To the editor:

My brother-in-law is a retired pastor in the United Church of Christ, a mostly white denomination of which Trinity Church in Chicago is a member. Their retired pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has always been highly regarded as a fine pastor doing marvelous work on Chicago’s Southside.

After the right-wing media began to smear him, several Chicago reporters read over 1,000 of Rev. Wright’s sermons, and only found two which had anything that seemed controversial. The famous “G-D America” statement was actually a quote from a speech by a white man who was as incensed at the racism on the Southside as Rev. Wright was. Rev. Wright is neither anti-American, nor a racist, nor a homophobe. He was the pastor who brought President Obama to know Christ and become a Christian.

Intelligent people with open minds are able to meet and converse with many people of various points of view over the years. We hope that Mr. Boyer (Public Forum, March 14) and others will in the future be able to explain how they differ with the policies of a political opponent without personally demonizing any candidate, especially one who is the president of the United States.