(CNSNews.com) - Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill. – where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama worshipped for two decades – has received more than $1.5 million in federal tax money since 2003 through the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI), according to data provided to CNSNews.com by the White House and confirmed by Rebecca Neale, spokesperson for the FBCI.
Obama and his wife officially left Trinity United in May 2008 after their friend, the former long-time pastor of the church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave a controversial press conference in Washington, D.C.
Obama supports the FBCI and said in a speech in Zanesville, Ohio, on July 1, 2008 that the office has been "consistently underfunded" and "never fulfilled its promise." He estimated that his program would cost about $500 million per year.
Under the FBCI program, Trinity United Church of Christ received a grant of $253,231 in 2003, the same amount in 2004, $363,200 in 2005, $352,450 in 2006, and $324,254 in 2007 for a total of $1,546,366. The grants went to the church’s child care centers.
The money was provided through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Head Start program, according to an official White House 1,054 page "aggregated data sheet" of FBCI funding.
