Presidents from George Washington to George Bush have found a place to worship, if they want, while performing the duties of the Commander-in-Chief during war and peacetime. While a presidential security detail does attract some attention, it hasn’t kept modern executives from attending services … at least not until now. Barack Obama explained to Matt Lauer that he seems incapable of resolving the issue as successfully as his predecessors (via Hannah B):

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You know what? What we’ve decided for now is not to join a single church. And the reason is is because Michelle and I have realized we are very disruptive to services. … And in the meantime, what we’ve done, there was a prayer circle of pastors from across the country who during the campaign would, would say a prayer for me or send a devotional. And we’ve kept that habit up and, and it’s a wonderful group because it’s a mix of some very conservative pastors, some very liberal pastors, but all who, you know, pray for me and Michelle and, and the girls and, and I get a daily devotional on my BlackBerry which is a, is a wonderful thing.

Believe it or not, I pray for the President every day. We only have one at a time, and I’d rather have the Lord guiding him than not. I hope that the daily devotional on the Blackberry helps, I really do. But if he can’t be bothered to go to church, Obama should just have the honesty to admit it rather than try passing it off as that he’s such a celebrity that there isn’t a church that could handle him. Maybe I’ll just add that to my prayers for today.

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Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!