Any race may join Chicago church

An anonymous e-mail criticizes the church Barack Obama belongs to: "Notice too what color you will need to be if you want to join Obama's church... B-L-A-C-K!!!" (For more on this e-mail and its claims, read our story here.)

Barack Obama belongs to Trinity United Church of Christ, which serves predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Chicago and has a mostly African-American membership. But you do not have to be black to join Trinity. The church, which has been overwhelmed with media inquiries, said in a statement that it welcomes people of all races and has white members.

“There’s no question (the e-mail) is a distortion,” said Martin Marty, a retired Chicago-based historian of religion and public life, who is white and has attended services at Trinity several times.

Dwight Hopkins, a professor of divinity at the University of Chicago who attends Trinity and is black, said he also regularly sees a few white people at Trinity.

Many churches are ethnically homogenous, but that doesn't mean they require members to be a certain race. We find the e-mail's statement that Trinity United Church of Christ only accepts African-Americans for membership to be False.