Obamas search for a new spiritual home

WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- White House aides are said to be vetting churches in Washington to find a spiritual home for U.S. President Barack Obama and his family.

The Boston Globe reported Sunday that the president's staff is working to balance the Obama family's security needs and personal beliefs. Then there is the competition among local Christian ministers to woo the Obamas into their flock, the newspaper noted.

Joshua DuBois, director of the White House office of faith-based initiatives, is coordinating Obama's search for a church. He said his office has been inundated with phone calls and invitations from various congregations.

DuBois said one of the challenges is finding a church that can handle the logistics and publicity that come with a presidential visit.

"We want to make sure we're respectful of that community," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying,

The Globe noted that Obama's search for a new church comes about 10 months after his break from Trinity United Methodist Church in Chicago.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the church's leader, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, came under fire for his sometimes incendiary preaching of black liberation theology.