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Outside the Mainstream

You already knew the Rev. Jeremiah was outside the mainstream of … let’s see … America, Christianity, etc. Did you know how far he is outside the mainstream of the black American church he claims to speak for? Way out, according to Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom, who do the history, the sociology, the theology, and the Wrightology at RealClearPolitics: 

In his recent incendiary remarks, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. claimed that criticism of his views is nothing less “an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition.” Can it really be that millions of black Americans regularly choose to listen to viciously anti-white and anti-American rants on Sunday mornings?

…

C. Eric Lincoln’s mid-1980s survey of the leaders of 2,150 black churches found that two-thirds of them said they had not been influenced by “any of the authors and thinkers of black liberation theology.” Indeed, 63 percent did not believe that the black church had “a different mission from the white church.” A third did not even think it was “important have black figures in [their] Sunday school literature.”

…

Rev. Wright does not speak for mainstream black churches-and he has done them a gross disservice by claiming to do so. He shares neither their vision nor their values. Why their relative silence in the face of Rev. Wright’s rants? Perhaps they believe they are protecting Sen. Obama, but if Wright convinces white Americans that his hateful speeches reflect the ways African-American churchgoers think and worship, the quest for racial equality will be set back decades.

You are going to want to read the whole thing.

Topics: racism, religion

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:47 am on Wednesday, May 7, 2008

One Response to “Outside the Mainstream”

1. Fatty Bolger Says:
   May 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

   I never assumed that Wright was representative of all black churches. Just the church that Obama chose to join and stay with for 20 years. As Elizabeth Wurtzel said, let’s give the American people some credit that they are thinking with their brains, and will realize how poorly this reflects on Obama and his church, rather than all black churches.

   Could it be that we deserve it?

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