CHICAGO - Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson says he backs Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to sever ties with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.  Obama broke with the pastor on Tuesday and condemned some of his comments as “outrageous” and “appalling”.

“It was a painful break he had to make, a break between a pastor and a politician … They have different agendas but there’s so much pain in this whole process,” Jackson said.

Few others are so well equipped to understand the complexities of their relationship.

Both Wright and Jackson are ministers connected to large Chicago organizations with a strong emphasis on social justice and helping the impoverished.  In addition, Jackson ran two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

The break between Wright and Obama came after the retired pastor repeated an earlier comment to an audience in Washington that the government may have been responsible to introducing AIDS to African Americans and deserved some blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.

“It may be premature to get a reconciliation but at least we can get a cease-fire and back on the agenda items that matter to most American people,” said Jackson, urging the eventual winner and the loser in the Democratic nomination race to “close ranks” if they want to win in November.

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Photo credit: Frank Polich, Reuters - Barack Obama speaks to supporters in South Bend, Indiana on May 1.