Obama quits his church over recent controversies

ABERDEEN, S.D. — Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he and his wife, Michelle, had resigned their 20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago "with some sadness" after racially charged comments by a visiting pastor last week dragged him into another controversy over religion and race.

The resignation came after inflammatory remarks by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery rhetoric by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting priest.

"This is not a decision I come to lightly ... and it is one I make with some sadness," Obama said at a news conference Saturday after campaign officials released the letter of resignation sent to the church Friday.

"I'm not denouncing the church, and I'm not interested in people who want me to denounce the church," he said, adding that the new pastor at Trinity and "the church have been suffering from the attention my campaign has focused on them."

Obama has not attended Trinity since the latest controversy involving Wright, who has retired as the church's pastor, flared in March.

Obama, D-Ill., said he and his wife have been discussing the issue since Wright's appearance at the National Press Club in Washington in April reignited a furor over remarks he had made in sermons at the church.

"I suspect we'll find another church home for our family," Obama said.

Obama said he had no idea how the resignation would impact his presidential campaign, "but I know it's the right thing to do for the church and our family."

For months, Obama has been damaged by the rhetoric of Wright, whose sermons blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks and calls of "God damn America" for its racism became fixtures on the Internet and cable-news networks.

Racially charged remarks last Sunday from the same pulpit by Pfleger kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in Obama's side. As a guest speaker at the church, Pfleger mocked Obama's presidential-nominee rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, pretending he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show." Obama, who was campaigning, was not present for the remarks.

But when the priest's videotaped comments hit YouTube, Obama immediately said he was "deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."

Pfleger apologized, saying the "words are inconsistent with Senator Obama's life and message," and said he regretted if his comments offended Clinton or anyone else.

As for Wright, Obama initially said he disagreed with him but portrayed him as a family member he couldn't disown. The preacher had officiated at Obama's wedding, baptized his two daughters and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.

But six weeks after Obama's well-received speech on race, Wright claimed at the press-club appearance that the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm's length while privately agreeing with him.

The next day, Obama said Wright's comments were "divisive and destructive." Remarks by Wright have inflamed racial tensions and posed a problem for Obama as he has sought to wrap up the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

In his book "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," Obama described Trinity as a place that fostered a "powerful program, this cultural community, one more pliant than simple nationalism, more sustaining than my own brand of organizing."

He later titled his second book, "The Audacity of Hope," after one of Wright's sermons.

Trinity runs respected social programs on Chicago's Southside, and the church's pastors preach an often-fiery brand of politics known as Black Liberation Theology. This is not a separatist philosophy, but it argues that the poor and the oppressed — including blacks — have a special place in God's eye. It calls on ministers to push and prod the conscience of congregants, particularly around questions of racial justice.

Republican John McCain also has had his woes with religious leaders.

Last month, McCain rejected endorsements from two influential but controversial televangelists, saying there is no place for their incendiary criticisms of other faiths.

McCain spurned the months-old endorsement of Texas preacher John Hagee after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land. McCain called the comment "crazy and unacceptable."

Hagee also has called the Roman Catholic Church "the great whore" and a "false cult system."

McCain also later repudiated the support of Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher who has sharply criticized Islam and called the religion inherently violent.

Material from The New York Times and The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.