Obama resigns from his church

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/obama-resigns-church-membership-in-chicago/

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have resigned their membership at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, FOX News confirms, after controversies stemming from the church created a persistent distraction for Obama’s campaign.

Most recently, a Web video surfaced showing Chicago pastor Michael Pfleger giving a guest sermon at the church Sunday where he taunted Hillary Clinton and said she felt she was “entitled” to the presidency because she’s white.

Obama said he was deeply disappointed by the remarks and Pfleger apologized, but Clinton’s campaign still demanded Obama specifically reject the latest remarks.

By resigning his membership, Obama is taking the most definitive stand to date against the church.

He has already roundly condemned his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Videos of Wright’s sermons, where he claimed the U.S. government created HIV to exterminate black people and said “God damn America,” threatened to derail Obama’s campaign when they first surfaced in March.


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

(CNN) — Barack Obama resigned Saturday from his Chicago church — where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers had created repeated political headaches for the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination — his campaign confirmed.

The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama's Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for crying in New Hampshire during the runup to the primary there.

Previously, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ and Obama's minister for about 20 years — drew unwanted attention for the campaign when videos of several of his fiery sermons surfaced.

In them, Wright suggested the U.S. government may be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and equated some American wartime activities to terrorism.

Obama has said he was not present for the controversial sermons by Wright or Pfleger and had condemned both — most recently saying he was "deeply disappointed" by Pfleger's "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."

 

If we had an athiest as a major party candidate for president, maybe we'd have a lot fewer of these incidents.
The problem is, the MSM and righty talk show hosts would never allow it.

 

I thought he was a Muslim . . .

 

I'd be more of a mind that Obama was a "new kind of candidate" if he didn't roll every time the heat got up in his stuff.

 

Well, considering you probably wouldn't vote for a Democrat if he/she was anyone less than Jesus Christ, who gives a fuck?

 

Someone has to explain to me how the thoughts and words of a church's leaders equate to those of a political candidate.

 

Et tu, Brutus?

 

Look, jackass, my opinion – like my shit – smells no more or less than your does. Buncha high and mighty assholes around here lately, I tell ya.

Facts are tiresome things. My history is well-known. I voted twice for Bill Clinton – and yes, he's possibly the last Democrat I will ever vote for. But I don't regard that as my fault, but rather the party's fault.

My opinions about Democrats seem at least as well-modulated, if not more so, than the fevered rantings about Republicans that pass for discussion around here. Jesus, I miss Fenian.

 

Jackass ... assholes. Yep, real "well-modulated." Grow up and try harder.

 

I'll play devil's advocate here: Most people won't sit in a church for 20 years if they disagree with what's coming from the pulpit. Hell, I've known people who have left a church because the pastor was too boring. If he had started shouting "God damn America," they probably would have had a heart attack.

That said, there are several reasons I think Obama is a putz, like almost everyone else sleazy enough to get this far in a presidential election. This isn't one of them.

 

If that were true, wouldn't have Obama decided to "roll" the moment Wright made the first comments? I liked the fact he stuck with Wright and the church for as long as he did. Most politicians would have decided to "roll" well before Obama did.

 

For those who say he stayed because he believed what the pastor was saying for all those years...

My parents stayed in a church for 4 years when it was going through tumultuous times (4 different pastors in 4 years) because they liked the people. Lots of people left the church, but they stayed for the people in the church, not the pastors behind the pulpit.