If you have read Dreams from my Father, you are aware of the length and depth of Obama's search for his racial identity. This consumed much of his young life, and was still a strong component of his development in the early Chicago years. His stated reasons for finally making a commitment to Christianity and to Trinity United Church of Christ were very tied up in his attraction to a community, to a tradition, to a sense of belonging, and in so doing he really began to solidify his place in a congruent way. I believe the TUCC experience was a strong component in giving him the understanding and assimilation of the African American experience, which his life had not provided up until this point. His marriage to Michelle was the other major part of that development.
As he internalized these experiences he was then able to evolve beyond them. I believe that the Reverend Wright probably more than any one person represented to him the personification of that past that he didn't share but that he owned, and only by participating in this experience was he able to integrate it into his person. Since he grew up outside of the mainland US, and since he had little early experience with African Americans, this was where he was able to internalize the struggle, the indignities, the suffering, the rage, the frustration of those that preceded him. And it gave him the tools, and then the vision, to understand his unique ability to help his people and his country move beyond it. Like everything else in his life this was a profound learning experience, where he could learn without agreeing, empathize without buying into the rhetoric and the culture of the past.
This would be, aside from obvious personal affection, the source of his deep loyalty to the institution and the man. They enabled him to be the unique human being he is, and the hope he offers to all of us.