I got an email from a fellow staff member yesterday which began like this:
“Obama mentioned his church during his appearance with Oprah. It's the Trinity Church of Christ. I found this interesting.........”
The church’s “About Us” webpage begins:
“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.”
Another staff member joined the discussion with the simple question, “Do you think this is true?”
I responded…
“I might change my mind on this later, but right now I'm not sure it matters. Our country is so divided at this point about what it means to be a Christian; saying a person is one raises more questions than it answers. A testimony, basically a person's word, is a really cheap commodity in today's world. So many people today say they are Christians but apart from church attendance there is really very little supporting evidence. On the other hand, there are so many people doing good things, making huge contributions to vast members of our world, yet never claiming Christianity.
Electing a president is a huge crap shoot anyway. I'll bet if President Clinton had told everyone up front how he would spend his time with Monica, before he was elected, he never would have been so...however, after the fact, most people said his conduct didn't necessarily make him a bad president.
So, what shall we do? I guess pray and trust God. Wait, that's the formula for every day. And, I guess, Election Day and all those to follow.”
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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1 comments:
Hi Mike! Found your blog, so now I'll be a reader. I'm not going to touch on the Christianity issue, but I will comment on the racial identity purported by this congregation. I wonder if their statement of racial identity is true to their church's foundation, if Obama's televised testament to his membership there has some sort of political agenda lurking behind it. Since he began running, he's faced the racial identity issue from both sides: too 'white' or not 'black' enough. So I just wonder if he strategically mentioned he worships with this congregation to gain support of black voters. Very similar to Hillary's interview with Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight about how she keeps trim on the campaign trail was a way of making her seem more feminine to a body of voters who view her as cold-hearted.
Oh, election year. I'm trying to decide if I'm even going to touch the political debates in the fall when I'm teaching rhetorical analysis to first semester college students.
Take care!
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