Obamas still church homeless halfway through 2009 ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090629/us_time/08599190761000/print;_ylt=Ag5a0A_bwNlx1r3kDH.Oo33BF4l4;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--

Obama Picks Camp David Church -- Not a D.C. Congregation
By AMY SULLIVANMon Jun 29, 9:40 am ET

For the past five months, White House aides and friends of the Obamas have been quietly visiting local churches and vetting the sermons of prospective first ministers in a search for a new - and uncontroversial - church home. Obama has even sampled a few himself, attending services at 19th Street Baptist on the weekend before his inauguration and celebrating Easter at St. John's Episcopal Church.
 
Now, in an unexpected move, Obama has told White House aides that instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worshipEvergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David. 
 
A number of factors drove the decision - financial, political, personal - but chief among them was the desire to worship without being on display. Obama was reportedly taken aback by the circus stirred up by his visit to 19th Street Baptist in January. Lines started forming three hours before the morning service, and many longtime members were literally left out in the cold as the church filled with outsiders eager to see the new President. Even at St. John's, which is so accustomed to presidential visitors that it is known as the "Church of the Presidents," worshippers couldn't help themselves from snapping photos of Obama on their camera phones as they walked down the aisle past him to take communion.
 
The challenge of being part of a church community but also praying in peace has long been a problem for Presidents, according to historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony. "McKinley hated having people staring at him while he read Psalms, sang hymns, put money in the collection plate or took communion," he writes in America's First Families. "By the 1920s, getting a presidential family in and out of church was a production. Secret Service agents had to cordon off a clear path from the curb to the church entrance before the Coolidges arrived ... [and] they were swiftly escorted to their third-row pew."
 
The Clintons attended Foundry United Methodist Church on 16th Street, and were particularly active during the years before Chelsea left for college. But White House aides say that security measures required by the Secret Service have become stricter since 9/11 and would cause significant delays for parishioners - and at significant cost to taxpayers - on Sunday mornings. Given Obama's popularity within the African-American community, the President also worried that if he chose a local black congregation, church members would find themselves competing with sightseers for space in the pews.

In every church he attended, the press was outside mulling around in the parking lot and there were even pictures of him inside the church kneeling and praying.  I'd say that would be rather annoying.

We also never saw pictures of Mr and Mrs Bush walking into church, did we?  God is not only in church, you know?  He is anywhere we want him to be.

Like you say, "you see it as a case of wrong priorities". 

Not everyone else finds this a huge concern and finds this keeping them awake nights.

I guess tending church as George W attenteded church at the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David is not good enough for you?  I didn't see complaints when GW was going there.

The New York trip was a surprise. Sunday church services occur every week. For what it's worth, there is no evidence that Lincoln attended church during his term as President.

Moose:  A "Surprise" for whom??? Durring his campaign he made the promise of the dog & the trip, where were U?

Me: Did the candidate say which play he would see? Did he say which weekend he would go? Did he indicate which restaurant he would visit?  

If Barack Obama selected a church within DC, virtually every member of that church would have to go through a secret service background check. Every Sunday, people attending the church would have to go through a security perimeter which would be more intrusive than what you and I experience when we board an airplane. At the end, Obama decided to attend the same secure church (at Camp David) that the previous President used.