Barack Obama, Rick Warren, Saddleback forum,
evangelical politics, white evangelicals, 2008
presidential race, Barack Obama Race, B
The Evangelical Jesus Cure for Unforgivable Blackness
08/19/08 07:50 AM
After a couple of slave rebellions in the early 19th century, American Christianity shifted irrevocably from a catalyst for slave liberation, to an additional shackle securing black men in bondage to white ones. After the Vesey and Prosser rebellions,
whites largely oversaw slave worship to ensure that blacks were taught the value of submission and docility, the heavenly reward for those who suffered well, and the superiority of white men and women via fantastical biblical interpretations insisting that black skin was a curse from God.
The Jesus whom slaves were taught to worship was unquestionably white, as was God the Father who begat him. Black slaves worshipped white Gods--Gods who looked like their masters.
Of course, in the popular modern American fantasy, American racial history began and ended with Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But down here in the reality-based community, history’s siren song still sounds strong and sickly sweet—if you’re willing to listen.
To swat at rumors that he’s a Muslim and alleviate fears of—and perhaps grab a vote or two from—white evangelicals, Barack Obama sat down with Megarich pastor, author and homophobe Rick Warren to woo evangelicals by saying things like, “I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and I am redeemed through him.”
Read the rest at Huffington Post