…Barack Obama resigned from his Chicago church, his campaign announced yesterday. The CNN Political Ticker reports:

Obama resigns from controversial church

Barack Obama resigned Saturday from his Chicago church — where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers had created repeated political headaches for the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination — his campaign confirmed.

The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama’s Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for crying in New Hampshire during the runup to the primary there.

Previously, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ and Obama’s minister for about 20 years — drew unwanted attention for the campaign when videos of several of his fiery sermons surfaced….

Certainly some of the tactless pulpit pounders in this particular church have been an embarrassment to Obama as he campaigns in the national spotlight. But there is a deeper issue here than just some sermonizers’ lack of good judgement. The focus of many churches throughout the country seems to have gone awry — caught in the pervasive slide from high ideals to materialism.

Between the end of World War II and the present, there has been a notable transition in the perception of democracy. It used to mean personal freedoms — of speech, religion, assembly, and so forth — and equal participation by all citizens in franchise. Now the popular discourse seems to define democracy as an opportunity to earn consumer goods. And parallel to this decline from philosophy to consumption, there has been a general shift in the activities of religious organizations, from houses of worship to community centers replete with bingo parlors, bowling allies, kitchens, etc.

The highly publicized disaster at Trinity is iconic of this moral derailment. The shepherd should be using his theological background to help the congregation learn HOW TO THINK, based on the spiritual guidance of the religion. Instead, his is telling them WHAT TO THINK.

From the videos of the Trinity sermons, it is abundantly clear that the pastor is using rhetorical techniques to get the congregation “pumped up,” and that there is a pervasive substitution of human emotionalism for spiritual experience.

And, since Obama has had this pattern of religious involvement for twenty years, we might assume that this is what he perceives religion to be. And that is not a very good moral compass for the leader of the free world.

Stop The ACLU Blog has coverage.

If true, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Obama is not only one of the most shady characters in American presidential election history, the guy is totally inept.

Everyone on planet earth will see such a move for what it is: a cheap, years-late political calculation. I guess Obama means to put this on the list of things we are not permitted to discuss.