Read Wineke's blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.

I don't think I 've ever before heard a candidate for president encourage people to leave their church should they disagree with the minister 's message.

But there was U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton Tuesday, telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that, had she been a member of Barack Obama 's church, she would have left because of the preaching of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"You don 't choose your family, but you do choose what church you want to attend, " Clinton explained, adding that she always stands against "hate speech " and asserting "I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving. "

I asked Howard Dean, chairman of the national Democratic Party, about Clinton 's comments later Tuesday when he appeared in Madison for a fundraiser. It just seemed to me that accusing the pastor of a large black congregation of "hate speech " might drive a wedge between Democrats and their most faithful constituency. Dean just donned his trademark smirk, announced he never comments on candidates, and walked away to deliver a talk about how unified the Democratic Party will be this fall.

Maybe so. But my guess is that when the implication of Clinton 's remarks is better understood, they will anger not Obama supporters but church people of all political persuasions and of all colors.

You see, you and I may look at the short clips of Wright sermons played almost endlessly on cable television and agree that they are filled with "hate. " Clinton knows better. She is better informed about religion than most politicians, and she knows the tradition of prophetic preaching in the church. Every theologian I know who has actually attended Trinity United Church of Christ -- including Martin Marty, probably the most popular theologian in America today -- agrees Wright 's sermons, taken in context, rest squarely in that tradition.

The prophetic tradition involves the preacher denouncing the sins of society, calling God 's vengeance on the sinning parties and promising redemption if the sinners repent.

In Madison, the late Rev. Alfred W. Swan, minister of the First Congregational Church (now part of the UCC) from 1930 to 1965, was regularly denounced for his preaching.

One Sunday in 1952, Swan mounted the pulpit to announce "I am not a Communist, and I have no intention of being one. " That was after Swan had criticized the Korean War, urged the country to make peace with China and suggested that Russians were better off than they had been before the 1917 Revolution. Not surprisingly, Swan regularly faced calls for his dismissal.

More recently in Madison, local pastors of the UCC issued a joint statement announcing that "the war in Iraq is not a just war. ' It was not a last resort, it has not been carried out with proportionality and it does not discriminate in any meaningful way between warrior and civilian. "

That, too, was a prophetic statement, issued without the fiery rhetoric of Wright 's preaching.

All of these actions angered congregational members and civic officials who opposed the position of the clergy. No one is obligated to agree with any "prophetic " statements issued by a preacher.

But prophetic preaching is part of the church in general and it is an important part of the black church. I really wonder if Clinton actually wants a country of churches with pastors too timid to preach controversy.