The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to Sen. Barack Obama, said that publicizing sound bites of sermons in which he condemned U.S. policies was "unfair" and "devious," and done by people who know nothing about his church, according to excerpts of a PBS interview released Thursday.

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Wright said that, as an activist, he is accustomed to being "at odds with the establishment," but the response to the sermons has been "very, very unsettling."

The interview, scheduled for broadcast Friday night on PBS, is the first the pastor has given since video of his preaching gained national attention in March, putting Democratic presidential hopeful Obama on the defensive.

Among the most remarked upon sound bites was Wright proclaiming from the pulpit "God damn America" for its racism. He accused the government of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs.

The debate stirred by the circulation of the edited video clips culminated with Obama delivering a speech on March 18 in which he explained his 20-year association with the minister, who is stepping down as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. In the speech, Obama also repudiated Wright's comments. (Audio | Transcript)

"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain," Obama said. "Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

"But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."

"The blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the snippets from the sermon ... having made me the target of hatred, yes, that is something very new," Wright told "Bill Moyers' Journal."

"I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt -- for those who were doing that -- were doing it for some very devious reasons," he said.

On Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain publicly disagreed with a pastor whose endorsement he sought. During a campaign stop in New Orleans, a reporter asked him where he stood on remarks by televangelist John Hagee, who placed the blame for Hurricane Katrina on a "homosexual parade" in New Orleans.

"It's nonsense," McCain said. " I don't have anything more to say....it's nonsense. I reject it categorically."

Hagee has also spoken out forcefully against the Roman Catholic church, calling it cult, and blamed the Jews for their fate in the Nazi Holocaust.