Obama Quits Chicago Church, Pastor

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama recently called an end to a 20-year period in his life: He resigned from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago – a congregation led by controversial, and now well known pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It was the church Obama has claimed as his spiritual keystone for nearly the whole of his adult life. What does this mean for – and about – Senator Obama as the presidential primary season winds to its conclusion and the general election season revs up?

Is this move only about politics? Is the resignation simply a personal matter that has come to a sad end between a faithful church member and his spiritual leader? Should the public care?

Yes. Yes. Maybe.

Obama is, in essence, a celebrity. Every move he makes affects his life as a political leader. Fair or unfair, every move is scrutinized by members of the public, and by the members of the media who sway to either end of the political spectrum. (To make a fair assessment of the situation, one needs to take into account those political bents when viewing, reading or listening to political media voices.)

However one looks at the American senator’s decision, it must be seen through the lens that Obama is a public figure, a high-level leader in the United States legislature – and is about to defeat Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic candidate for the general election bid against Republican Senator John McCain.

Now more than ever, in this world of instantaneous information, no American politician can make any major move, any significant comment without his/her committee confidantes first debating the ramifications. So, yes, it is about politics and the Obama-for-President train felt the heat of the relationship with Rev. Wright for too long.

Not to be forgotten amidst the hot debate over who, how and why Senator Obama has made this step, is that a man has lost his spiritual mentor.

The senator is a member of Trinity United who is pursuing one of American life’s loftiest positions, who is facing the ups and downs of public life in such a way that extremely few people know, and he has decided he is better off without his preacher. That wasn’t an easy choice to make, as the senator explained, in a television press conference posted online at msnbc.com, soon after the news of his resignation became public.

“It’s a decision that Michelle and I have discussed for quite some time,” Senator Obama said. “This is not a decision I come to lightly, and it is one I make with some sadness. Trinity is where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized.”

Those are moments in life that many Americans understand. In that sense, the public should care on a humane level. But how many people would describe the world of U.S. politics as humane? And that’s where the circle comes full. Obama is a church-going man who is, he hopes, a White House-going politician. For that reason the public should care, but should not obsess.

The Democratic primary season nears the finish line. For Democrats, that will require a united front behind their candidate – likely Barack Obama. And then these questions of Obama’s religion and faith and the related decisions he’s made may well rise again.

Barack Obama

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