I had black friends growing up in Dallas and attended a few services where I was the only white guy in the church so I guess that qualifies.
In my experience it fit the stereotype. Lots of talking back to the preacher. And the musical interlude was quite remarkable. Tended to last too long for my taste.
I doubt any black congregations have been accused of being the “frozen chosen”.
I was listening to a few of Obama’s pastor (Wright’s) sermons-and I still don’t accept the idea that this guy is so begnign-he screams and swears-is this a religious service? And the part about AIDs (being a US government invention)-is spreading ignorance and falshoods of benefit to anyone?
Just an observation, but what “spirituality” does this fool impart? :smack:
ralph124c, could you link to some of Wright’s sermons that particularly bothered you?
Here ya go:
personally, I would be ashamed to be seen with this guy
What about the choir?
In the bio’s of the great R&B and Soul singers it seems like they all started out singing in the church choir. Are the choirs still there singing gospel music?
What about funerals? Are they as lively we’re led to believe? According to the NY Times, the Luther Vandross funeral was one of the great musical events of the year.
At the funerals it is required to sing “Precious Lord” with much embellishment. You have not been buried otherwise.
Just watched the video at this link… and I know the clips are taken out of context, but I have to say-- the content really doesn’t seem all that surprising. It’s similar to what I heard at many an “independent Baptist” church here in Indiana while growing up, but given more charismatically. Nothing “black” about the content, and nothing unique to Mr. Wright.
In my experience in a wide swath of Protestant churches, apocalyptic and damning indictments of American government are always popular subects. It’s a natural extension of the Old Testament prophets’ concerns about Israel, and a good rabble-rouser overall. I was talking about this with a couple of friends last night-- a deacon and pastor of a local SBC church-- and we were all laughing/commiserating about the fact that everyone we knew that had any experience with Protestant churches would be unable to run for office due to our exposure to the evil influence of anti-American rhetoric.
There’s so little difference between blaming the morals of America for 9/11 and blaming the morals of America for Katrina, that I have to wonder why one side makes a deal regarding Obama’s former preacher without mentioning in the same breath all the preachers who claimed America deserved Katrina, the wildfires, et al.
Not much to contribute to the OP, but I wonder how utterly mystifying the whole phenomenon seems to our non-US dopers.
I do know that the preachers have gotten pretty aggressive some of the more charismatic, white churches my friends have attended.
Absolutely–with the usual caveats about not all choirs being created equal. While I’ve only attended a Black Church a couple of times as a field trip (once with my Girl Scout Troop and once with my confirmation class), I am better acquainted with a refugee from Katrina who moved north and settled in at my parents’ church. When she plays the piano and gets to singing, it’s gospel music and great fun. Meanwhile the choir does it’s best to NOT look “like a bunch of white people”–which is hard because the choir is made up of white people. The sopranos get really into it, the altos get kinda into it, and the men stand in the middle stiff as boards.
And when the pianist from New Orleans performs by herself, she’s been known to get standing ovations, which embarasses her a little. I think some of that is she comes from an area where her style of music is more common, and so gets less attention than it does since she moved north. But she’s well-loved by this mostly white congregation.
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Stay on topic please. Any discussion of Wright and Obama and the like should go in Great Debates.
Thank you.
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Let’s compare Wright to Falwell, who said that 9/11 was caused by pagans, abortionists, NOW, the ACLU, gay men, and lesbians, who are all Christ-haters. (Robertson, who was there when he said it, agreed with him.) Let’s see what Wright said that’s as outrageous as that (and note that Bill O’Reilly apparently combed through all of Wright’s sermons available on tape to find these statements):
The U.S. is controlled by rich white people.
Hillary Clinton can’t know as much about racism as Barack Obama.
Bill Clinton did something obscene with Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton didn’t help black people any more than Republicans did.
God will damn America (as it says in the Bible, he claims) for its evil deeds.
The American government is responsible for the drug epidemic among blacks.
They also build big prisons and pass three-strike laws.
They treated blacks as less than humans.
They supported state terrorism in Palestine and South Africa.
More people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki than in 9/11.
It’s Bill O’Reilly who makes the claim that Wright says that America brought 9/11 on itself, not Wright himself. Wright would say that it was a minority of Americans (rich white ones, mostly) who brought 9/11 on America, just as Falwell would say that it was a minority of Americans (pagans, homosexuals, NOW, the ACLU, anyone who had an abortion) who brought 9/11 on America. Wright’s statements are no more outrageous than Falwell’s. Going back to the subject of this thread, you can find preachers in white churches who make outrageous statements, just as you can find preachers in black churches who make them.
My apologies, Rico, but your post and mine were simulposts.
Sorry for my post-- the first two paragraphs fit in with the topic; the last needlessly extends it to GD area.
Sorry for the bump, but here is a description of the service at Obama’s church.
Dammit. I was gonna say they’re exactly like this.
FWIW, Cluricaun, the church is right here.
What does this mean?
I’m betting it’s the same thing that happened at my “white” churches-- passing the offering plates multiple times during a given service.
My childhood church usually passed the plate at least three times during a service. Once to support some missionaries, another for the “building fund,” a tithe collection. More if other emotional appeals made the possibility of getting more offerings possible.