The prophetic and gospel messages of the Bible are pretty tough on worldly power and wealth and violence. From the Chicago pulpit of Barack Obama’s longtime minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, in the cadence and language of the black church, those messages sound like hellfire for a very worldly American superpower.

Now the preacher is retired and Obama has condemned his most fiery proclamations. But when Reverend Wright meets mainstream America on YouTube and Fox News, in the middle of a red-hot campaign, you’ve got fireworks.

This hour, On Point: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the American presidency.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Lisa Miller, senior editor at Newsweek. She oversees all of the magazine’s religion coverage and writes the Belief Watch column.

Dwight Hopkins, professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a member of Barack Obama’s congregation, Trinity United Church of Christ.

Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine.

Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist for The Chicago Tribune.

Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, race