(dpa) - Barack Obama withdrew from his church in Chicago Saturday after disputes over controversial sermons by his former pastor, according to campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The resignation comes after the most recent uproar caused by Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, who mocked Obama's Democratic rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, suggesting she believed she would be handed the nomination because she's white, according to a video of the service circulated on the Internet.
Obama's decision to leave Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after two decades as a parishioner also follows criticism of comments made by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Wright suggested in speeches made in the last two months that the US government may be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and equated some American wartime activities to terrorism.
Obama has condemned the controversial sermons by Wright and Pfleger. Obama said this week that he was "deeply disappointed" by Pfleger's "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."