President Barack Obama has spoken frankly about the role spirituality has played in his life. In this special gallery, we take a look at some of his most memorable spiritual moments.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama is watchful and reflective during a 2007 service at First Emanuel Baptist Church in New Orleans, two years after Hurricane Katrina.
President Barack Obama, then a U.S Senator, looks on during a Palm Sunday mass at St. Sabina’s Church held by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Chicago.
During his days on the campaign trail, President Obama visited Jerusalem where he took part in the culture and placed a note between the stones of the Western Wall with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz.
In 2006, the Chicago senator spoke at the second annual Global Summit on AIDS at The Church at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
Senator Barack Obama steals a moment with daughter Sasha just after giving a speech at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God on Father’s Day in 2008. The speech to the congregation spoke to dads, especially African-American dads, on the importance of fatherhood.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright was Mr. Obama’s spiritual mentor and pastor for many years at Chicago’s Trinity United Church. However, during the final months of the presidential campaign, their relationship became strained after Wright made disparaging comments, forcing Mr. Obama to sever ties with him.
Barack Obama, then an Illinois senator, is tickled with joy as he listens to music legend Stevie Wonder sing at a service at the First AME Church in April 2007 in Los Angeles.
President-elect Obama, wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia bear the brisk Chicago weather to pass out food at St. Columbanus Parrish and School. Mr. and Mrs. Obama know the value in giving back and pass on to their daughters the spiritual lessons their parents instilled in them.
In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama prepare to pay their respects at a friend’s funeral held at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama sings “We Shall Overcome” at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached, making it a very significant moment during Obama’s campaign.
President Obama and his sister Maya Soetoro bid their last good-byes to his grandmother in Hawaii as they scatter her ashes in the ocean.
Moments before President-elect Barack Obama took his oath as the President of the United States, he and wife Michelle chat briefly with Reverend Luis Leon in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama is sworn in as the forty-fouth President of the United States of America, spreading new hope and optimism to an entire nation and to many around the globe. Mr. Obama chose to be sworn in with the same Bible that was used by Abraham Lincoln.
President Barack Obama attends the traditional National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral with First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, and former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Mr. Obama’s first full day in office back in January.
President Obama has chosen Joshua DuBois, 26, to head up the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Here, the two share a moment at The Compassion Forum at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
The President takes a peek at the Sultanahmet Mosque’s intricate tile work while touring the holy place in Istanbul. Mr. Obama, seen here with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met with religious leaders while visiting a Muslim nation.
