Well, he had to do it. They left the man with no choice.
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign confirmed Saturday that he has resigned from the church where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers created repeated political headaches for the Democratic frontrunner. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has confirmed his resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ.Again, this isn't any different than what you'd hear at the typical black church, barbershop, or hell, even my house on any given day. Just listen.
The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama's Democratic rival during a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.
In the video, Pfleger wipes his eyes with a handkerchief and suggests that Sen. Hillary Clinton wept because she thought that as a white person and the wife of a former president, she was entitled to the presidency.
Again, tell me what's so bad about what's being said here? Of course that woman had a sense of entitlement. Of couse this Magic Negro jumping in the fray at the 11th hour upset the perfectly laid plans. Is this anything particularly new or Earth shattering? I think not.
The problem here, is the same as with Rebb'n Wright: Tone. The way you say something is often just as important as what's being said. Since a huge majority of the country is either unfamiliar, or uncomfortable with the way folks in the Black church (and I'm including Pfleger here as well, cause well, hey, you can see how he C.H.I.N.), and Black America in general express themselves.
It is what it is.
The other problem is that Trinity didn't exactly help Obama out, leaving him little choice but to do what he did. I am well aware that the occasion for Pfleger's "controversial" remarks wasn't a regular service, but rather a special conference about race relations hosted by TUCC. Still, Rebb'n Otis Moss and Co. have got to know better. Unofficial Black America Rule #4080 is "don't give em' rope to hang you with." Knowing full and damn well that the world is focused on their every word, the church should have been more careful. They should have kept Obama's name out they mouth, at least until November. But they just couldn't help themselves.
They left him no option.
And that's pretty damn sad, because while I occasionally don't agree with my Pastor either, the same pundits accusing Obama of being a closet terrorist probably don't realize church (or at least my Black church) is about far more than Sunday mornings, because they probably don't even belong to one. It's about relationships. It's about family tradition. It's about the social fabric that binds entire communities together. It's about so much more than a few excerpts from a sermon.
And since I'm on the topic, if TUCC is so damn toxic, how come they couldn't come up with anything worse? This church, if it's anything like mine, likely has 3 services each Sunday, and a number of mid-week activities. If that's all you can pull from those thousands of hours of preaching over decades of time, then just maybe you're barking up the wrong tree. Maybe that means such examples are the exception at TUCC, not the rule. Which would make Obama's insistence on sticking around for all the reasons I listed above quite understandable.
I'm sure this won't appease the horde of conservative talkin' monkeys who want to hang Barry from a figurative Magnolia tree. They'll say this move was pure politics (and let's be honest, at this point, it is). They'll try and connect Obama to Pfleger, and by proxy Farrakhan, and by proxy, Beelzebub himself. They'll call on him to not only denounce TUCC, Rebb'n Wright, Rebb'n Moss, and Pfleger, but also all of Black America that even remotely agrees with such as assertion. They'll fake this whole thing as protecting Hillary Clinton from sexist remarks, conveniently overlooking the fact that nothing anyone's said is sexist.
But I doubt they'll say anything more about John McCain's mess.
Typical.
Question: Is this the end of the media's obsession with Obama's religious affiliations, or merely the beginning of yet another chapter?
Obama resigns from controversial church [CNN]
