Obama Denounces His Pastor As Religion Continues Importance In Campaign

Religion has played an unusually important role in the 2008 presidential primaries for many months. In the latest illustration of this, yesterday Barack Obama held a press conference (full transcript) denouncing remarks made at the National Press Club on Monday (transcript) by his long-time pastor Jeremiah Wright. Those remarks followed two other appearances by Wright-- a Friday evening interview on Bill Moyers Journal (transcript) and a speech at an NAACP dinner on Sunday night (transcript). Today's New York Times reports on Obama's public rejection of Wright. Obama said in part: "What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that ... contradicts who I am and what I stand for. And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing."