pastor, Otis Moss III, notes that on Sunday mornings alone, over 36 years, Pastor Wright has spoken for a total of 207,792 minutes.

Richard Lischer, professor of preaching, Duke Divinity School: “It’s been 40 years since we have heard redemptive language in the political arena. Like Martin Luther King Jr., Obama did not flinch from addressing the lingering pain and anger of racism in America. Like King, Obama understands how questions of race are bound up with religion. It’s no accident that the current controversy arose in a congregation.”

Two politically attuned professors in the South called the sharp rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright understandable in the context of an inner-city, largely black church, and both experts marveled at how political opponents seized upon the former pastor’s relationship to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama.

When Senator Barack Obama faced the cameras in a nationally televised speech in mid-March, he was caught between his roles as politician and parishioner, forced to condemn his pastor’s words as he tried to advance his own campaign for president.

Experts on the black church say the controversial comments of Obama’s former Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright, put Obama in an awkward and uncomfortable position. At the same time, they have given him a chance to discuss race—including the nature of the black church—with white Americans.