Obama Ends Membership in Trinity United (Updated)
"Senator Barack Obama is ending his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he has belonged to for about two decades and one that had become a lightning rod in his Democratic presidential bid." The New York Times says that "Mr. Obama informed his campaign advisers of his decision today, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the candidate. Mr. Obama is scheduled to explain his decision tonight in South Dakota."
Lynn Sweet of The Chicago Sun Times adds these details:
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe just told me Obama's availability--where he will talk about ending his long relationship with Trinity will take place at about 8:15 p.m. eastern time tonight, from South Dakota, where he is campaigning in advance of Tuesday's primary vote.
Obama quits his church following Father Michael Pfleger's sermon ridiculing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) from the Trinity pulpit last Sunday, reigniting stories about Obama's associations with the inflammatory Trinity pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who stepped down from his role as senior pastor to hand over the top job to the Rev. Otis Moss III. Obama's move comes as Moss praised for his "message" after Pfleger a scorched Clinton.
I'll add a link to Obama's remarks on this subject once they are posted.
UPDATE: Dan Gilgoff interviews "a source close to the Obama campaign who is familiar with the process that led to senator's resignation" from Trinity United.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Politico, The Chicago Sun Times, and The New York Times have stories on the press conference. TPM Election Central has the video of the press conference. There are some snippets on each of these things below the fold and a few initial reactions from me.
FINAL UPDATE: Here's the transcript of the Q and A between Obama and reporters at the press conference. I don't have time to comment on it now, but I highly recommend reading the exchange. ADDED (6/2): For the text of the letters between the Obamas and Trinity United, click here.
From The Politico:
On the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) announced Saturday evening that he had resigned from his controversial Chicago congregation, Trinity United Church of Christ, “with some sadness.”
Obama told reporters he didn't want his "church experience to be a political circus — I think most American people will understand that, and wouldn't want to subject their church to that, either." He said it has been "months" since he has attended Trinity.
At a news conference in Aberdeen, S.D., after the news emerged on the blog of a black journalist in Chicago, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, had notified the church in a letter Friday that they “were withdrawing as members of Trinity,” in part because of “a cultural and a stylistic gap.”
Obama said he also regrets “all the attention that my campaign has visited on” the church.
“We had reporters grabbing church bulletins and calling up the sick and the shut-in,” he said. “That’s just not how people should have to operate in their church.
Obama said he began contemplating such a move after the "National Press Club episode" in which his former pastor and longtime spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., made comments that the senator later denounced as offensive.
“We had prayed on it. We had consulted with a number of friends and family members,” Obama said. “Frankly, it’s one that I made with some sadness. Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized.”
This week, Obama had to distance himself from a guest preacher at Trinity, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who last Sunday made comments that seemed to accuse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) of acting “entitled” because she is white.
Obama said he has “tremendous regard” for the church community, but said he could not live with a situation where everything said in the church, including comments by a guest pastor, “will be imputed to me, even if they conflict with my long-held, views, statements and principles.” . . .
Obama, who could clinch the nomination as soon as Tuesday, said he hopes to join a new church soon.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to find a church that we’re comfortable with,” he said. “We probably won’t make any firm decision on this until January, when we know what our lives are going to be like.”
“My faith is not contingent on the particular church that I belong to,” he added. “I don’t think I’m going through a religious test.” . . .
“Our faith remains strong and I expect that we will find another church home for our family,” Obama said. “We understand that our faith is something that we apply each and every day. We wish only the best for our friends and the wonderful people at Trinity. They’ll be in our thoughts and our prayers.”
Trinity said in a statement: "Though we are saddened by the news, we understand that this is a personal decision. We will continue to lift them in prayer and wish them the best as former members of our Trinity community. As in the prayer for the Ephesians, our entire Trinity family asks that the nation entrust Barack, Michelle, Malia and Natasha to God's care and guidance so that Christ may continue to dwell in their lives, in their hearts and their work. We ask now for God's peace to be with them."
Lynn Sweet adds these details:
Obama said the family will not be in any hurry to pick a new church--not until January, when he knows if he will be living in the White House--and in the meantime they will visit other churches.
