Taking advantage of a weekend media dead-zone, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that "with some sadness" he has quit the Trinity Church where he belonged some twenty years, where controversial sermons by his former pastor and now other ministers has proved politically embarrassing for his campaign.
"We don't want to have to answer for everything that's stated in the church," the Democratic front-runner said. "We also don't want the church subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes, adding that "This is not a decision I come to lightly." The resignation comes days after the flamboyant Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama's Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, during a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.
Obama said the Pfleger controversy made it clear that, as long as he remained a member of the Trinity congregation, remarks from the pulpit would be "imputed" to him, even if they conflicted with his personal views.
Obama insisted that nothing about the Church, or the conduct of its pastors, was deserving of a denunciation. "I'm not denouncing the church, and I'm not interested in people who want me to denounce the church," he said in response to a question. "It's not a church worthy of denouncing."
Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, began discussing a departure from the church after Wright spoke at the National Press Club on April 28.
"I'm not denouncing the church, and I'm not interested in people who want me to denounce the church," he said in response to a question. "It's not a church worthy of denouncing." Barak Obama, May 31, 2008
During the appearance, Wright said that Obama had "distanced" himself the fiery pastor for political reasons. Now, it appears, Obama has distanced himself from the Church where he and his family sat for some twenty years. Obama has said he was not present for the controversial sermons by Wright or Pfleger.
Obama's campaign condemned Pfleger's comments. "That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause," he said in a statement Thursday.
Obama said he and his wife had discussed and prayed on the issue with Trinity's senior pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss, and hoped that the decision would withdraw Trinity from the spotlight. "Though we are saddened by the news, we understand that it is a personal decision," Moss said in a statement Saturday. "We will continue to lift them in prayer and wish them the best as former members of our Trinity community."
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