Is the black church the answer to liberal prayers?

[rug]

Dayna Smith/DAYNA SMITH/FTWP - Jacquelyn Hall, Ursula J. Holmes and Leslie Wiley pray during Sunday services at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington.


By Lisa Miller, Thursday, November 24, 7:23 AM

As the American left continues to seek a coherent way to articulate its moral priorities in these days of political stalemates and widening income gaps, it might look to the most unlikely of places — the academy — for guidance and inspiration.

At elite universities and seminaries thrives a constituency of African American intellectuals who fiercely contend that the American conversation needs to stay focused on justice — specifically, for those whom the Bible calls “the least of these.”

Cornel West, who was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street protest, is perhaps the most visible. But there is also James Cone of the Union Theological Seminary, whom the New Yorker profiled in 2008 as an intellectual influence on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial pastor emeritus of President Obama’s church in Chicago. And there is Eddie Glaude of Princeton, who last year wrote a red-hot essay for the Huffington Post called “The Black Church is Dead.”

And there is Obery Hendricks, a Bible professor at Union whose book, “The Universe Bends Toward Justice,” was published this month. (The title borrows from an often-used phrase by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.). In a series of interconnected essays on subjects ranging from gospel music to supply-side economics, Hendricks rails against the conventional hypocrisies in public moral and religious discourse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/seeking-justice-for-the-least-of-these/2011/11/22/gIQAIRPkrN_story.html

[LARED]

1. I guess that depends on the prayer. Nt

[xchrom]

2. interesting. nt

[skepticscott]

3. There are conservative black churches

as virulently homophobic as their white counterparts. Tragically, the irony escapes them, but that's what unquestioning devotion to anything you're told does to you.

[jwirr]

9. That is what I was thinking and there are black churches that are as

rw as any white one. Cain is a preacher in a black church isn't he?

[NMMNG]

10. That's because the Bible says gay is wrong

and while you can't change being black you can change being gay. (That's the line of reasoning...really.)

[skepticscott]

11. Of course, the Bible is also just fine with slavery

and has been used to justify it. Another little irony that no doubt escapes the sheep in the pews.

[NMMNG]

12. That's where the Cafeteria Christianity always comes in handy

Ignore anything inconvenient for you, choose the things you're going to beat others over the head with, and choose a few other things you've already been doing to make yourself feel righteous.

[bluestateguy]

4. Maybe

A good many black churches are not very accepting of gay people. So we'll see.

[rucky]

5. Not if you're gay. n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Although black churches do some good work

in raising consciousness about poverty-related issues, many leave much to be desired regarding social issues. They are somewhat like the Catholic church in that respect; they can be just as bigoted toward GLBT people, for instance, as any white fundies. While I appreciate their efforts in reducing poverty, I wouldn't go so far as to call most black churches "liberal."

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. I've been to churches, and it seems to me white churches are social clubs, and lackeys of the GOP

While black churches are generally (maybe because of what black people have gone through, and what they still go through), more real, more spiritual, not fake as white churches, more human, more humane, and all-around more like churches.

[skepticscott]

8. Well, that's rather sweeping

to refer to ALL "white churches" as "lackeys of the GOP" and "fake". Maybe the middle of the road white suburbanites attend their Lutheran/Methodist/Episcopal/Presbyterian/Congregationalist churches more often due to habit and the need for middle-class respectability to a greater extent than do blacks, but there are plenty of white Christians who are hardcore in their beliefs and how they practice them.

How "real" you can be when worshipping a god that shows no good evidence of actually existing is another matter.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. I didn't say all, but you're right there are some white churches that are not GOP, but FEW

For example, Quakers. Not many of those around.