No one calls their pastor "their spiritual leader" in a casual reference. Its like saying, "Oh by the way Jane. my SPIRITUAL LEADER did a great sermon the other day". No one uses that term unless its implying a more intimate relationship or like a mentor relationship
Yes, I know, but by default, one's Pastor is one's spiritual leader, unless one chooses another one. But I do get your point. When someone announces to the world that a particular person is their spiritual leader, they are definitely making a statement.
One thing every Pastor will tell you is that any particular sermon, taken out of context of all the rest of his sermons will be heretical. This is because a Pastor momentarily focuses on a particular point or two during a sermon, which has the effect of raising those points above others to a degree that is probably heretical.
Also, drama and hyperbole are common in a preacher's sermon so it causes the sermon to be even more heretical when taken out of context. When you add the fact that Obama's UCC church has a long history of fighting social injustice for African Americans, it is not surprising that anger and drama can come out in some of the Pastor's sermons.
I am not defending the Pastor's stuff, I am just saying that most effective sermons are provocative and disturbing. Otherwise they are just homilies. The job of all Pastors is to "comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.". So don't be surprised when an African American Pastor says stuff that is really disturbing as he is railing against a couple hundred years of oppression.
This particular Pastor has a history of some 30 years of selfless service to his black community. He has turned the world upside down to address poverty, hunger, drugs, and homelessness in his parish. This is what Obama has respected about this guy over the years. If you read Obama's books you will see how he has worked in the trenches for years trying to bring about social justice in the bombed out sections of Chicago, and he has worked hand in hand with people like this Pastor.
People accuse Obama of being naive, but I think he is smart enough to know that one has to work with all kinds of people to bring about social change. An angry, militant, and sometimes hyperbolic Pastor who is a huge force for change in his parish is one example.