Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Obama Resigns From His Church After Guest Preacher Mocks Clinton
CNN reports today that Barack Obama has resigned from his Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ. While Obama previously distanced himself from remarks by the church's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, he did not resign his membership until a new embarrassment. Video surfaced of a sermon delivered at the church a few days ago by a visiting Catholic priest, Rev. Michael Pfleger, a friend of Rev. Wright. In the sermon, Pfleger mocked Hillary Clinton and suggested she believed she was entitled to the presidency because she is white and the wife of a former president. Church members listening greeted the remarks enthusiastically. Obama said he was resigning with some sadness, but he did not want to have to answer for everything said in the church and does not want the church subjected to the kind of scrutiny that accompanies a Presidential campaign.