Reverend Obama

I have mentioned my impression that the vacuity and vagueness of Obama's content is covered up by his rhetorical style, which I have characterized as "faux black preacher."

Good thing I have a readership of close to zilch, 'cause if you say that stuff in actual media, there can be a price. HT to Kathy Shaidle.

Michael Coren, columnist of the Toronto Sun, described the inaugural speech thusly:

Obama completed his speech with meaningless hyperbole and dreamy gestures.
He played, has played and will play the part of the black pastor in the large gospel church. Volume, hope, rhymes and promises but often not much else. (Bolding mine) We know that when he first spoke to black audiences in Chicago the aspiring politician was told that he didn't sound "black enough," so he deliberately rehearsed the rhythms of black preachers.

And Coren has been accused --ta-dah!-- of racism.

John McWhorter, an expert in linguistics, who is black (but not a reliable Democrat and whose race cred is therefore in some doubt), basically said the same thing in the New Republic. He describes Obama as "bidialectical", someone who basically speaks standard English, but who learned Black English and uses it to great political effect when it suits him.

I have listened to a great many sermons in my life, far more than even the average church-goer. Mostly Catholic, but I have made a point of seeking out the performances of Protestants, especially evangelicals, in which group most black churches fall. All preachers, all public speakers, have their rhetorical styles.

And a great deal of what is said from religious pulpits and secular podiums, insofar as they are different, is bullshit. Who was it who said that America was a very strange country, where all the preachers sound like politicians and all the politicians sound like preachers? Tocqueville was very struck by the religiosity of Americans back in the 19th century and even in the 30's GK Chesterton could describes us as "a nation with the soul of a church."

Black preachers have a particular knack for it. Of course, black preachers can and do deliver content, but the stylistic canons are, at this point, so mannered and predictable that the level of empty can really rise and overwhelm the rest. At worst, it is a kind of entertainingly masturbatory fireworks, where the performance is an end in itself both for the preacher and the audience. It is the evangelical and the black churches' equivalent of the high church's empty ritual. All form, very impressive, but just for show, and therefore deceptive.

OBTW. In reference to the picture above: Can you imagine George Bush speaking from the pulpit of a church without the MSM exploding in indignation over this latest blow to separation of church and state and the incipient takeover of American by the forces of Right Wing Fundamentalism? Google Obama + pulpit and then Bush + pulpit. Hell, even Hillary, as wife of the first black president, speaks in churches. In general, Democrats, and especially black Democrats, can cozy up with churches, most especially black churches, and no one is at all upset. On the contrary, it's so "down" with "the communi-tah". Rev Jackson and Rev Sharpton are never, never, never questioned about any improper leakage of their faith into their politics. Only white Protestants can be suspected of that. Or Republican anti-abortion Catholics.

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