Obama quits Chicago church after long controversy

[Tess Anderson]

From AP:

ABERDEEN, S.D. - Barack Obama has resigned his 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and more recent fiery remarks at the church by another minister.

 Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama had resigned from the church "over the last few days."

Campaign aides said they weren't immediately certain how the resignation took place, whether by letter or in some other fashion, and were trying to find out.

Messages left for a church spokeswoman in Chicago were not immediately returned Saturday afternoon.

The development came as Obama campaigned in South Dakota.

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

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

Obama denounced those Wright comments as "divisive and destructive."

Comments by Wright inflamed racial tensions and posed an unwanted problem for Obama, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he seeks to wrap up the nomination.

More recently, racially charged remarks from the same pulpit by another pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in the side of Obama. Pfleger mocked Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as a guest speaker at Obama's church.

Although Obama condemned comments by both Wright and Pfleger, the controversy has persisted.

For months, Obama has been hamstrung 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.

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

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

full article: link

Twenty years too late. 

[Splashdown]

I am shocked...SHOCKED to learn there's gambling going on in this establishment!

[Baruch Menachem]

He has been a member there 20 years.  Which, the way evangelical churches are run in this country means he has had a hand in the management of that church and is responsible, on a small level, for Wright's hiring and retention.


Quitting that church does not make Obama any less responsible for his being there, any less of a racist, and does make him look very dishonest. 

The way things are going, he would have been better off admitting he was a racist and moving on.   That kind of sleaze is getting more popular all the time.

[Willow]

Obama is speaking now, he referred to Fleger as "someone I consider a friend." he basically is quitting the church not because of the hate and vitriol spewed there but because of his unfavorable press! what a phony baloney! 

[Wretched Excess]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

[Lauri]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

[Tucker]

With him being in the Senate and vying for the Presidency, how often would he be in Chitown anyway?

[Wretched Excess]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

I was making sarcastic humor, lauri.   he listened to wright rant for 20 years, but ONE white guy gets up there to speak, and it runs him completely out of the entire church.

[Lauri]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

I was making sarcastic humor, lauri.   he listened to wright rant for 20 years, but ONE white guy gets up there to speak, and it runs him completely out of the entire church.

i *knew* you were being funny... i was just adding on to your comments..

i think the whole church must be pretty damn embarassing for barack at this point. i hope they turn on him like rabid monkeys... 

[Crazy Horse]

I think he quit because Wright retired and he just misses him.

[RightCoast]

So what happened to the "it was all taken out of context/ just normal black church stuff" argument?

[NHSparky]

So what happened to the "it was all taken out of context/ just normal black church stuff" argument?

Uh, nobody bought that line of bullshit?

[Wretched Excess]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

I was making sarcastic humor, lauri.   he listened to wright rant for 20 years, but ONE white guy gets up there to speak, and it runs him completely out of the entire church.

i *knew* you were being funny... i was just adding on to your comments..

i think the whole church must be pretty damn embarassing for barack at this point. i hope they turn on him like rabid monkeys... 

at his press conference in SD, someone suggested that he had joined the church for (the exact phrase was garbled, but it boilded down to) political expediency.  Baroque lectured (full blown professorial pomposity, mind you) the reporter.  "you're trying to put some things together here that don't *makes meshing gear gesture with hands* work".  and then he went on to say he 'resented" or "rejected" the notion that he joined trinity for street cred, and that he was "offended", I believe.

I wanna see what happens the first time he pulls that condescending "I am God, and you are a first year law student" routine on, say, tim russert, or a Grandee in the national media.

[BEG]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

I was making sarcastic humor, lauri.   he listened to wright rant for 20 years, but ONE white guy gets up there to speak, and it runs him completely out of the entire church.

i *knew* you were being funny... i was just adding on to your comments..

i think the whole church must be pretty damn embarassing for barack at this point. i hope they turn on him like rabid monkeys... 

at his press conference in SD, someone suggested that he had joined the church for (the exact phrase was garbled, but it boilded down to) political expediency.  Baroque lectured (full blown professorial pomposity, mind you) the reporter.  "you're trying to put some things together here that don't *makes meshing gear gesture with hands* work".  and then he went on to say he 'resented" or "rejected" the notion that he joined trinity for street cred, and that he was "offended", I believe.

I wanna see what happens the first time he pulls that condescending "I am God, and you are a first year law student" routine on, say, tim russert, or a Grandee in the national media.

If he didn't join for street cred (which would be much more palpable to a lot of us white racists), then he made a HUGE judgement error for 20 years OR he believes all the shit that has been spouted at that church (as it seems the whole congregat does).  Either way you slice it, Obama is a bad judge of character. 

