Obama, Evangelicals, Coded Prejudice

Lots of energetic conversations happening across the blogosphere. I’m too busy to blog about them with any manner of cogency, but allow me to throw out a few items that I would expound on if I had the time.
The Obama vs. Dobson Bible Controversy. My friend Josh Canada has an informative post about this over at his [...]

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Barack Obama: Our Racial Wishbone

Two interesting articles from the Associated Press on Barack Obama and identity politics appeared this weekend. Of course, it’s become pretty difficult to find an article about Obama that isn’t also about identity politics.
Anyhow, the first is a piece about the dilemma Obama’s presidential bid presents for black Republicans (including J.C. Watts, Colin Powell, and [...]

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Better Late Than Whenever

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t been blogging that much lately—too busy! And I probably shouldn’t be blogging now, but I wanted to call your attention to a few items of interest I’ve run across recently. Some of them are slightly aged but still worthwhile.

“Racial Shift in a Progressive City Spurs Talks.” A case study of [...]

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Should Transracial Adoptions Be Colorblind?

Thanks to my friend P.E.W. for calling my attention to an excellent article in today’s Chicago Tribune about a new report from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute that says minority children in foster care are being ill-served by a federal law that plays down race and culture in adoptions.
“The law muzzled any agency that [...]

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When Jesse Was King

 
The Root just posted a thoughtful piece on the diminished relevance of Jesse Jackson. The writer, Marjorie Valbrun, ponders the fact that, though Jackson was present on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel during Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder, he was strangely absent from the media’s recent commemoration of the 40th anniversary of King’s death. “Perhaps it [...]

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Leaving Kids Alone

Last week I was intrigued by the case of Lenore Skenazy. Skenazy equipped her 9-year-old son with a map, a subway card, and 20 bucks, then dropped him off at a New York department store to find his way home by himself. Skenazy wrote about this in The New York Sun and promptly heard it [...]

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Did the Prosperity Gospel Win?

As part of its commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, CNN.com posted an interesting story about a shift in the “black church” since the days of King. The article, by John Blake, kicks off with this tantalizing lede:
The contemporary white church has largely accepted King as a religious hero. Yet [...]

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Perils of the Obama Narrative

 
Oh, well. You knew I couldn’t stay away from the Obama story for too long, didn’t you? Just finished Glenn Loury’s raw and provocative essay at the left-leaning political blog Talking Points Memo. As I said a few posts ago, I really like Loury as a scholar and commentator. I had the chance to interview [...]

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Rob Bell: We Have It Upside Down

 On a plane recently, I had the chance to re-read the Jan/Feb cover story in Relevant magazine about Rob Bell. Bell, as many of you probably know, is the bespectacled pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I read his first book, Velvet Elvis, a couple years ago and enjoyed it (haven’t gotten around to his latest yet, [...]

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On Prophets, Race, and Rage

In case you missed them, here’s a roundup of a few more interesting articles on the race and religion angle of the Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright controversy: 

Christianity Today’s “Black Power from the Pulpit” is a great interview with Thabiti Anyabwile, author of The Decline of African American Theology.  
Newsweek.com has posted “Prophets and Politicians,” an equally fascinating interview with historian Edward J. [...]

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