Houston, USA - Just weeks after publicity over his controversial sermons rocked Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will preach three guest sermons at Houston's Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.
Wright, who until February was minister of Obama's church, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, will preach March 30.
Wheeler's pastor, the Rev. Marcus Cosby, could not be reached for comment Friday.
A spokesman for the church said Wright, who has offered sermons at Wheeler annually for the past 15 years, had been scheduled as part of the church's regular speaker's program.
Widely publicized recorded excerpts from Wright's past sermons, in which he charged that U.S. actions prompted the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that the government created HIV to target people of color and harassed blacks through "three strike" laws, prompted Obama to address race issues in a speech earlier this week.
Obama termed Wright's comments "divisive," but also suggested that the snippets were not representative of the clergyman he has known for more than two decades.
In Houston, the Rev. William Lawson, Wheeler's pastor emeritus, suggested Wright's comments had been publicized by Obama's opponents in the tight race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Others in the black clergy noted that Wright's social commentary was part of the black church's "prophetic" tradition, which chastises society for its shortcomings.
Cosby is among African-American clergymen advising Obama on religious matters.