Why Is Rev. Michael Pfleger’s Church Tax Exempt?
Rev. Pfleger is an active politician
Star Tribune
By Don Babwin - AP writer Christopher Wills contributed
While Pfleger is not nearly as close to Obama as Wright had been, he has donated to the candidate’s state Senate and presidential campaigns and sat on a Catholics for Obama committee until a few weeks ago. When Obama was in the Illinois Legislature, he helped land more than $200,000 in state grants for outreach programs run by Pfleger’s church.
The relationship between Obama, a one-time community activist on Chicago’s South Side, and the outspoken priest at the activist St. Sabina Church has been a long one.
As a state senator, Obama secured two grants related to Pfleger’s church — one for $100,000 to repair The Ark community center at the church in 2000 and the other for $125,000 for computers at the church’s employment resource center.
For his part, Pfleger, 59, has donated $1,500 to Obama’s campaigns for state office and another $1,500 to his presidential campaign.
Aides say Obama has rarely visited St. Sabina, although he cited Pfleger, along with Wright, as one of his spiritual advisers in a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times story. Pfleger helped Obama’s Iowa campaign by taking part in a faith forum.
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