[TheSarge]

Barakstar! could have made this entire thing a non-issue had he simply quit the church when the first tapes of Wright surfaced.

Instead he made rookie mistakes and took too long to act definitively.

We don't need a President that's gonna have to engage in "trial and error" before he decides the proper course of action.

Not in a post 9/11 world.

[Wretched Excess]

that damn white priest was just too much for him to tolerate.  he embarrassed him.

have you heard Pfleger talk?? he sounds just like Jermiah Wright - its actually quite weird how 'black' he is trying to sound.

Obama can resign all he wants; we know he was there for 20 years and that he and his wife sucked up all that racist rage and it will stick with him forever more.

I was making sarcastic humor, lauri.   he listened to wright rant for 20 years, but ONE white guy gets up there to speak, and it runs him completely out of the entire church.

i *knew* you were being funny... i was just adding on to your comments..

i think the whole church must be pretty damn embarassing for barack at this point. i hope they turn on him like rabid monkeys... 

at his press conference in SD, someone suggested that he had joined the church for (the exact phrase was garbled, but it boilded down to) political expediency.  Baroque lectured (full blown professorial pomposity, mind you) the reporter.  "you're trying to put some things together here that don't *makes meshing gear gesture with hands* work".  and then he went on to say he 'resented" or "rejected" the notion that he joined trinity for street cred, and that he was "offended", I believe.

I wanna see what happens the first time he pulls that condescending "I am God, and you are a first year law student" routine on, say, tim russert, or a Grandee in the national media.

If he didn't join for street cred (which would be much more palpable to a lot of us white racists), then he made a HUGE judgement error for 20 years OR he believes all the shit that has been spouted at that church (as it seems the whole congregat does).  Either way you slice it, Obama is a bad judge of character. 

and raised his daughters in that church.  don't forget that one.  why would you expose your kids to that stuff?  there aren't too many explanations, and I don't for a second buy the "I didn't know he thought that way" line of crap.

[BEG]

Barakstar! could have made this entire thing a non-issue had he simply quit the church when the first tapes of Wright surfaced.

Instead he made rookie mistakes and took too long to act definitively.

We don't need a President that's gonna have to engage in "trial and error" before he decides the proper course of action.

Not in a post 9/11 world.

I think that point is the reason he is going to lose.  The American people (except for "educated Democrats") don't want a president who floats out trial balloons to help him decide what to do.  

I still think it would have been an issue if he had quit the church after the Rev. Wright fiasco because the question still would have remained, "what in the hell was he doing sitting in that "church" for 20 years".

[Wretched Excess]

Barakstar! could have made this entire thing a non-issue had he simply quit the church when the first tapes of Wright surfaced.

Instead he made rookie mistakes and took too long to act definitively.

We don't need a President that's gonna have to engage in "trial and error" before he decides the proper course of action.

Not in a post 9/11 world.

I think that point is the reason he is going to lose.  The American people (except for "educated Democrats") don't want a president who floats out trial balloons to help him decide what to do. 

I still think it would have been an issue if he had quit the church after the Rev. Wright fiasco because the question still would have remained, "what in the hell was he doing sitting in that "church" for 20 years".

maybe they learned their lesson.

that was basically the decision making process for the clenis.  and look how well that worked out for the democrats.  they lost the house, they lost the senate, they lost state houses and state legislatures.  the clintons did great.  their party died like a dog.

[Chris_]

Barack's campaign manager, David Axelrod, sits on the chair at Pfleiger's church...



http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-fr-pfleger-rants-against-whitey-at.html

[BEG]

Barack's campaign manager, David Axelrod, sits on the chair at Pfleiger's church...



http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-fr-pfleger-rants-against-whitey-at.html

VERY interesting.   

[Ptarmigan]

A tad too late.

[Wretched Excess]

oh, and in his press conference, he said quite a few times that he was leaving the church because it
was best for the church.  the media was "taking programs", and people were "calling shut-ins, to try
to get comments from them".   he said it quite a few times.

it really did sound like he was leaving because the people in the church were annoyed.

[cottondress]

It is 20 years to late. If his family has sat through 20 years of this vile stuff and he says he never heard it...I call lier!

Another thing is every time I see video of these "preachers" I have to wonder what kind of parents subject thier young children to this ranting, raving ,vulgar ("riding dirty") stuff. It would of scared the bejesus out of me as a child.

[RightCoast]

So what happened to the "it was all taken out of context/ just normal black church stuff" argument?

Uh, nobody bought that line of bullshit?

Lots of Obmamites did.

[Chris_]

Of course, were he really honest, he'd tell us, either he's been at that church for twenty years because he believes what they preach, or, that as a politician, he's only at a church for the votes.
Neither will EVER happen