ABERDEEN, S.D. — Barack Obama said Saturday that he has resigned his 20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago “with some sadness” in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery remarks at the church by a Catholic priest.
“This is not a decision I come to lightly . . . and it is one I make with some sadness,” he said.
“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 said he and his wife have been discussing the issue since Wright’s appearance at a Press Club appearance in Washington that reignited furor over remarks he had made in sermons at the church.
“I suspect we’ll find another church home for our family,” Obama said.
He said it is clear that because he is a presidential candidate, any remarks made at Trinity by any speaker “will be imputed to me even if they conflict” with his stated views and values.
Obama said he had “no idea” how the resignation would “impact my presidential campaign, but I know it’s the right thing to do for the church and our family.”
“This was a pretty personal decision, and I was not trying to make political theater out of it,” he said.
Wright claimed at his 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.
More recently, racially charged remarks from the same pulpit by the Rev. Michael Pfleger kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in Obama’s side. As a guest speaker at Obama’s church, the priest mocked Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.
