It looks like the Rev. Michael Pfleger’s guest sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ last weekend was one step too far. The priest, known as a “radical gadfly,” went after Hillary Clinton from Trinity’s pulpit, accusing her of harboring a sense of entitlement because she is white.
Pfleger later apologized, and Obama publicly expressed his deep disappointment at “Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric,” but this, following months of controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, ultimately led the Obama family to withdraw from the Trinity congregation yesterday.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his wife, Michelle, announced yesterday that they have left their longtime Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ, after racially charged comments by a visiting pastor last week dragged them into yet another controversy over religion and race.
The resignation came Friday in a letter Obama sent to the church’s head pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III.
“We make this decision with sadness. Trinity was where I found Christ, where we were married and where our children were baptized,” the letter said. “But as you know, our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflict with our own view.”
Obama held a news conference last night during a campaign stop in Aberdeen, S.D., after news of the resignation began to spread.
The Democratic presidential candidate said he and his wife had been discussing leaving the church since his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., made a theatrical and controversial April 28 appearance at the National Press Club.
It’s worth noting that Obama is leaving the Trinity congregation, not the United Church of Christ. I almost expect some nut to argue, “A ha! This means he’s leaving Christianity to become a Muslim!” Obama may have been anticipating such foolishness when he told reporters yesterday, “Our faith remains strong. I suspect that we will find another church home for our family.”
By way of Greg Sargent, here’s the video of Obama’s press statement yesterday.
Obama is withdrawing as a church member, but he rejected the suggestion that he denounce the church. “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.”
This should, at least in theory, help resolve the political nature of the controversy (it should also help other Trinity congregants stop having to deal with media inquiries about their church). Republicans will no doubt argue that Obama should have withdrawn from the congregation years ago, but the next time the right hammers the senator on one of Wright’s sermons, he’ll be able to say Wright is “the former pastor of my former church.”