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And You Wondered Why Obama Stuck With His Church

Over the years I?ve discussed the work of Colbert King, a deputy editor at the Washington Post, on a number of occasions (one, two, three, four, five, six). But his column today may be the prizewinner, answering as it does the question that everyone has been asking: ?Why Obama Stands With His Church.?

The reason? Once you see it, you?ll kick yourself (I know I did) for not thinking of it yourself: ?Absalom Jones and Richard Allen.?

Really. Jones became the first black Episcopal priest and Allen founded what became the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. They?re the reason Obama, no planning his campaign to transcend race and bridge the gulf between black and white, sat mute for 20 years while Rev. Wright accused his country of inventing AIDS and importing cocaine in order to kill and imprison blacks.

For some reason, however, Rev. Wright does not cite Jones and Allen as his spiritual progenitors. Instead, he cites the founder of Black Liberation Theology, James Cone, a professor at Uniion Theological Seminary. What this Cone holds is not ice cream but teachings such as the following (as quoted here):

Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community.

... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

Another example, chosen from many that are now making the rounds:

According to a 1995 book, Soul in Society by Gary J. Dorrien, Mr. Cone said, ?White religionists are not capable of perceiving the blackness of God because their satanic whiteness is a denial of the very existence of divinity. ... That is why whites are finding and will continue to find the black experience a disturbing reality. ... God could not be white because white is the color of oppressors.?

I think Obama?s failing here was not that he didn?t march out of his church and Rev. Wright?s life in a huff; it?s that so far as we know he did nothing to combat or counteract the corrosive hate that was being promulgated from his pulpit for all those years. That?s not leadership; it?s not judgment; and it?s certainly not demonstrating either the desire or ability to bring the races together.

Full post as published by Discriminations on March 22, 2008 (boomark / email).