Faithful Philly Forum

I certainly would be surprised if people in the pews were under the impression that they had to have the same politics or the same spiritual or religious beliefs that their pastor had! I know that my own parishioners never had that mindset! Yet, that seems to be the inference that the media is suggesting about Obama and his pastor’s politics. That it is pretty laughable in fact! Oh to have that kind of influence!

So, now Obama has shifted the focus away from his preacher and put it in the laps of the average American. Are you ready to talk about race? This huge elephant in the room? Coincidently, Tabernacle United Church in Philly has a 6 week series set to start 3/30 focusing the worship theme on “Liberating ourselves from Otherness” as a way of addressing racism. For as Obama said so eloquently in his speech “In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.”

The challenge is before us now. Will we finally be real about race and white privilege in this country? Will the churches take seriously this “most segregated hour” in US public life?