President Obama explains details of family church search

Washington D.C., Jul 2, 2009 / 15:16 pm

At a meeting today with press members in the White House's Roosevelt Room, President Obama revealed the difficulties that he and his family have undergone in choosing a place of worship. The president hopes to decide on a church in the "second half of the year."

The meeting, which touched on topics ranging from abortion to the state of the Catholic Church in America, was held with eight members of the media, including the National Catholic Register, Catholic News Service, National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal.

According to the National Catholic Register, the president said that he and his family will continue to attend services at Camp David when they are there, but finding a D.C.-area church is proving more difficult.

"Michelle and I decided that we would wait a few months after arriving before we made a decision on this, partly—let’s be blunt: I mean, we were pretty affected by what happened at Trinity and the controversy surrounding Reverend Wright," Obama said. The Register reports that the president said the saga involving the First Family's former church was "deeply disturbing" and "disappointing for us personally."

"It made us very sensitive to the fact that as President the church we attend can end up being interpreted as speaking for us at all times."

The logistics of President Obama and his family attending a church also makes the decision more complicated.

The Obamas will probably have decided on which District-area church to attend by the "second half of the year," but added the president, "We may choose, rather than to join just one church, to rotate and attend a number of different churches."