Obama took membership in that 'church' in order to get the black vote in Chicago when he was planning his run for the Senate. It was a calculated move which helped him at the time, but that move, like the albatross (about my neck was hung) in the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," may destroy him in the run for the presidency.

The religion of his father would have been less damaging.

Ah wel-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young;
Instead of the Cross the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

(The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, 1798)