Barack Obama skips church to work out at gym

President elect Barack Obama has reportedly been skipping church services, and, instead, spending his free time working out at a Chicago gym.

Sources have revealed that Obama is not attending church because his family are concerned that their large entourage could affect other parishioners.

"Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw," Politico.com quoted the source as saying.

However, both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had managed to attend church in the weeks after they were elected presidents.

For about two decades, Obama and his family attended Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

However, with the public disclosure earlier this year of incendiary sermons at Trinity by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama and his wife Michelle resigned their membership in the large South Side congregation in June.

Obama said that he didn't want his "church experience to be a political circus", and expressed regret for the unwanted attention members of the congregation had received.