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| ObamaÂ’s Former Pastor Getting $1.6M Home in Retirement |
| 2008-03-28 |
| This was supposed to be the week that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. returned to the pulpit to preach for the first time since his anti-American sermons generated nationwide outrage and drew condemnation from his longtime parishioner, Barack Obama. But, citing security concerns, Wright canceled his speaking engagements in Florida and Texas. A spokeswoman at his former church in Chicago said his schedule is pending. A two-week FOX News investigation, however, has uncovered where Wright will be spending a good deal of his time in retirement, and it is a far cry from the impoverished Chicago streets where the preacher led his ministry for 36 years. FOX News has uncovered documents that indicate Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community. While it is not uncommon for an accomplished clergyman to live in luxury, Wright’s retirement residence is raising some questions. “Some people think deals like this are hypocritical. Jeremiah Wright himself criticizes people from the pulpit for middle classism, for too much materialism,” said Andrew Walsh, Associate Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life with Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. “So he’s entitled to be tweaked here. So the question really is, how unusual is this? Somewhat unusual,” he said. According to documents obtained from the Cook County Register of Deeds, Wright purchased two empty lots in Tinley Park, Ill., from Chicago restaurant chain owner Kenny Lewis for $345,000 in 2004. Documents show Wright sold the property to his church, Trinity United, in December 2006, with the proceeds going to a living trust shared with his wife, Ramah. The sale price for the land was just under $308,000, about $40,000 less than Wright’s original purchase two years earlier. Public records of the sale show Trinity initially obtained a $10 million bank loan to purchase the property and build a new house on the land. But further investigation with tax and real estate attorneys showed that the church had actually secured a $1.6 million mortgage for the home purchase, and attached a $10 million line of credit, for reasons unspecified in the paperwork. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #1 Preaching against whitey shore do pay well. |
| Posted by: Rupert Glasing8221 2008-03-28 23:25 |