"I have to say this was one I didn't see coming. We knew there were going to be some things we didn't see coming. This was one. I didn't anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subject to such challenge and such scrutiny," said Obama. He said it has been months since he has been at the church, on Chicago's South Side. "I did not anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subjected to such...scrutiny."
Obama sent a letter to the church with his resignation on Friday; Obama called the press conference after the letter leaked to veteran Chicago journalist Monroe Anderson, a contributor to Ebony and Jet. Otherwise, Obama said, he would have not made his resignation known at this time.
The New York Times provides a quote from the letter that Obamas sent Trinity United:
Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, wrote a letter to the Rev. Otis Moss of Trinity Church explaining that their estrangement had taken root in the controversial remarks of Mr. Wright, who once was Mr. Obama’s spiritual guide.
“Our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views,” they wrote. “These controversies have served as an unfortunate distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an untenable position.”
A few notes on the video that are not reflected in these stories:
In the video, Obama says their letter of resignation was leaked to CNN. Obama says he has "tremendous regard" for Otis Moss, Jr., the current pastor of Trinity United, and he references a lengthy decisionmaking process. He also says he admires the work that Rev. Wright did in building up the church. He says he considers Father Pfleger a friend, but says Pfleger's statements about Senator Clinton have "no place in our politics and in the pulpit." They "unfairly mock and characterize Senator Clinton in ways that I think are unacceptable." Obama expresses the hope that his decision will end the intense media scrutiny that Trinity United has endured. Referencing media calls to church shut-ins and the combing over his new pastor's every word, Obama says that is "not how people should have to operate in their church." He says that he and Michelle Obama wish the church only the best and hope their decision frees the church to get back to what they do, which is worship God. Says that he and his wife will join another church in the future where he hopes that they will be able to do what they would like to do at church, which is "to worship, fellowship, and reflect on our faith."
And, finally, a couple of initial reactions from me:
First, anyone who has ever moved his or her church membership knows that it is a wrenching process, and that's without the media glare. This seems to me to be a gracious statement under very difficult circumstances.
Second, I thought it was fair to ask Obama about some of Rev. Wright's statements. But I also think it is important to try to knock down the general presumption that a statement by a candidate's pastor effectively represents the views of the candidate and that it is appropriate to continue to focus on a pastor's statements even after the candidate has said he or she disagrees with those statements. I also would like to push back on the idea that it is acceptable for the media to prowl around a church in the way some apparently have done in this case.
To help explain these things, let me step back from this case for a moment and differentiate between two things as a general matter. It seems to me that when a candidate seeks the endorsement of a religious leader, the public views of that religious leader deserve much more scrutiny than the public views of the religious leader who simply serves as the pastor of the candidate (who does not endorse him or her). That is because it is fair to assume that the political leader sought the endorsement for some political reason, whereas I think it is fair to assume that people choose their church for predominately nonpolitical reasons. (Of course, in a candidate's case, people will always suggest otherwise. But I'd generally give candidates the benefit of the doubt on this one.) It is also because a decision to join a church should not be taken as a sign that a person sees eye-to-eye with a pastor on all things; it's a much more complex decision that has to do not only with the pastor at the time but also with the church's programs and services, one's sense of spiritual calling, and the feelings and beliefs of one's family members.
Now, returning to the specific case of Obama and Wright, these two categories were collapsed for a time: Rev. Wright served on Obama's campaign in some honorary position until a few months ago, and Wright served as his pastor (again, until a few months ago). So that legitimated some questions and scrutiny.
It seems to me that we now need to work toward rebuilding a protected zone around the relationships among a church, a pastor, and a political candidate. One helpful way of doing so is for a candidate to refrain from seeking the endorsement of his or her pastor and for the pastor to refrain from making such an endorsement. In that case, the scrutiny of the pastor and the church should be minimal. If questions come up about the pastor's statements or the church's stances, those questions should be asked of the candidate and the focus should stay on the candidate.
I know it is much easier to keep these things straight in theory than in practice, but I think this step would help us move toward a more healthy relationship between religion and politics. There's more to disuss here, and we also should talk more about some basic standards for media coverage of candidates' congregations, but I'll have to leave those discussions for another day.
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