You can explain Barack Obama’s Reverend Wright dilemma easily if you understand his history. Obama was drawn to Jeremiah Wright and his influential Chicago church in his mid-twenties as he searched for his African American identity. Barry, as he was known as a young man, didn’t really have a strong black male influence in his life as he grew up. His Kenyan father deserted the family while he was a young boy and he was raised mostly by his white grandfather. His struggle to define him self as a black man was normal.
Obama learned plenty at Trinity United Church of Christ and he’s using much of it to win the presidency. His rhetorical style and wry humor are straight out of the black church experience. More importantly he has used a hybrid of black church basket passing and slick internet fund raising to raise campaign funds like we’ve never seen. The Obama campaign fund raising machine is an electronic styled black church $25.00 offering line done on the web that produces tens of millions of dollars.
Even his mega rallies have hints of a mega-church service, fainting included. There is a subtly to it, but make no mistake Obama has taken pieces of the black church to mainstream America and many have become members.
