Obama-Wright rift reveals divided loyalties in black church

Sen. Barack Obama's break with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is putting black pastors and their congregations in a difficult position, their loyalties divided between a politician who could be the first black president and a celebrated preacher who many believe has been vilified.

The situation is complicated, ministers say, because there's a sense that both men have been treated unfairly — and that both have made mistakes.

Many black ministers defended Wright when his mo e incendiary remarks became an Internet sensation in March, saying context was needed to understand the black church's tradition of challenging injustice.

But Wright lost some of that support after his Monday appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, during which he claimed the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested that Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm's length while privately agreeing with him.

The performance was enough for Obama to denounce Wright's comments as "divisive and destructive." That was just six weeks after he portrayed Wright, in a well-received speech on race, as a family member he couldn't disown.

"What I am disappointed in is Rev. Wright's continuing to be in the public eye," said Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, senior pastor of 6,500-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. "If he has a point to get across, make your point. We as ministers have to be very careful about our timing."