ABERDEEN, South Dakota, May 31, 2008
Obama Resigns 20-Year Church Membership
Controversial Remarks From Church's Pastor, Minister Prompt Obama To Submit Letter Of Resignation
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Play CBS Video Video Obama Resigns From His Church CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield provides commentary after a Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's sudden resignation from his church.
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Video Democrats Meet On Mich., Fla. The Democratic National Committee met in order to determine what will happen to the delegates in Michigan and Florida, as the Obama and Clinton camps have different ideas. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Video Obama To Look For New Church Barack Obama has left the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after 20 years and a lot of pressure. Dean Reynolds reports.
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Sen. Barack Obama (AP)
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Timeline Obama And Rev. Wright Key dates in the relationship between Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
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Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama had submitted a letter of resignation to the church and would discuss his decision in a session with reporters later Saturday.
It happened "over the last few days," Gibbs said.
In the letter, obtained by CBS News, Obama told Rev. Otis Moss III he made the "decision with sadness," noting it was the place he and wife Michelle were married and where the couple's children were baptized.
"But as you know," wrote Obama, "our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statement of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflicts with our own views."
The letter was signed by both Obama and his wife.
In a statement released by the church, Moss wrote, "we are saddened by the news, we understand that it is a personal decision."
Comments by Wright have inflamed racial tensions and posed an unwanted problem for Obama, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he seeks to wrap up the nomination.
More recently, racially charged remarks from the same pulpit by another pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, has kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in the side of Obama.
Pfleger earlier this month mocked Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as a guest speaker at Obama's church.
Obama has condemned comments by both Wright and Pfleger, but the controversy has persisted.
For months, Obama has been hamstrung by the rhetoric of Wright, whose sermons blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks and calls of "God damn America" for its racism became fixtures on the Internet and cable news networks.
Initially, Obama said he disagreed with Wright but portrayed him as representing a part of him he couldn't disown. The preacher had officiated at Obama's wedding and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.
But six weeks after Obama's well-received speech on race, Wright claimed at an appearance in Washington that the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested that Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm's length while privately agreeing with him.
After that, Obama denounced Wright's comments as "divisive and destructive."
On Thursday, Obama was again forced to reject another man of the cloth, this time Pfleger, who made racially charged comments mocking Clinton in a guest sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama's church.
Obama made it clear he wasn't happy with the comments - in which Pfleger pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show" - and said he was "deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
Pfleger, too, issued an apology, saying he was sorry if his comments offended Clinton or anyone else.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 1689 CommentsGuess what we will never win in Iraq. How could we accomplish something that noone has been able to do thru out history ? Iraq will be fighting for centuries to come. This is their way of life, they know nothing else.
Hopefully they are not bolted to the floor. The destruction of the DNC would be one of the best things to ever happen in this country. They tried to shove obama down our throats and we wouldn''t swallow. They keep shooting themselves in the foot. How many feet do they have ? If they stay with obama then they will give this election away. Hillary should have run as an independent after the way the DNC has treated her. I have never belonged to a perty and this is why. I would not blindly vote for any party. I always want to know what a candidate will offer to get my vote.
I wouldn''t want to stand next to obama in front of God or anywhere else. And i have walked the walk so i can talk the talk. Have you walked the walk, or do you hide behind your religion ?
No one sits in church like spounges...no one but fools.
Well said.
Now have you asked obama why he sat there for 20 years ?
Wouldn''t it be considered racist for a black caucus to not allow white members ? Oh i forgot, being blacks are a minority thy can''t be racist.
Maybe the white race needs tostart a tv channel called WET. You think the black groups would mind if we followed their example ?
PUNISH THE DNC!!!
Obama/YourMama!!
Why should he be given almost half plus 4 more of hers?
He should be receiving 0, none, nix, Nada, ETC.
The Democratic party is going to self destruct for good like they almost did 1n 1968. Remember the riots in the streets of Chicago? This time the riots will be right in the convention center. I can see them busting chairs over each others heads, hopefully they are bolted to the floor. LOL
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
IMAGINE THAT A WHITE CLUB THAT ALL WHITES CANT JOIN
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
TELL THE MILLIONS OF OLD FOLKS WHO MONEY WAS STOLEN BY MCCAIN. THAT HE IS A GOOD DECENT CHRISTAIN
FOOL.
AND GUESS WHAT, THEY WERE HARD WORKING WHITE AMERICANS WHO SAVED UP FOR RETIREMENT.
THIS GOOD CHRISTAIN MCCAIN ROBBED THEM.
On August 30, 1974 Governor Ronald Reagan signed this legislation into law which became Chapter 583, and added Section 50027 to the Government Code, relating to astrology. After this legislation was passed, Sacramento licensed astrologers and allowed them to practice for compensation.
WHEN DID CHRISTIANS PRATICE WICCA?
REAGAN DID
HE HAD HIS PALMS READ AND SAUGHT A FORTUNE TELLER ADVISE ON WHETHER RUSSIA WOULD USE NUKES
YET HE WAS THE GREATEST PRESIDENT????
READ IT if your a true american. All other foreigners and Islamic Radicals, dont bother reading.
Great News Everyone, the Washington Post is reporting the US is Winning the War. READ IT!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/w
p-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR200
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53101927.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053101927.html
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the African American members of the Congress of the United States. Membership is exclusive to African Americans[1] and its chair in the 110th Congress is Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan.
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the African American members of the Congress of the United States. Membership is exclusive to African Americans[1] and its chair in the 110th Congress is Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan.
and he was found INNOCENT,,,
got it
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