Controversial sermons at Obama’s longtime church in Chicago have plagued the Illinois senator, who is close to clinching the Democratic nomination to run against Republican John McCain in the November election.
Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, gave no details, but said Obama had sent a letter resigning from the church he has attended for 16 years. Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, was expected to make some comments on his decision later in the day, Gibbs said.
Last month, Obama cut ties with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who angered many with anti-American and racially charged sermons.
Just as controversy over Wright had died down, a Roman Catholic priest mocked Obama’s rival Hillary Clinton during a guest appearance at Trinity United.
In his sermon the priest, Michael Pfleger, screamed and imitated Clinton and accused her of espousing “white entitlement.” Pfleger later apologized for his comments and was condemned by Obama and the archbishop of Chicago.
The decision to quit the church appeared to be a sign that Obama wants to put the issue behind him ahead of the November general election.
Obama has attended Trinity United since 1992 and Wright presided over Obama’s marriage and baptized his two daughters.
In an effort to quell the controversy over Wright, Obama gave a widely praised speech in March calling for racial healing and offering a nuanced view of Wright, denouncing the pastor’s remarks but declining to disown him.
But then Wright made a series of public appearances and stood by his inflammatory comments. He has blamed the U.S. government for the spread of the AIDS virus, declared “God damn America” and blasted the country’s history of racism.
Obama was reportedly furious and finally cut ties with Wright last month. He condemned the minister’s comments as “outrageous” and “appalling.”
Wright’s comments posed problems for Obama because they contradicted one of his campaign’s central messages — that he can transcend past divisions such as those involving race.
Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, has attracted strong support in some heavily white states such including Wyoming, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Political analysts questioned whether Obama’s links to Wright might hurt him in the general election.
At least 115 soldiers killed themselves last year, up from 102 the previous year, the Army said yesterday.
Nearly a third of them died at the battlefront, 32 in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. But 26 percent had never been deployed to either conflict.
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (August 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316066303
ISBN-13: 978-0316066303
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Available from Amazon
I started to read this book because the author was coming to the annual fire chaplains retreat/meeting. I bought it and then it sat on my to be read pile for about a month or so before I started to read it. When I began, I could not put it down. This book is wonderful and if you are in the helping professions you need to read this book.
Kate Braestrup is the chaplain for the Maine Warden Service and she takes you thorough many of the cases that she deals with on a regular basis. The hitch in the story is that she lost her husband, a Maine State Trooper, in a car accident and went to seminary after the funeral. She is a Unitarian Universilist Minister and ministers to her flock as well as her family is ways that go beyond description.
She does an amazing job weaving her story in with stories of rescue missions and search and rescue missions as well as riding along with the Wardens as they do their job on a day to day basis all while caring for her young family.
The book does not end but is in fact a continuing story that really does not have an end. As a fire chaplain I find many things in this book that I can relate too but one does not need to be a chaplain to understand where she is coming from and what she is all about. She is all about helping people regardless of their faith orientation. She is what it means to be a chaplain. The book is an easy read and would be great for beach reading this summer.
I also had the opportunity to hear her speak and tell the stories first hand and she is truly an amazing person and writer. I highly recommend her book.
The U.S. military reported 13,891 new PTSD cases in 2007, up from 9,549 in 2006. In the past five years, more than 38,000 PTSD cases have been documented among U.S. military personnel, mostly among the Army and Marines.
Longer, multiple tours of combat duty ordered by the Bush administration received blame for the trend, although experts also said that the military is doing a better job of identifying individuals with PTSD.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently ordered a policy change that allows soldiers to seek help for PTSD without jeopardizing their military careers.
A Rand Corp. study estimated that 18.5 percent of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan showed signs of PTSD or depression.
Episode #21 of the Facing East podcast is now online.
“It’s just the sickness. I can’t get rid of it. It just keeps coming back,” said Bouffanie, 27, who was pregnant with her now 15-month-old daughter, Lexi, while living in the trailer. “I’m just like, Oh God, I wish like this would stop.’ If I had known it would get her sick, I wouldn’t have stayed in the trailer for so long.”
The girl, diagnosed with severe asthma, must inhale medicine from a breathing device.
The seminary, Andover Newton Theological School, is joining the Massachusetts Bible Society in establishing a media center that will also coach pastors on creating better websites and podcasts, train seminarians on the liturgical uses of video, and offer material on biblical interpretation to congregations and clergy around the country.
The two venerable organizations – Andover Newton says it is the oldest graduate theological institution in the nation, while the Massachusetts Bible Society has been distributing Bibles for 199 years – are trying to reinvent themselves for the modern era.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, expressing “deep concern,” said the United Nations will investigate the allegations that its peacekeepers are involved in the abuse.
The report, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast, and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and relief workers against children as young as 6.
It said some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.