SubscribeThe Religion of Barack Obama Part One: Values
Sunday, October 5th, 2008Values
“My commitments are to the values of that church…” -Barack Obama, May 4, 2008
A few imbeciles on the right have gone to great lengths attempting to paint Barack Obama as some sort of closet Muslim. Apparently, the conspiracy theory-like narrative goes something like “Obama attended a school as a youngster where he was indoctrinated with Islamic views sympathetic with bomb belt Muslims, then went underground for the next forty years, waiting for his chance to become president and…”
It is just too stupid. I cringe every time I see an idiot attempting to make the connection because I know in mind of the American Idol-watching neutral observer hearing this implausible scenario, the credibility of Obama’s critics who have sound, reasonable, and responsible causes for concern, is compromised.
One of those sound, reasonable, and responsible causes for concern is Obama’s actual religion. I’m talking about the one he has practiced openly for the last twenty years. The collection of beliefs that has guided, comforted, and connected him with his chosen community and power base as an adult.
Does his religion and personal beliefs matter? Ultimately, the reader can make up their own mind. The point here is to inform more than persuade. The current president’s references to innocuous things like prayer, faith in God, and other mainstream Christian beliefs and practices have been liberally (no pun) scrutinized over the last eight years, but two wrongs don’t make a right. However, not all religions and religious beliefs are created equal, some may invite themselves to scrutiny more than others. Add the information here to whatever you already know, do some research on your own, check my facts, and decide for yourself.
I’ll start in the middle with the Obama’s chosen church, Trinity United Church of Christ, and its stated values. But first, another thing needs to be clear up front. What follows in this and upcoming parts of the series is about a specific and distinguishable belief system, not black churches in general. While this belief system is, with few plausible exceptions, practiced only by predominately black churches, only a (hopefully small) portion of black churches wholly subscribe to this belief system.
This belief system is usually referred to as “Black Liberation Theology” or the “Black Liberation Movement.” Somewhat of a misnomer because no one is going to be liberated from anything by it and it has little if anything to do with theology. There has been volumes of text written on the now-famous sound bites of Jeremiah Wright. They’ve been exposed, even in the Obama-sympathetic mainstream media, and seemingly put to bed by the same. Now that Wright is no longer given a voice by the media, fired from Obama’s campaign, carefully denounced by Obama, and retired from his “ministry,” is all well and good at Trinity United Church of Christ?
A scan of the church web site isn’t promising. From the site’s “about” page you can navigate to another page titled “The black value system.” Stopping right there, I have to say this galls me. What can be more racist than the assertion that one race could, would, or should have a separate or unique set of values? Reading this page, I actually have little complaint with most of them. Taken individually, some of them are entirely laudable and something for everyone of any race to aspire to. Going down the page, I especially liked the following one when I saw it. Number 6:
Adherence to the Black Work Ethic. “It is becoming harder to find qualified people to work in Chicago.” Whether this is true or not, it represents one of the many reasons given by businesses and industries for deserting the Chicago area. We must realize that a location with good facilities, adequate transportation and a reputation for producing skilled workers will attract industry. We are in competition with other cities, states and nations for jobs. High productivity must be a goal of the Black workforce.”
High productivity. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to attract industries and jobs, be known for the city with the most productive people. Then, only a couple paragraphs down is this – number 8:
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.” Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.
Those so identified are separated from the rest of the people by:
1. Killing them off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.
2. Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.
3. Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which, while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us.”
4. So, while it is permissible to chase “middleclassness” with all our might, we must avoid the third separation method - the psychological entrapment of Black “middleclassness.” If we avoid this snare, we will also diminish our “voluntary” contributions to methods A and B. And more importantly, Black people no longer will be deprived of their birthright: the leadership, resourcefulness and example of their own talented persons.
I want to note here that the preceding 7 “black values” were each followed by a portion of scripture, apparently from the King James Version of the Bible. This one wasn’t. Instead it was followed by this crazy list. One of the first things that crossed my mind is this contradicts the exhortation of number 6 to “be productive.” Before I begin unpacking what was said, I have to point out a quote from Michelle Obama lest anyone begin to question whether the Obamas ever bought into this kind of “thinking” or integrated it in their own individual world views.
