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Obama's former pastor to speak in Milford

By NOELLE FRAMPTON
Staff writer
Article Last Updated: 11/04/2008 11:04:00 PM EST

MILFORD -- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose racially charged sermons engulfed Barack Obama's presidential campaign in controversy last spring, will speak here Thursday night.
Wright, retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago, and Obama's former pastor, will discuss issues with the Rev. John C. Rankin, an evangelical scholar and founder of the Hartford-based Theological Education Institute, at a forum titled, "The Bible, Race and American History: What are the Issues?"
R. Chad Rankin, the institute's business manager and John Rankin's son, said the forum, which will start at 7 p.m. and last roughly two hours, will delve into questions like, "Can we overcome the racial divide in our country?" It will be held in the Kingdom Life Christian Church Cathedral, 1455 Naugatuck Ave., but is not sponsored by the church.
The two ministers have very different views, Rankin said, but, "It's going to be interesting to see what they do see eye-to-eye on." He said his father has been working on the Wright event for about four months, after the Chicago minister gained national media attention in March over excerpts from his sermons about race, government and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Critics said that Wright's comments seemed to indicate he felt the United States may have deserved the attacks because of past injustice to blacks and other minorities. Although Obama at first distanced himself from Wright's statements, but not the
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minister himself, as controversy mounted over their relationship and threatened to swamp Obama's candidacy, he later left the church and severed ties.
Moderated by Eric Metaxas, a former Danbury resident whose biography of British abolitionist William Wilberforce made The New York Times best-seller list, the forum will include opening and closing statements from each man, dialogue when each will ask the other questions, and a question-and-answer session with the audience, Rankin said.
It is the latest of the institute's Mars Hill Forum series, designed to promote dialogue and education on hot-button cultural, religious and political issues. Last week, it sponsored a similar forum, "Is Same-Sex Marriage Good for the Nation?" with a lesbian activist in Hartford and is planning a second event with Wright in December, he said.
Rankin recommends buying tickets in advance.
"This thing could be huge, we don't know," he said. "It should be dynamic. There's a lot of dialogue back and forth. There's actually time for each to make their honest appeal "¦ [say] why they believe what they do."
Tickets to the forum cost $20 if purchased in advance online, at http://www.teinetwork.com, or by telephone at (860) 246-3122, and $25 at the door. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m.