The Democratic convention in August offered another example of the ways religious belief confounds political loyalty oaths. At a “faith caucus” organized by the Obama campaign, the speakers included the Rev. Charles Blake, presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a black Pentecostal denomination.
Within the same sermon, Mr. Blake denounced the Democrats for supporting abortion rights, calling for outright resistance, and then turned his wrath against Republicans for being “silent if not indifferent” to social injustice. And both parts of the preaching were avidly received by the audience.
Had commentators been paying attention, Mr. Blake’s exhortation could have practically served as a prelude to the way many of his followers in California, where the Church of God in Christ is especially strong, split their tickets on Election Day between Mr. Obama and “Yes” on Proposition 8. But if the standard view of the black church is that it is always liberal, based on its civil rights activism and Democratic voting habits, then this wellspring of social conservatism seemed to be some kind of shock.
No one actually familiar with the black American church and with black American Christians finds this social conservatism shocking. I’ve spent most of my life in the rural South, and I know better. Only those whose only familiarity is the view of the black church (i.e., part of the Democratic, liberal bloc) given by the mainstream American media and by certain high profile politician-cum-preachers would be shocked.