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Post details: Obama Quits his Church -- GAME

05/31/08

09:50:23 pm, Categories: Announcements [A], 408 words

Obama Quits his Church -- GAME

Obama Quits His Church

By Jeff Zeleny

WASHINGTON – 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.

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.

For Mr. Obama, this is the latest effort to distance himself from a church that had repeatedly drawn negative attention to his candidacy. And, in turn, Mr. Obama drew negative attention to the church on Chicago’s South Side, where he was married and his two daughters were baptized.

Last month, Mr. Obama forcefully broke with his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., after a series of incendiary remarks he made about the United States government. This week, Mr. Obama found himself responding once again to a sermon delivered from the pulpit of Trinity, when a Catholic priest and a longtime friend of Mr. Obama was captured on video last Sunday mocking Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/obama-quits-his-church/?hp

OK we can have fun with this one. We have a candidate who needed to get away from his big-mouth pastor and the church with which he associated. A good opportunity conveniently arose for him to do just that and still look like a good guy ("my church wasn't tolerant enough").

This is, by the way, a great example of morals outside of religion. When your church is immoral in your own eyes (and you leave), it proves the church is not the source or the morality in the first place. Get it?

OK so back to the game. We now have a presidential contender without an established church. Questions have been made about his faith, and many wrongly think he is a Moslem.

Question 1: How long will it take for Obama to become tied to another church?
Question 2: Will he change denomination, and to which one?

Dave's answers: He's already picked a successor, he just hasn't told us yet, and it's a church that one of his family members attends, that Obama himself has attended several times, and that has a much more progressive tone. This will be announced within 1 month.

21 comments

Comments:

Comment from: sam moore jr [Member]

Hurrah for Sen Obama! I hope he will remain unchurched. Early on, I was encouraged to learn that he was United Church of Christ, but the Rev Wright is not representative of the UCC that I am familiar with. Some people have said that UCC stands for Unitarians Considering Christ. Here in Raleigh, the Unitarian Universalists and United Church of Christ get along just fine and often work together on community service projects. I hope Sen Obama will become an unchurched leader.

06/01/08 @ 00:16

Comment from: quantum_flux [Member]

Obama doesn't even need another church at this point.

06/01/08 @ 01:24

Comment from: TimeToStandUp [Member]

If the truth were known, my guess is that Obama is a closet atheist. He attributes everything to his mother, who was an atheist and supposably he didn't find Jesus until he was in his 20's. Obviously, it would not be politically smart to admit it.

06/01/08 @ 02:56

Comment from: Tim [Member]

The real question is, would he have quit the church had he not been running for President!

06/01/08 @ 10:59

Comment from: evolouie [Member] · http://blog.timlewellyn.com

Obamas church thing was nothing kore than a political ploy from the get go.
He as a blck man needed the innercity black vote to get elected to chicago politics. Now that very same ploy is of absolutly no use to him, and infact a detriment to his national politics.
So just like everyother politician he is going where it is most favorable for his political career.
He is no different than any other politician.
S-S-D-D

06/01/08 @ 15:03

Comment from: David Silverman [Member] · http://www.atheists.org/

Is that last D for "democrat"?

:)

06/01/08 @ 15:38

Comment from: sayonara [Member]

my prediction is that he selects no church until after the convention. he then attends various churches until after the election and once he's president he comes out of the closet during a post election interview and lets "slip" that he doesn't believe in a xtian god per se, but that his "god" and spirituality are a private matter.

I think deep inside where no one can go he is an atheist and lives by the golden rule as his primary "faith" so to speak.

06/01/08 @ 16:14

Comment from: phreedm [Member]

You people are pathetic...

It's amazing what you have to tell yourself in order to support him...

Comment from: sayonara

I think deep inside where no one can go he is an atheist and lives by the golden rule as his primary "faith" so to speak.

Comment from: TimeToStandUp

If the truth were known, my guess is that Obama is a closet atheist.

Bottom line is you have no foundational beliefs...that's why you can sway to and fro when it comes to politics...

Since we're discussing a black politician...

What political party did Martin Luther King belong to...??

06/01/08 @ 18:48

Comment from: sayonara [Member]

phreedm commented:
"It's amazing what you have to tell yourself in order to support him..."

i'm not supporting him because of any assumed (on my part)faith or lack thereof of his. i've said a number of times that i will not be a hypocrite and ridicule religious fanatics for voting for someone strictly on one position (usually abortion) and then turn right around and do the same thing with religion.

obama may prove to be a complete bust if elected. however, he talks a somewhat different talk. he speaks to us as adult to adult and i for one am tired of being pandered to by politicians. example: obama said flat out that the gas tax rebate was bullsh*t but clinton and mccain were both for it. obama was dead right on this and took an unpopular stand even though it is not what most voters wanted to hear.

and honestly, obama can't be worse than our current occupant of the white house with the lowest public approval of modern times.

06/01/08 @ 19:36

Comment from: michaeldorian [Member] · http://nyc-atheists.org/blog/

If Obama really wanted to do the right thing, he'd eschew all religious and church ties, period.

