Preachers in the black community are much revered. When they wear bling, gaudy clothes and drive pimped-up cars, their parishioners are supportive. Why?
Barack Obama gives speeches when he wants to enact policy in the U.S. He talks about his policy in half a dozen speeches around the country. He does this for everything. When he wants to raise taxes on the rich, he gives speeches on income inequality. When he want to increase the budget for infrastructure, he gives speeches in colleges on the subject. He always gives the same speech for the same reason on gun control with no policy recommendations. To change foreign policy, he gives speeches in foreign countries. He then insults the Republican Congress, the only people who could create action. Why?
Its cargo cult behavior. Americans came to know about cargo cults after WWII in the Pacific.
The American military drove out the Japanese from the islands of Vanuatu and then used the islands as a base for supplying forces in the South Pacific. Airbases and military compounds were created and vast supplies of medicine, food, arms and clothing was transhipped. Some was given to the natives and some was leftover after the war.
When the Japanese and Americans left the natives tried to re-create the wealth and abundance of the military period. They dressed in military clothes, marched in formation with sticks, cleared landing strips, and built buildings, control towers and airplanes out of bamboo. It was a form of magic that the natives believed would bring back the wealth of the foreign military. It has since been named a ‘cargo cult’.
Much of the American black community believes in a similar form of magic. It is the belief that a good speech inviting action will result in that action.
This form of magic is evident in nearly every black church. The preacher, who is eloquent, implores God to treat his congregation with good health, prosperity and well being. A chorus of loud singing and hurrahs is part of the invocation from God. Most black parishioners believe that a good sermon and a vigorous church response will inveigh benefits.
That is the black tradition that twenty years in Jeremiah Wright’s congregation taught Barack Obama.
If you doubt me, go to an authentic black church this Sunday. Non-blacks are always welcome.