Thomas: "Wished He'd Edited Out"

Speaking to World Magazine about recent news that has the United Church of Christ in the headlines, General Minister and President John Thomas expressed regret over Barack Obama telling a General Synod audience this past June that he was running for President.

In it's March 22/29, 2008 issue, page 43, and also reported on its website:

UCC president John Thomas told WORLD he had personally invited Obama to speak about the relationship between personal faith and public life long before the senator was a presidential candidate: "We took great care to make sure we stayed within the legal boundaries, and I believe we did." Thomas said that although there was one point in Obama's speech that "I would have wished he'd edited out"-- a brief reference to the Obama presidential campaign-- "otherwise he spoke about the topic we'd asked him to speak about. Any campaign activity took place outside on public property where we have no control."

Obama spoke of his candidacy twice. Once at the beginning of his speech and later in the middle, in the form of a campaign promise. Unfortunately, those couple of seconds turned the entire address into a presidential candidate speech.