UnCHURCHED

Unplugging from being "churched" for a "Tru REALigion"

To quote 2 Chainz on the Understatement track, “Real recognizes real, and you don’t look familiar!”  Today’s society is looking for authenticity from the “faithful.”  In other words, has there been an expungement of the sermon by our lifestyle?  Have we been guilty letting our sermons outrun our character?  A lack of authentic “faithful”, in my opinion, has contributed to the growing number of disinterested individuals in religion.  I suggest that “REALigion” begets the notion of transparency and the ability to connect with people without the false pretense of having it all together.  It’s heretical to portray a life that is so far removed from our former lives.

God In America: The Black Church

In the fall of 2008, newspapers, talk shows and blogs exploded with news that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the African American minister from Chicago's Trinity Church, had denounced the United States with inflammatory language: "God damn America!" Wright's most famous parishioner was the leading Democratic contender for the presidential nomination, Barack Obama. Trinity was Obama's spiritual home -- the place where he had found religion, where he was married, and where his daughters had been baptized. Rev. Wright, a former Marine with a Ph.D., had served as his spiritual mentor.

While many white voters seemed surprised, puzzled and shocked by Wright's angry rhetoric, African Americans were less so. Obama seized the moment to deliver a profound meditation on race in America, a speech titled "A More Perfect Union." Tracing the deep historical roots of racial inequality and injustice, Obama put Wright's anger into historical context. In very personal terms, he also described his experience at Trinity:

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.