The Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke at the National Press Club on Monday morning before the Washington press corps and a supportive audience of black church leaders.

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Wright, whose speech, entitled "The African American Religious Experience; Theology & Practice," began a two-day symposium, said criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church.

Barack Obama's former pastor said he hopes the controversy will have a positive outcome and spark an honest dialogue about race in America.

Wright said black church traditions are still "invisible" to many Americans, as they have been throughout the country's history.

He said the black church tradition is not bombastic or controversial, but different and misunderstood by the "dominant culture" in the United States.

"It is not deficient, it is just different," he said.

His speech came a day after he spoke at a dinner hosted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to defend his stance on racial injustices.

Wright's sermons have rallied some and offended others, but he said his critics get it wrong when they call him divisive and polarizing.

Wright told the NAACP dinner on Sunday night that he prefers the word "descriptive." He got a standing ovation after his speech before a crowd of 10,000 in Detroit.

Obama distanced himself from Wright after the minister's criticism of America's racial history and government policies got wide play on television and the Internet.

The retiring minister became an issue in the presidential race in March after the circulation of videos of old sermons in which he accused the U.S. government of racism and accused it of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs.

Wright told the NAACP crowd Sunday night that he's "not a politician" and that he's "been running for Jesus a long, long time."