Required reading for Amy Sullivan about ‘the black church’

Washington Post column Eugene Robinson, often underappreciated, makes clear there is no such thing as “the monolithic black church.”

(Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s) basic point — that any attack on him is an attack on the African American church and its traditions — is just wrong. In making that argument, he buys into the fraudulent idea of a monolithic, monocultural black America — one with his philosophy and theology at its center. …

The reality of the African American church, of course, is as diverse as the African American community. I grew up in the Methodist church with pastors -- often active on the front lines of the civil rights movement -- whose sermons were rarely exciting enough to elicit more than a muttered "Amen." They were excitement itself, however, compared with the dry lectures delivered by the priest at the Catholic church around the corner. And what I heard every Sunday was nothing at all like the Bible-thumping, hellfire-and-damnation perorations that filled my Baptist friends with the Holy Ghost -- and even less like the spellbinding, singsong, jump-and-shout sermonizing that raised the roofs of Pentecostal sanctuaries across town.

That said, Robinson also gets to the “throwing under the bus” line, which some white liberals, under the guise of calling it “overused,” seem to think is taboo.

Robinson says, clearly, that Wright threw Obama under the bus and it was time for Obama to return the favor.

Can white liberals who aren’t so skeptical be a little less PC at times?

Meanwhile, MoJo seeks new levels of inanity by comparing The Really Angry Black Man and Sort Of Angry Black Man. I don’t know if she saw all of Obama’s “denounce Wright” speech, or read the transcript; it’s clear that, like much of the MSM, she didn’t do that with Wright.

Kevin Drum’s weakest post of the week

Anytime you’re a major-league blogger, non-conservative division, and you turn off comments for a post of yours when you first post it, you know you’re in chicken-hawk, or chickenshit, land, take your pick. (The reason I specified the non-conservative division is that a lot of fairly big conservative blogs don’t allow comments, which says something right there.)

But, since Kevin doesn’t want to hear comments about Megan McArdle, I’ll give him one here:

Aren’t she and Amy Sullivan twins separated at birth? Not by how they look, of course, but their twitty, insufferably-earnest blogging?

And, can’t we do an equivalent of the ancient Roman punishment for treason and tie the two together in a bag with a cock, a viper, and a monkey, and then throw the bag in a river?

Amy Sullivan an equal-opportunity peddler of Dem stereotypes on religion

Amy Sullivan talks about why Obama opted for a black church like Jeremiah Wright’s:

In his books, Obama says he might not have become a Christian — his mother was a skeptical secularist and his absent father an atheist — if not for the special character of the black church. “Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole person. Out of necessity, the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation,” he writes in “The Audacity of Hope.” It also matched his intellectual curiosity. “Perhaps it was out of this ... grounding of faith in struggle that the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn’t mean that you don't have doubts.”

Between there and her second most recent, and second most recent, Washington Monthly posts, she perpetuates stereotypes about Democrats, white Christians and black Christians all at the same time, from claiming, “many Democrats find religion offensive,” on.

I’m going to do another takedown on Amy here. There are true multi-ethnic churches led by black pastors who also question Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And, as for understanding “black Christianity” in sociological terms, and the call for black and white Christians to understand each other, end “the most segregated hour in America,” etc... well, that understanding and reaching out need to go both ways. Amy, if you can show me examples of Rev. Wright “reaching out,” I’m ready to listen.

Hey, if not, if he wants to run a shtick called “black Christianity,” that’s fine. And, yes, Mitt Romney should have gotten drilled about the long racist history of Mormonism. Neither religious view would be considered “orthodox Christianity” by most laypeople or scholars, ignoring that “orthodox Christianity” itself was a four-century accretion, at least.

Now, a personal anecdote to all of this, Amy.

When I was still religious, I played the organ semi-regularly at a Lutheran, mainline Protestant church in Flint, Mich. The church was about 50-50 white black. The white pastor had what would certainly be considered for the conservative wing of Lutheranism a pretty “black” preaching style, and somewhat, a style of worship in general. And, he was married to a black wife.

He commented on real world daily social issues, etc. But, he was never bombastic, let alone a bomb-thrower.

In short, Amy Sullivan, beyond the stereotypes you perpetuate about “many Democrats,” aren't you perpetuating another one about “black Christianity”?

Oh, if you think Amy’s a twit on her guilt-the-Democratic-Party religious writing, or in general, show her a little “love” at her e-mail address.

Obama had Unitarian option Amy Sullivan ignores

Amy Sullivan talks about why Obama opted for a black church like Jeremiah Wright’s:

In his books, Obama says he might not have become a Christian — his mother was a skeptical secularist and his absent father an atheist — if not for the special character of the black church. “Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole person. Out of necessity, the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation,” he writes in “The Audacity of Hope.” It also matched his intellectual curiosity. “Perhaps it was out of this ... grounding of faith in struggle that the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn’t mean that you don't have doubts.”

Several comments in reply to Sullivan’s backstory, as well as Obama’s stream of thought.

First, even secularists can be, and are, contributors to social justice, Amy. I know you keep flogging the issue that the Democratic Party in general and too many white Democrats in particular are anti-religious, which is of course not true.

Second, re both Sullivan and Obama, many white preachers at white majority churches also talk about doubt and its role in faith. That goes back to the Niebuhr brothers. Hell, it goes back to Martin Luther himself.

Third, Unitarians have been multicultural for far longer, and far more in-depth, than mainline Protestant denominations that have made the effort at fully inclusive outreach.

And, political bonus points — Unitarians are often the liberal elite Starbucks drinkers that are Obama voters!

Given Sullivan’s increasing vapidness, and now her name/assignment dropping she engages in, at every post at Washington Monthly, though, none of what she says in Time should be a surprise.

Oh, if you think Amy’s a twit on her guilt-the-Democratic-Party religious writing, or in general, show her a little “love” at her e-mail address.