Opinion: Barack Obama’s church, feeling besieged, sets some new rules

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Anybody who’s ever had anything to do with the media during a competitive breaking news story like the recent controversial racial jeremiads of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright often comes away with a less-than-favorable impression of these professional communicators.

They can be, to put it plainly, kind of pushy. And rude. And hurried.

And so it is now at Sen. Barack Obama’s Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ, which will be packed again this morning as usual. They’re fed up and not going to take it anymore.

The church has a new lead pastor now, Otis Moss III. He held a news conference the other day to make two points. He called for a national conversation about race. And he wanted to read the riot act to some reporters who have gone overboard, in the opinion of church members and others, in their pursuit of interviews with Trinity members.

The oft-repeated call for a racial dialogue gave the press conference a more elevated gloss than if it had been merely held for the purpose of telling reporters to cease and desist from ...

bothering church members. But, to be honest, one got the sense from watching the session that the main purpose was to tell the media to back off.

The church is clearly feeling besieged and not just by the media. There have been death threats and other warnings of violence from people claiming to be upset with the racial and anti-American tones of Rev. Wright’s often-viewed video sermons of recent weeks.

But overzealous reporters have been a very real and present annoyance. According to Moss, journalists have tried to conduct interviews during church services. They have approached members as they’ve headed into the church, which is apparently a sin.

Some journalists have even actually gone so far as calling church members whose names they found on the sick and shut-in list that appeared in the church bulletin, a list that included the names of people dying in hospices.

All this led Moss to say:

‘That ends today. As a church we say no more, enough is enough. Today we pastors, members and supporters of Trinity United Church of Christ proclaim that we take back our sacred space. We will continue to work with the media as necessary but we ask that the media respect our church and our members ...

‘As we reclaim our sacred space, we are putting this episode behind us and continuing our work toward building the kingdom of God.

‘While we know that we will move beyond this, there will still be some members of the media who will refuse to do so. Because of this we will strictly enforce the policies of the media who want to report on Trinity United Church of Christ.’

Those policies call for media representatives to contact a church official to set up interviews or even attend Sunday services. Moss, being a skilled Christian leader, made sure to package it all friendly-like.

‘Now, if you are a member of the media and are looking for a church home [the audience laughs], we welcome you to Trinity United Church of Christ. There is no greater church this side of the Jordan that lifts up Christ, engages our community and celebrates our culture. But please leave your notepad at home and bring your Bible because we know that you will experience the love of God.’

It’s understandable that Trinity’s members would be upset at being approached by reporters during church services if that indeed has happened. There’s a reason why churches call the spaces where they hold services the ‘sanctuary.’

But journalists are also trained to push past normal social boundaries that stop most other people.

Many journalists have wanted to tell the fullest, truest story of Trinity. They have tried to directly reach regular church members where they can most easily be found -- at church -- in order to tell that story.

It appears Moss wants to have all media contacts with his church members pass through official channels in the church office. Good luck with that.

Moss and many Trinity members understandably want to put this behind them. But if their most famous member wins the Democratic presidential nomination, all bets are off.

While Republican Sen. John McCain has signaled he doesn’t want his official campaign to go negative, that won’t stop the so-called 527 groups, independent political agents, from running ads with video of Pastor Wright’s sermons ad nauseum. It’ll sound pretty one-sided if no one from Trinity is willing to speak on its behalf.

So, news conference or not, Trinity isn’t past this by a long shot.

-- Frank James

Frank James writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau.