And Obama was indoctrinated with this leftist drivel when he sat in Wright’s pew for over 20 years.

(Baltimore Sun) — Forget hope and change; victimization is in. Dropped by the president and dismissed as a racist by many Americans, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright still draws crowds with his sometimes crotch-grabbing, always riveting soliloquies about black oppression.

The former pastor of Barack Obama drew thousands last week to the 8,000-member Empowerment Temple in Baltimore City. Overflow lots at the church were filled, and five blocks on either side of the massive stadium-like stucco building in Park Heights — a part of town where Orthodox Jews mix sometimes uneasily with blacks — were wall to wall with cars.

“Barack Obama was selected before he was elected,” said Mr. Wright, dressed in black pants and a short-sleeved, African-style printed tunic. “Wall Street selected him. GM, Ford and Chrysler selected him. When you are selected by them, you are beholden to them.”

Referencing the Book of Exodus, he warned churchgoers to “Please remember that Pharaoh was black, so not all of your oppressors are white.” A chorus of “amen” and a phalanx of arms rose simultaneously into the air in agreement with Mr. Wright.

And he said faith was not a path to riches, repeatedly poking the expensively dressed Empowerment Temple Pastor Jamal Bryant for driving a Range Rover. “Every word that is in the Bible was written under six different types of [government] oppression,” he said.

Mr. Wright spread the blame for black persecution around on lots of people and epochs. He hates Roman emperors for renaming months after themselves and upsetting their proper numerical order; Michelangelo for painting Jesus as white; U.S. public schools for teaching the American Revolution instead of African history. In particular, he hates the term “Middle East,” as it implies Europe as the center of the world.

And he hates Israel. “The state of Israel is an illegal, genocidal . . . place,” he said. “To equate Judaism with the state of Israel is to equate Christianity with [rapper] Flavor Flav.” Laughter erupted from the mostly female audience on that remark.

If you are inclined to believe Obama, he never heard anything like this during the weekly sermons he attended for over two decades.