Obama renounces fiery pastor's comments

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday repudiated what he called "inflammatory and appalling remarks" made by his Chicago pastor, seeking to quell another campaign controversy tinged with race.

The Democrat from Illinois, who would be the first black president, used stronger words than he has in the past to distance himself from widely circulated sermons by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side.

In Wright's sermons over the years, which have been circulated in the media and on the YouTube Web site, he has called the September 2001 attacks retribution for U.S. foreign policy, cited the U.S. government as the source of the AIDS virus, and railed against a racist America.

"I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy," Obama said in statement, responding to persistent media coverage of Wright's sermons.

"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country ... I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit," he said.

Obama, who is locked a close race with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he had not been present during the sermons in question. Obama joined Wright's church 20 years ago, before starting his political career.

"Had I heard them in church I would have expressed that concern directly to Rev. Wright," Obama told MSNBC, adding that Wright was no longer on the campaign's spiritual advisory council, the African American Leadership Committee.

At the time he learned of the sermons, he said did not leave the church where he was married and his daughters were baptized because Wright was retiring.