Letters to the Editor
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Black Church Experiences
When I lived in Washington I attended services at several different Black churches (and many more mixed churches). These were churches that my Black friends and colleagues (and several of my white friends and colleagues) found inspiring, uplifting, and that shared and practiced progressive/liberal theology in their communities. I'm not a church-going person and am not "religious" in any organized way, although I was raised as a Methodist.
Two of the churches I attended there were AME; one was a Black Baptist; the other was a "Christ Unity" church in SE.
From my limited knowledge prior to these experiences, I thought that AME Churches preached Black Liberation Theology (and would therefore probably not be very welcoming to me as a white interloper and D.C. "transient"). I pretty much guessed that Black Baptist was gonna be "fire and brimstone" and that the "Christ Unity" church (a local church) would probably be closer to community and civil rights activism. Again, because I am not a church-goer, I was quite ignorant about any church (except Methodism) particular beliefs/practices, except for what I had read.
These were the Reagan years that saw the outbreak and identification of AIDS, the War Against the Contras, The collapse of the former Soviet Union, major recession, the Iran-Contra Scandal, and the debauched divide and conquer tactics of women against men; Black vs. white; gay vs. everybody; unions vs. corporations, etc. They were tough political and economic times with a lot of enflamed feelings toward "others" about what was going on.
Yet, not once at any of the church services I attended did I ever hear a Black pastor utter "hate speech" -- even against President Reagan, or the whites who were dividing all of us from each other, or the gays, or Latinos, or anybody else. I heard messages of 1) hope; 2) encouragement to continue fighting the good fight; and 3) tolerance for those of different races, values and beliefs. (There was also a lot of high-spirited singing & moving, but I digress).
It just rubs me completely the wrong way that Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't supposed to be held to the same standards we "liberals" hold Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and others; it also really troubles me that we become enraged when these same pastors who use "hate speech" are actively courted (and counseled) by the likes of George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Dick Cheney, and John McCain -- all of whom are PUBLIC OFFICIALS. And we decry the poisoning of public life with religion and religious intolerance (by people like this).
Yet, somehow, Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright are immune from our criticism. Why? Because Barack Obama got up and gave a stem-winding speech on race?
It isn't enough. And it still doesn't answer the question about why Sen. Obama spent 20 years in this man's company (10 of which have been as a PUBLIC OFFICIAL) and listened to/heard this "hate speech" without doing anything about it.
To me, this is a serious disconnect between what we, as liberals, say and what we do. We (including Sen. Obama) aren't "walking the talk" on this, as far as I can tell, and it doesn't make me feel at all good about supporting him, under any circumstances.