That's a false dichotomy -- either religion or ideology and nothing else.
The other, missing alternative is that he picked the church for the connections and the career help it would give him in the community.
I don't know why Obama picked Wright's church, but to leave out Obama's interest in personal career advancement is to ignore what's usually the biggest part of the puzzle when it comes to politicians.
“The other missing alternative is that he picked the church for the connection and the career help it would give him in the community...I don’t know why Obama picked Wright’s church, but to leave out Obama’s interest in personal career advancement is to ignore what’s usually the biggest part of the puzzle when it comes to politicians.”
A major point is that he picked that church because he could use it to help his agenda advance - which of course includes his career. Maybe I just assumed that was obvious and should have spelled it out more. But it wasn’t just that Obama wanted his career to advance for personal glory. He wanted to advance so he could advance his radical ideology. They are connected.
Paul Cooper