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Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-19 07:47

Churches in Washington DC have started extending invitations to president-elect Barack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself.

The choices are abundant. Numerous, thriving congregations are an easy walk from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Just across Lafayette Square from the White House is St. John's Church, an Episcopal parish known as the "Church of the Presidents," where presidents as far back as James Madison have worshipped. St. John's has a standing invitation: Pew 54 is the President's Pew, reserved for the nation's leader.

Or he could choose, as many presidents have done, not to attend services at all. President George W. Bush, for instance, has only infrequently attended services in Washington, occasionally going to St. John's.

Whatever choice the Obamas make, it is sure to be analyzed through the prism of Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama's pastor for 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Obama resigned from Trinity during the presidential campaign after inflammatory comments by Wright from the pulpit became a campaign issue.

Nick Shapiro, a spokesman for Obama's transition, declined to discuss which church the Obamas might attend.

Obama has spoken frequently about the importance of his Christian faith. In his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope, he wrote that "the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world. ... You needed to come to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it."

Despite those words, Obama has attended church sparingly in the past several months.

Since winning the election, he has spent Sunday mornings at the gym. Many Washington-area churches hope that will change after he is inaugurated.

At Metropolitan AME Church, a historic, predominantly black congregation six blocks from the White House, senior pastor Ronald Braxton says parishioners have been buzzing about the possibility that the incoming president, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, - 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha - might attend services with them.

Braxton said it would be good if Obama resumed worshipping at a congregation rooted in the black community.

"He's familiar with African-American worship traditions," Braxton said, referring to Obama's membership at Wright's church in Chicago. "Metropolitan AME would be a wise choice and a safe haven in which to worship."

Metropolitan AME has about 2,000 members, including former Clinton administration insider Vernon Jordan and former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, Braxton said. The church has a long history as well - anti-slavery crusader Frederick Douglass worshipped and was eulogized there. Bill Clinton attended inaugural prayer services there in 1993 and 1997.

Braxton said the AME denominational leadership is interested in where the Obamas will worship, and is developing plans to extend a formal invitation.