More Reactions to Obama’s speech

>Here is what a few Duke Divinity faculty think – Richard Lischer and J. Kameron Carter.

CNN’s coverage and follow-up yesterday was so chalked full of banal sound-bites that I wondered if they listened to Obama’s speech in the same way that the nation has been listening to Rev. Wright’s sermons.

My dad, preacha‘ man that he was, used to warn against biblical proof-texting by saying a “text out of context is a pretext.” He would go on to give his favorite example: “Judas went out and hung himself … go ye and do likewise.”

If we know that people can butcher the Bible with the careless and trite “cut and paste” approach that manipulates it to our own ends, do we think that political speeches or sermons in the Black Church are exempt from such treatment?

I for one will not judge Rev. Wright with 30 second Youtube videos nor Obama’s speech based on talking heads that missed the forest for the trees.