Posted on 06/01/2008 5:52:51 AM PDT by kellynla
Seeking to put a string of controversies involving his longtime Chicago church behind him, Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said he and his family are withdrawing their membership from Trinity United Church of Christ.
Severing more than two decades of ties to his spiritual home on the city's South Side, Obama said he made the decision for his own political needs and in an effort to allow the church a return to some normalcy.
"This is not a decision I come to lightly, and frankly it's one that I make with some sadness," he said at a hastily arranged evening news conference in Aberdeen, S.D.
"Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized," Obama said. "We have many friends among the 8,000 congregants."
Saying he had prayed about the decision, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, had for "quite some time" discussed the possibility of leaving the church.
"It's clear that now that I am a candidate for president, every time something is said in the church by anyone associated with Trinity, including guest pastors, the remarks will be imputed to me, even if they totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles," he said.
The latest controversy involving the church erupted last week when an Internet video emerged from an appearance there by Chicago Rev. Michael Pfleger.
Pfleger, who has had numerous run-ins with Chicago Roman Catholic archdiocese leaders for his political activism, mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton from the pulpit. He also suggested that the former first lady is a white elitist who felt entitled to the Democratic nomination for president.
While calling Pfleger a friend and someone who "has done tremendous work in Chicago,"
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Obama may win the Primary but will lose the General election.
No levelheaded American will go into the voting booth on 11/4 and vote for an anti-American racist. Now remember I said, "levelheaded" American which automatically eliminates Lefties and anyone who depends on government welfare.
“political expedience”
That’s the ticket. He still hasn’t said that he doesen’t believe the content of their speeches.
If Obama loses the election, will he go back to the church? And would they take him back?
But it's too late to cut those ties, Obama. You can't write off 20 years of these haters just because two of them got caught on TV.
That is like saying I walk down the same sidewalk for 20 years and get mugged once a week. I finally get tired of being mugged and decide to take a different route.
Shut up B Hussein O.
sounds like the rev.michael pfleger came over to inflame matters.
Yes, it is very sad to have to leave such a Christ-like church so one can become da Prez.
/s <- (just in case)
Yeah, what, about a month?
Whew! What a relief! Now they can put their Swastika banners back up and resume their good old fashioned Easter morning book burning ceremony. Seig Farrakhan!
What's been said in that church is nothing new, and hasn't come about recently. It's Black Liberation Theology and has nothing to do with Christianity. Obama was a member of that church for 20 years. He knew what it was.
But now it's a millstone around the neck of his candidacy. So it has to be cast aside as he did his grandmother and the Rev. Wright.
Obama lasted 20 years with that church, not because it "totally conflict[ed] with my long-held views, statements and principles" but because it's what he believes. It's part of his political soul.
Obama is a Black militant, a communist and a racist. This is the change he offers America.
"Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, black liberation theology.....
BTW, did 'I'm proud of my country for the first time in my adult life' Obama quit also?
It never ceases to amaze me how you could mix Jesus, politics, hatred, in the same building. True freedom.
In my church, a lot of nationalist anti-turk stuff gets preached, but one would NEVER dream of preaching anything against our own country.
Your ‘freedom of speech” is fantastic.
Until one realizes that freedom has consequences.....
If Obama had any spine, he would come out and say “It’s my right to believe these things, I know you will respect and celebrate our mutual right to differ in our views and our freedom to criticize each other” -you know, like a true Liberal!
Leaving the church shows that he doesn’t really believe in his freedom of speech or the constitution strongly enough. He is just trying to save his political skin.
I’d bet he never had a single thought about leaving that racist church until the first disaster pastor controversy hit the news. He would still be there and listening to that garbage every service.
I’m hoping that one of those now “dis-owned” , members of the congregation, gets p.o’d and releases pictures or video date stamped of B. Hussein, holly rolling in the pews while they were preaching hate.
So, Mr. Obama, which is it?
1. You were a member at Trinity for 20 years, even though you disagreed with many of their core principles? WHY WERE YOU THERE?
2. You were a member in good consience for 20 years, but once the controversy gets too hot you just cut and run, abandoning your spiritual friends and advisors for political expediency?
3. You were a member at Trinity for 20 years because you are a race-baiting, radical liberal who used spiritual advisors for political gain but tried to seperate yourself from them when they began to hurt your candidacy?
It’s human nature.
Because in this society no one is culturally accountable, actions like his are taken very lightly.
If someone was having an affair with his best friend’s wife for 20 years, they wouldn’t think it was wrong until they were caught.
Berry might have quit the church but he hasn’t quit believing in its hateful rhetoric.
Excellent point. You just know that that photo or video is out there somewhere. This might just flush it out out of the woodwork.
That’s what I was thinking, too little too late (not that I would’ve voted for him in the first place). He used the church to garner support, but dumped it as soon as he realized America wasn’t buying what they were selling. Now he’s distancing himself from it for totally political reasons. This is what a true opportunist is. What a phony.
I have issues with his saying he isn’t muslim. I saw that video of him not saluting the flag, and heard a report that he turned his back on it on another occasion; that leads me to believe he may be a closet muslim. He’s so totally bad news. I hope there are more intelligent people out there, but I’m not holding my breath. People can be so willfully ignorant.
Naturally. The Pfleger incident served to show the issue would not go away unless he distanced himself from the church. But that's like a Nazi distancing himself from his past. It can't be done.
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