Following an ongoing media firestorm regarding his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and a supporter’s recent sermon, Sen. Barack Obama announced on Saturday that he had resigned “with some sadness” from Trinity United Church of Christ.

At a news conference in South Dakota, Obama said he didn’t want his “church experience to be a political circus” and added that it had been months since he had attended Trinity.

He and his wife, Michelle, notified the church in a letter on Friday that they “were withdrawing as members of Trinity,” in part because of “a cultural and a stylistic gap.” He added that he regrets “all the attention that my campaign has visited on” the church. Continue