In which I am confused about Americans and Obama's religious profession

[songquake]

Charles M. Blow wrote in the NYTimes yesterday about how huge percentages of Republican Americans believe demonstrably untrue things about President Obama. Following is a graphic of some of the recent polling:

Comments

[amaebi]

Something I have come to grasp but still don't really understand is how calmly extra-biblical and often unbibliccal contemporary conservative Christianity typically is.

I like me some Jesus, but I love him large-partly because he's invested in disinvesting in the official power frameworks, political or social.

[fierceandsassy]

If I hide my light under a bushel basket, I'm likely to burn the house down.

Damn, girlfriend! you can be theological around me any time you want.

Since you asked for dissent....

[fallen_scholar]

I hate to say that I think you're overstating the position, but you're overstating the position. You don't have to go further than the Gospels themselves to see Christianities that are devised for different economic strata. The people who were complaining about Wright weren't complaining about Wright's theology; they were complaining because Wright's words reinforced the 'out to destroy America' narrative that had sprung up about Obama.

One of the problems with Liberation Theology is that it's much less unique than all that, which is weird to write, but it's not like a lot of quote-unquote mainstream Christianity ignores the suffering Christ, but it treats it for within its own experience. Everyone wants his suffering to be as unique as possible. And everyone's able to find an unique reflection of his suffering in Christ's suffering.

Questions of theology, though, matter much less here than questions of identity.