Welcome to the MSM‘s latest revelation: black people go to church! All of the recent controversy about Senator Obama‘s church and the inflammatory remarks of black preachers he has affiliated with has led to the new discovery that African Americans have a spiritual life.
And get this: their preachers say ludicrous crap from time to time just like other priests, preachers, rabbis, and imams. Amazing.
The controversy is manufactured. Anyone who didn’t already know that this kind of rhetoric is used by preachers in black churches all over America is obviously so out of touch their commentary should be discounted.
Senator, were you aware that Dr. Wilburn was a mad scientist?
Well, over the 14 odd years I’ve known him he’s often talked about amateur rocketry and shown me his research papers published in Journal of Laser Applications, but honestly this is the first I’ve heard of his plans to build a space laser.
The problem is, Dr. Wilburn, like these preachers who are being used to attack Senator Obama, are often incoherent. Their emotions outpace their brains and they say some stuff that, really, doesn’t make sense. But the impetus behind their words are realities that have existed for hundreds of years. Their overall point is lucid.
And that’s exactly what Barack Obama said in his notable speech on race in America. It’s clear that there are issues with race in this country and that we have much work to do in that arena. It’s also clear that many black preachers take liberties when directing a sermon to what they believe is a specifically targeted audience. That includes some pretty heavy-handed, ultimately irrational, blanket statements about this country.
Should it be toned down? Yes. Should the people who say these things be reminded that as they have taken it upon themselves to be shepherds in the absence of their Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazarus, the Christ, the Lamb of God, et al. they have a duty to uphold his teachings and take pains to understand them clearly and relay that lucid understanding to their patrons? Duh.
But should a member of such a congregation be held accountable or be viewed as having endorsed those tirades? No. If any member of any church wholly subscribes to every word from the pastor’s mouth let him be cast upon by the first stone. And the zeroeth stone to the man who casteth the firsteth.
In the modern vernacular, some people go to church to do the work of their God, not because the preacher is particularly correct. Especially in the case of a politician, the opportunity to meet with community members and seek out lasting progress for their community, state, and nation, can start in a church. This is nowhere more true than in a black church where it is often less formal and more communal than in white churches.
Most of the time a sermon will tread heavily on positive aspects of life and serve as a weekly reminder to live spiritedly and hold forgiveness close to the heart, and the like. And that’s as uncontroversial as it can get. I challenge the MSM to pull up some of those recorded sermons from these preachers and find controversy in them. And when that’s the sermon, there’s no problem. Only when the preacher has a thorn in his side and feels like he should pull it out before his patrons, it is foremost not in the spirit of the Christ. But more than that, his motivations must be questioned.
And you’ll notice that most of my discussion here keeps focusing on the preachers, not on Obama. Why is that? Because Obama didn’t say these things, didn’t endorse these things. Those preachers said them. They, and their words, are what it is appropriate to address. The only questions to Obama should be, “Do you agree with them?” And he’s already answered that one. Time to move on.
-Adam