By Jackie Grogan, author of "Black Church Blues"
A candid discussion on spiritual imperfection and the vast differences between the black church and the white church, both, supposedly worshiping the same God.
During the 2008 campaign, after Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory rhetoric received national attention, Presidential candidate Obama was forced to address a controversial issue simmering beneath the cracks of America's multicultural fabric: the vast differences between the black church and the white church, both, supposedly worshiping the same God.
The delicate chord he stuck to deflate the negative impact upon his campaign reminds us of the enormous role religion and religious practices play in the lives of most Americans. The United States proclaims to be a Christian nation. In many ways the church is an untouchable institution with unique privileges, unparalleled tax status and an unspoken exemption to official scrutiny and investigations that attempt to penetrate its structure and expose the hidden apparatuses that keep it afloat.
I say hidden because God is supposed to be the foundation of the church. But he is invisible. He is like the wind, in that, you can't see God, only the results of his presence. "On this rock I build my church...." But the rock is hidden to the naked eye. So the spiritual apparatuses that sustain the church are entrusted to humans that you can see; imperfect humans, who have the opportunity to obey, disregard, transpose, de-emphasize, embellish and distort the Word of God and the supernatural instructions from the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. This is where the system breaks down.
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