Michelle Obama earlier this year, speaking to a group in Zanesville, Ohio:
“We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do… Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that.”
I’ll argue that if her directions to the women to refrain from “going into corporate America” were not inspired by her church’s call for a “disavowal of middleclassness” they were certainly on the same wavelength.
It was somewhat difficult to process this particular “value.” It seemed very much out of place with the others and has a somewhat incoherent, paranoid, deranged feel to it, as if penned by someone suffering a mental illness. According to the web site, the church adopted these “black values” in 1981and an annual scholarship was issued in their name, long before Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ.
I’d be eager to ask the author or someone with in-depth knowledge of this text several questions.
The term “talented tenth” originated in 1896, after the end of slavery, with Northern whites from the American Baptist Missionary Home Society – their goal was establishing black colleges intended to educate black teachers and professionals. Why then, is it associated with this “classic methodology on control of captives?”
Several years later, W. E. B. Dubois used the term in reference to the blacks he hoped would become leaders and intellectuals through higher learning. Dubois wrote:
“The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races.”
“…the Talented Tenth as they have risen among American Negroes have been worthy of leadership…”
Why was this term so violently yanked out of the original context and framed as the words of an imaginary captor of some sort providing instruction on how to best eliminate these threats to his control? Dubois’s books and writings are promoted by the church and available in the church bookstore.
The author goes on to say this talented tenth are to be killed off directly, placed in concentration camps, and the leftovers that don’t fit in the concentration camps are seduced into earning lots of money so they think they are better off than others, and …this one just throws me… taught to think in terms of we and they?
Taught to think in terms of we and they? I guess this means that they’d start thinking crazy stuff such as a set of values can be designated to persons of a particular skin color. Then the clencher – the promise is, the logic… if “we” avoid getting sucked into the trap of being successful we won’t be as likely to be lynched, killing each other, put in jails, and concentration camps.
I fail to see how or why someone with a Harvard education, or any thinking person, would expose themselves to this kind of craziness. This isn’t just making up or believing mystical stories – even a staunch atheist would admit that at least there is a coherent chain of logic once you buy into the supernatural part of traditional Judeo Christian belief systems and other major world religions.
Here you have something so disjointed and unrealistic it can’t, in my mind, be excused as a private, personal, religious belief.
I suppose an apologist for Black Liberation Theology might say the language is metaphorical, but that still leaves the problem of flipping the initial meaning behind “talented tenth,” not to mention the bigger problem that when you already have an actual set of circumstances in your history involving real captors and real slaves, you don’t need to create an imaginary bogeyman that doesn’t even behave in a rational way, especially not when the real “monster” (slavery, then Jim Crow, segregation, racial discrimination, etc) has been defeated.
A mainstream evangelical Christian believer or any race would no sooner darken the door of Obama’s church, at least not once they’d been exposed to their theology and preaching, than a Mormon would settle for a Baptist church because its closer and located in his community, or a committed practicing Catholic would worship at Presbyterian church because that’s where her friends go. I’m not making this point to indicate one is better or worse, right or wrong – for now I just want to stress that the defining beliefs of churches like Obama’s and those of a mainstream Christian church are hardly comparable and never interchangeable.
The “theology” of Trinity United Church of Christ is more about a movement - cultural and social agendas than it is about theology. For this reason, this movement and its beliefs must be examined carefully before electing president someone who claims to subscribe to them.
I do not believe there should be a religious test for the president of the United States, so if the only problem I could find with Black Liberation Theology and Obama’s church were things like the belief that Jesus was black, I could and would easily set those aside. Obama is entitled to his beliefs, but we need to know what shapes his agenda, his philosophy, his ideology - these are the things that will directly influence how he would make decisions in the Oval Office.
This has been an introduction that will hopefully leave you with more questions about the religion of Barack Obama, his faith, his mentors, and what has guided, inspired, and shaped the man who wants power over the country.
Does Obama really believe this stuff?
Why did he join this church?
What else do they believe?
Where do beliefs like this come from?
In future parts of this series of posts, I’ll answer those questions and continue to explore the religion of Barack Obama. Subscribe to the feed now so you won’t forget to check back. You can also have future posts in this series emailed directly to your inbox.
