From the Ladner Report: On the Dissolution..

Till Disloyalty Do Us Part (Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama)

By Erik Kolbell

Marriages are neither made nor dissolved overnight, and make no mistake about it, the relationship between a parishioner and his minister is something of a spiritual union. This is why those who say Barak Obama waited too long to divorce himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright have no appreciation for how wrenching the experience of spiritual separation can be.

I can't speak to the particulars of the bond these two men developed over the past 20 years, but as a former parish minister I can say with certainty that these kinds of relationships carry their own unique level of intimacy. As ministers we are brought into people's lives at their zeniths and at their nadirs. We wed them, baptize their children, counsel them through difficult times, bury their parents. We hear confessions that might not be heard by any other human being. We lend a compassionate ear to their fears about the future, their doubts about the existence of God, their anger at the enormous and seemingly irreconcilable pain that exists in the world.

For the full piece: http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/