Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor today defended the fiery sermons that have become a political liability for the Democratic presidential contender, charging that a furor over his remarks represents an "attack on the black church." Jack White, former Time magazine columnist and contributing writer to TheRoot.com , and Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African American Studies at Princeton University and also a contributor to The Root, were online Monday, April 28, at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss and analyze Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s speech today before the National Press Club in Washington on the washingtonpost.com

Jack White: The Sin of the Reverend

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Our Jeremiah

A transcript follows.

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Melissa Harris-Lacewell: I attended Trinity United Church of Christ during the seven years that I lived in Chicago: 1999-2006. This means that I was in the pews during many of these controversial sermons. I remember the sermon given the Sunday after 9-11 as particularly meaningful to me because I was pregnant with my daughter and Rev. Wright directly addressed what happens when our desire for revenge extends to a willingness to destroy innocents. From the beginning I have wanted to defend Jeremiah and his right to say anything from the pulpit that he wants to say. But, now he is out of the pulpit and in the broader media. Now, he needs an editor badly!

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Jack White: Nice being with you today, Melissa, on what may be a very bad day for Barack Obama's campaign.

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Fairfax, Va.: Do you think Wright is doing this to get back at Barack Obama? There is a lot of press coverage of Wright today and over the weekend CNN broadcast live his comments at another event for quite a long time. What effect, if any, do you think this will have on Obama and the electorate?

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: I am not sure why Reverend Wright would feel a need to "get back" at Obama. Although he has distanced himself from Wright, Senator Obama has never thrown him under the bus and was pretty careful in his Philadelphia speech to say that he refused to disown Wright.

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Washington, D.C.: Why is Wright's association with Obama so relevant to the press whereas Falwell's association with McCain is not?

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Many reasons. Obama has made a claim to be a different kind of political figure and claims to be able to bring people together. I don't think either of the other two candidates have made this kind of claim. They are more free to engage in politics as usual. Race is, of course, the other factor. It remains a conversation around which we do not share common vocabulary.

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Bristol, R.I.: I watched his NAACP talk in its entirety and found Rev. Wright to be reasonable, highly intelligent, and funny. And then I read Dana Milbank's account of his National Press club chat and "heard" an entirely different person. What, in your estimation, is at work here? And secondly, do you perceive an organized "pushback" from the black clergy to media coverage of Rev. Wright?

Jack White: Shades of the racially mixed reaction to the O.J. Simpson verdict. I think that Wright was very effective in the first part of his presentation, when he spoke from a prepared text. But his response to questions from the audience was unsettling. He was cocky, even silly, pirouetting around behind the host and spinning his hands. Milbank's reaction, no doubt, may be influenced by his ethnicity and unfamiliarity with black preaching styles. But I found it unsettling too. Wright had a chance to lay this issue to rest. He chose to inflame it.

As for a pushback from the black clery, of course, especially since Wright chsracterized the criticism of him as an attack on the black church on the whole. I think that was a mistake because it suggests that black churchgoers believe what Wright says and I don't think that's true.

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Washington, D.C. : Wow! Is this guy secretly working for the Republicans? He is the best thing that could have happened for McCain. My wife an (African American) is a Obama supporter, I am a Idependent, we get into disagreements; she thinks Wright is working for Clinton. How does Obama recover from this self-centered character?

Jack White: Ha! That's the same question I asked in my TheRoot.com piece today. I think that Obama at the very least is going to have to put even greater distance between himself and Wright. And even that may not work.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: I don't think he is on the GOP payroll. That is too easy! He seems to be simply driven by hubris and ego right now. I think he believes it is his job to defend the black church. I think the church was doing a pretty good job defending itself these past few weeks!

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York, Pa.: The Bill Moyer's PBS interview and the speech Sunday night in Detroit provided mostly positives for the Obama campaign. The National Press Club appearance today, however, appears to have put some significant negatives out there. I don't see how Obama can successfully maneuver out of this barrage without further distancing himself from Wright. Ironically, though, the two appearances before today could have helped him. I'll have to listen to what Wright said today to confirm this view that today's remarks were different. If you have listened to all three appearances would you please comment on them?

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: I agree that the Moyers interview was the most complex and "Obama-helpful" appearance. Particularly when Wright said that God takes things that man means for evil and uses them for good. The most obvious Christian example is the ressurrection. He then compared Obama's Philadelphia race speech as an example of God making bad things good. That was a pretty huge metaphor!

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Dumfries, Va.: I don't agree with everything Rev. Wright says even after hearing the entire sermon, but I understand his point.

Why doesn't the media put his comments in context? Is the media really that driven by profit and conflict?

In the meantime gas is approaching $4/gal and there are food riots. Let's move on to the real news.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Yes, the media is that profit driven! Take it from someone who does a lot of broadcast media hits! Even though there are smart and ethical journalists and producers and editors working in the industry, the industry itself is competes for viewer, listeners and readers in a way that makes it difficult to penetrate the noise of scandal and get to underlying issues