Deacon Carole Carter has sought healing at Trinity United Church of Christ nearly every Sunday since her chemotherapy began. If she’s not there, members call to check on her, thanks to a list of the ailing and homebound published in the church bulletin.<\/p>\n
But when reporters and curiosity-seekers descended upon the church last month, Carter got a new kind of call. A producer who plucked her name and number from the prayer list wanted to interview her about Sen. Barack Obama’s church.”First of all, it’s not ‘Obama’s church.’ It’s God’s church,” said Carter, 47, who is being treated for a second bout of breast cancer. “It’s not a good situation to be in. I fear for my pastor. I fear for my church.”<\/p>\n
It has been three weeks since incendiary snippets from sermons delivered by Trinity’s longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., surfaced on the Internet and turned Obama’s 20-year membership at the South Side church into a potential political liability. Obama denounced the pastor’s remarks but did not disown Wright, who has remained silent on the subject since the controversy erupted.<\/p>\n
Trinity’s leaders say media attention and threats have forced them to confront the question of how to keep the doors open to preach the gospel while comforting Trinity’s members and protecting its ministry.<\/p>\n
Striking that balance is a challenge for any pastor, said Rev. John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ, the denomination to which Trinity belongs.<\/p>\n