I think you mistake what happened.

Obama resigned from TRINITY United Church of Christ.

That doesn't mean he would seek out another church.  It just means he is distancing himself from this particular church in light of the problems it has caused him, and he has caused it.  In their defense, Obama didn't want his presidency to cause undue stress and harrassment of TUCC members, and in his defense, some members of TUCC clergy weren't exacty respecting Obama by hyping up the rhetoric when they knew their live streams were being watched.

I am agnostic - I would rather we didn't have any religion talk as a measure in selecting candidates.

I think if Obama picks a church in Washington, he may well pick a UCC denomination.

Thank you for you sincerity about your feelings for your church. I wish you continued faithfulness in your church fellowship. It would be helpful to keep reminding those of us who believe in Christ that "there is no black church and there is no white church; there is only the Christian church". If we follow and adhere to the Golden Rule, maybe, just maybe, we will live to see fairness and justice practiced all over.

I'm ambivalent about religion, but for the sake of my children I looked into joining a denomination, the UCC was the only one I considered.

Passionate good people are members of the UCC and their policy of inclusion is the prime attraction.

I don't have much to add, but sincere, calmly stated diaries are always nice these days.

it was just that Trinity was becoming a distraction to him and he was becoming a distraction to Trinity. There are UCC congregations in DC right?

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is president of Chicago Theological Seminary, where she's been a professor of theology at the seminary for 20 years and director of its graduate degree center for five years.  This is what she wrote in the Washington Post.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfai th/susan_brooks_thistlethwaite/2008/05/p fleger_bully_in_the_pulpit.html

I preached the first service at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago last Sunday. Rev. Michael Pfleger preached later that day.
I preached a sermon about how a sacred conversation on race has to have Christ at the center.

Father Pfleger, as America now knows, preached a very different message on race, one I greatly resent.

We in the United Church of Christ are trying to have what we call "A Sacred Conversation on Race" and I did not find Pfleger's sermon to represent what we in the UCC are trying to do in having a sacred conversation.

Instead, Pfleger's sermon was a bullying rant that was disrespectful of the members of Trinity United Church of Christ, disrespectful of Senator Hillary Clinton and really also disrespectful of Senator Obama and his consistent message of finding common ground.

This political campaign season often seems to me to be a kind of cultural theater, where we are seeing the end of one kind of politics, the politics of polarization (and even the religion of polarization) coming to an end and a new politics and religion of unity trying to break through. I have been reading Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein, and this excellent book describes this historical trajectory we have experienced since 1972.

The idea that you should inflame people's hatred of one another as a way to mobilize voters has been dominant since 1972 and very powerful. But it has produced near paralysis in Washington and disastrous foreign policy. But hate dies hard and while people want to find unity, they can easily fall back into divisive rhetoric, especially when it is disguised as humor. This is bad at a dinner party; in the pulpit it is shameful and wrong.

As a woman, I was offended by Pfleger's mocking of Senator Clinton for showing emotion. Women in leadership get this double-whammy all the time; you have to be strong and not show emotion to be seen as a leader and when you don't show emotion people say you are cold and unfeeling. I had hoped that stereotype of women had died in the 1970's, but apparently not for Pfleger.

It is clear that Pfleger belongs to the old politics and religion of division. This is not a matter of age, particularly, but of mindset. Apparently the way Pfleger understands race or gender is through conflict and opposition, not through unity, common ground and certainly not as "sacred".

Dr. Dwight Hopkins, a faculty member at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and member of Trinity UCC offered a similar analysis of Pfleger's sermon last Sunday. The Catholic priest's charged remarks reflect an old-school approach. "One of the hallmarks of preaching is the speaker is expected to combine their interpretation of current events with the divinely inspired message from above," he said.

[skip] Father Pfleger's sermon was pulpit bullying of the church and bullying of good people who are trying to run decent campaigns for President. It was anything but sacred and it was certainly not biblical.

The good news is that the politics and religion of division is the past and with a lot of work, the politics and religion of unity and cooperation can be our future.

For the audience, my first cousin is a UCC minister, and we know him, his family, and the church's reputation to be one of inclusiveness and loving.  I believe most people think the Trinity church is a rogue congregation.

I understand the political necessity of the move, and I also understand that it will take heat off of Trinity.  They can be Trinity without worrying about whether or not they are ruining Obama's candidacy.  

But I was also sad.