Trinity United Church of Christ

rdf:langString Trinity United Church of Christ

rdf:langString Trinity United Church of Christ is a predominantly African-American church with more than 8,500 members. It is located in the Washington Heights community on the South Side of Chicago. It is the largest church affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white Christian denomination with roots in Congregationalism, which historically branched from early American Puritanism. The church's early history coincided with the American civil rights movement, subsequent murder of Martin Luther King Jr., and the tumultuous period that engulfed the civil rights movement after King's death due to intense competition among actors over who would carry King's mantle. During that tumultuous period, an influx of radical Black Muslim groups had begun to headquarter in Chicago, and Trinity sought to recontextualize Christianity through black theology in order to counter the influence of radical Black Muslim leaders, who taught that it was impossible to be both Black and Christian. In early 2008, as part of their presidential election coverage, news media outlets and political commentators brought Trinity to national attention when controversial excerpts of sermons by the church's longtime former pastor Jeremiah Wright were broadcast to highlight Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's pastoral relationship with Wright and the church. Obama responded with a speech, A More Perfect Union, which addressed the criticisms and largely alleviated them from popular political criticisms at the time. Trinity is best known today for its national and international social programs on behalf of the disadvantaged, although in its earliest days such outreach did not figure into its mission.