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Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have resigned from their membership at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The move is taken by Obama after controversial sermons from his former pastor created persistent political problems for his Presidential campaign. Obama said on Saturday, that he is announcing the decision with some sadness, but that he had been discussing the matter with his family for quite some time now. The senator remarked that he did not wish to be a continuing burden on the congregation.
Obama while announcing his resignation from the church remarked that, he does not have to answer everything that is stated in the church and at the same time he doesn’t want the church subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes. The commotion started four months ago, with the sermons of his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. But the deciding factor for Obama was Rev. Michael Pfleger’s videotaped sermon last week, showing him taunting Hillary Clinton and saying she felt entitled to the Presidency because she is ‘white’. In Obama’s May 30 letter to the church, he wrote that his relationship with the church had been “strained” by the statements of Wright. The new pastor Rev. Otis Moss III has released a statement in which he has said that they are saddened by the news, but understand that it is a personal decision.
