From a purely practical and political point of view, yes, he should have resigned from his church. The man is running for president. His church has become a distraction. And there is not enough time in a very long campaign, perhaps not enough time in this life, to get a general population to understand the complexities of local church life.

Those complexities are a given, but how tragic it is that so few people appreciate them. And how sad it is whenever faithful parishioners come to a place where the ties that bind them to their local faith community strain and break.

As a regular preacher in a local parish setting, I have winced often as the drama of Pastor Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ has unfolded. I know people have left my church because of things I’ve said.

Ideally, preaching is an extended conversation, and without a frame of reference, quotes and YouTube excerpts are bound to distort that conversation. These days there’s no such thing as a word between only preacher and pew. In digital times, the world is our parish.

The judgments about Wright and Trinity have been harsh—too harsh. No amount of explaining the theological orientation—the liberation perspective on the Christian gospel—will assuage those who want to see the unacceptable.

And there’s been a rush to judge Obama. How could he hear that orientation all these years and not agree with it? Any preacher can tell you that people in the pew are discriminating hearers. Obama’s life and work are the testament of how he heard what he heard. And it’s not what his critics heard.

Least of all should those of us who are white or otherwise outside the lived experience of the people of Trinity judge the church or its most famous (now ex-) parishioner. The meaning of membership is a singular and intimate thing. Too bad we shattered it for one man and his family. Let’s hope they can find a new one, and let’s hope they can join it in peace.