Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) - America reaped what it sowed on September 11, 2001, and the The Golden Rule-"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"-explains why the United States was attacked that day, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said at the National Press Club on Monday.

Wright was responding to a moderator who asked him to explain what he meant when he said that "America's chickens are coming home to roost" in a sermon given at the Trinity United Church of Christ, where Sen. Barack Obama is a member, shortly after the 2001 attacks.

[T]to quote the Bible," said Wright, "'Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever you sow, that you also shall reap.' Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are Biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles."

Before giving this answer, Wright had asked the moderator if she had heard the whole sermon in question and then chastised her when she said, "I heard most of it."

"No, no, the whole sermon, yes or no?" said Wright. "No, you haven't heard the whole sermon? That nullifies that question."

"Well, let me try to respond in a non-bombastic way," he said. "If you heard the whole sermon, first of all, you heard that I was quoting the ambassador from Iraq. That's number one."

He then cited the Golden Rule and the Biblical passage about reaping what you sow.

In a sermon at the Trinity United Church of Christ just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Wright, who is now retired from his senior pastor post, had pointed to the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II and to what he called U.S.-supported "state terrorism" against Palestinians and South African blacks.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said in the sermon. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Sen. Obama has said he did not hear this sermon, and has since denounced his former pastor's words.

Wright was also asked at the press club on Monday what he thought of critics who said his sermons were unpatriotic.

"I feel that those citizens who say that, have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me," Wright said. "I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?"

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