\nThe Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. They’ve had a whirlwind holiday season so far, starting with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, through hosting more than 50,000 people for 27 parties and open houses, and ending with a visit by the First Lady, Malia and Sasha, and the family’s dog Bo, to deliver cookies to the Children’s National Medical Center. The Obamas have also started their own holiday traditions in their new home, adding a Christmas wishing tree to the decorations festooning the White House.<\/p>\n
But there’s one common Christmas practice not on the First Family’s schedule: a visit to Christmas Eve church services.<\/p>\n
Church, in fact, has been a surprisingly tough issue for the Obamas. They resigned their membership with Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in 2008 after Obama renounced the church’s controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. And while the First Family intended to find a local church to attend when they moved to Washington, concerns about crowds and displacing regular worshippers has prevented them from finding a new religious home during their first year here.<\/p>\n
The Obamas have attended Sunday services in Washington three times this year — once at the predominantly African-American 19th Street Baptist Church, and twice at St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square from the White House. Asked at Tuesday’s White House briefing whether the First Family is still searching for a local church to join, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded: “The President has attended fairly regularly up at Camp David a church that he’s comfortable in and has enjoyed attending.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There’s more at the TIME link.<\/a>
\nMaybe I’m being old-fashioned, or just stuffy, but this saddens me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was wondering about this over the holiday, and now TIME magazine has answered the question: no, the Obama’s didn’t go to church on Christmas. Details: The Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. They’ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Obamas' church-less Christmas - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/the-obamas-church-less-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Obamas' church-less Christmas - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was wondering about this over the holiday, and now TIME magazine has answered the question: no, the Obama’s didn’t go to church on Christmas. Details: The Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. 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