But no politician can do that these days in a presidential race and escape unscathed. What a sad and sorry state of affairs.

I hope the next church with which he affiliates himself is found to be doing ritualized animal sacrifices. That would learn him good... (and I like Obama, but I hate the religious hypocrisy our pols have to embrace).

06/01/08 @ 21:02

Comment from: Charlie [Member]

doesnt the troll have a bridge to buy or something....maybe in Brooklyn

I mean I believe everything politicians say, especially during election campaigns.....

are there any politicians running for president that choose creation over evolution....

I think for most politicians, saying they go to church is just part of a routine....its the mainstream thing to do....hopefully that is changing as the information age blossoms....

06/01/08 @ 21:09

Comment from: mxracer652 [Member]

TIMMAY!

The real question is, would he have quit the church had he not been running for President!

F-no.

06/01/08 @ 21:46

Comment from: alexatheist [Member]

"It's amazing what you have to tell yourself in order to support him...

I don't support obama.

I think you are confusing "atheist" with "democrat" again.

06/02/08 @ 14:13

Comment from: mxracer652 [Member]

I think you are confusing "atheist" with "democrat" again.

Or "democrat" with "obama cheerleader".

06/02/08 @ 15:18

Comment from: reason [Member]

after the election he will rejoin that church.he is a white hating racist like alot of mulattos.this guy is a believer, he chose out of many black churchs to support for twenty yrs one that preachs hate.

06/02/08 @ 21:28

Comment from: (: tom :) [Member] · http://www.funnyfarmonline.org/

Comment from: phreedm

You people are pathetic...

Right back at ya, pederast enabling, hypocritical religiously insane areashole...

It's amazing what you have to tell yourself in order to support him...

...almost as amazing as the things that pagan occult superstitionalists like phreakshow have to tell themselves in order to believe in their Invisile Sky Fairy!

06/03/08 @ 09:54

Comment from: Mark Farris [Member]

You got Obama and you got McCain, who do you want appointing the next supreme court judge/s? Obama was not my first choice but now he's the only sane choice. McCain wants to expand the war, Obama wants to end this war.

After WWII America took Britians place as the dominant empire. America is making the exact same mistakes every empire that preceded us by overextending militarily as infrastructure collapses.

Obama was first introduced to Islam then christianity. All the while his mother did not believe in what he was being taught she allowed him to reach his own conclusions. If every kid in America had that opportunity this blog might not need to exist. If McCain gets to appoint one more fascist supreme court judge, via homeland security this blog may be considered sedition and cease to exist.

I have sent money to the Obama campaign and will do so again.

06/03/08 @ 13:40

Comment from: karen [Member]

OFF TOPIC
Just passing along this email message:
National Call-In Day for Impeachment

The crimes of this administration are enormous: a widespread policy of torture and murder; a war that has killed a million Iraqis, 4,000 U.S. service members and devastated the lives of so many more; sophisticated programs for spying on U.S. citizens; lying to the public.

The future threats posed are ominous. As Ramsey Clark recently wrote: "In his remaining eight months, President Bush will continue to threaten other nations in violation of international law and clearly intends to commit new aggressions in his belligerent presidency. If not stopped by impeachment he may strike Iran's nuclear projects and immerse the United States in avoidable war for a generation far more exhausting than any we have known."

Today, Tuesday June 3, is the National Call-In Day for Impeachment. Take a moment right now and call Rep. John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee at 202-225-5126, 202-224-3121, 202-225-3951, 313-961-5670, or 734-675-4084. Demand that articles of impeachment be introduced by July 4.

Over one million people have voted to impeach Bush, Cheney and other high officials for high crimes and misdemeanors. It's time for Congressman Conyers to hear from you.

As Ramsey Clark wrote: "It is imperative that We, the People of the United States, demand of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and its Chairman John Conyers that they immediately commence consideration of the many allegations of impeachable offenses by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other civil Officers of the Untied States and present a comprehensive Bill of Impeachment for Committee consideration by July 4, 2008.

*******

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

06/03/08 @ 15:19

Comment from: karen [Member]

PS to the above comment-

I got through on the second number; the first was busy. After I said what I had to say, they asked for my name, phone number and zip code. Just to let everyone know. I guess you wouldn't have to give it, but I did.

06/03/08 @ 15:26

Comment from: Chris B [Member]

I wish we could have a president get elected, do a kick-arse job, be nominated for the Nobel peace prize, and THEN announce that s/he's been an atheist all along. Only then would some negative stereotypes about us be challenged (although not the one about how we tend to lie about what we think to get social approval). Nonetheless, the doors would be blown open at that point and there would be no other way to do it.

06/03/08 @ 19:25

Comment from: rna2dna [Member]

As I was not able to make a call to the impeachment numbers yesterday, I did so today. The nice lady said they had receive lots of calls. Seemed to be writing down my full comment and stated that she would pass the information to Rep. Conyers. Of course, I am hoping they still receive many more just to be on the safe side.

Impeach them now, it isn't too late and it needs to be done. See karen's post, above, in this thread for the numbers and details. It is quick and easy.

06/04/08 @ 15:45

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