Every time I see another clip of Obama’s pastor, I feel like I understand race relations a little better in America.  Now, the issue is a complex one and not to be treated fully here, but what this guy preaches to his congregation makes leftist college professors look like Fox News analysts.  Obama is scheduled to deliver a major speech today to address (and hopefully transcend) the issue.  Mitt Romney did something similar a few months ago.  It was a great speech, and did nothing for his campaign.  Perhaps that’s what Obama’s speech will be: a great speech that does nothing for his campaign.

Obama has talked openly about his faith and his being a Christian.  Maybe the world doesn’t believe this, but Christians know that – while you don’t always agree with your pastor – he, his ministry, and his words are a reflection of your values.  If he’s not a reflection of your values, then you’re in the wrong church.  The long and short of this for Obama is that either A) he attends this church faithfully and dutifully and believes what this guy says, at least implicitly, which means he’s both wrong and wacked-out and maybe nuts, or B) he doesn’t really attend too faithfully, and he doesn’t really believe much of what his pastor says, which means he’s disingenuous and a liar, at least to his fellow congregants. 

I suspect it’s B.  He’s one of the many good fellows in evangelical and mainline and conservative and liberal churches who attends because that’s what’s expected, but not because he’s moved by the preaching, and not because he believes much of it.  Like Mrs. May in Flannery O’Connor’s story “Greenleaf,” who absolutely went to church, but had the decency and taste not to believe any of it.

(Daniel James Devine wrote this article on Barack Obama’s church in the most recent WORLD.  See a segment from one of Wright’s controversial sermons on WORLD On the Web.  Alisa Harris wrote this roundup recently for WORLD On the Web.  And here’s the WMB post with more than 200 comments.)