Comments

1
That's often my experience of Obama's speeches. Even his recurrent use of the phrase "a more perfect union" is a black church thing. Relying on a simple phrase to speak to a history of the community. Connecting past issues with present in an oblique way. It's hard to find an academic black church nowadays, but he really does remind me of a few preachers I've known in the past.
2
The part at 1.40-ish where he starts with 'scripture tells us there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God' - even as a white non-American atheist my heart sang a little; it was subtle and intelligent and appropriate. Y'alls politicians are usually so heavy-handed about God, it was a genuinely refreshing change.
3
Wait, back up... you go to church?
4
And a lot of applause. I read somewhere ahead of the speech that the White House said it would last 16 to 18 minutes. The many (and long) interruptions for applause easily took it to 30.
5
I noted this yesterday in my comment about his speech - http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Having recently buried my dad in November, the priest who gave mass was an Nigerian priest. After he read the Gospel, he gave a 20 min sermon that was moving, heart-warming and beautiful. Also from growing up in the South, being black and having one side of my family baptist, I grew up seeing funerals and wakes as being more a celebration of life rather than a sorrowful depressing event. At my grandmother's wake and funeral, the minister's sermons were long but colorful. His words lifted us up and brought us down. Obama did the same thing last night. Had he given the speech in his true black tone (yes he has one. find the speeches he gave to the NAACP), the Right would've been pissed off.

6
Paul Begala is still pissed that Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He doesn't know how to handle it.
7
Of course services are short at White American churches. If they go past kickoff time, half the congregation gets up and walks out...
8
I thought the same thing: "After he's President, he could go be a preacher." Although, I wasn't really wowed by it because I am a cynical fool and I think Obama's a non-believer at heart.
9
don't you mean there was a little black mosque was going on at the University of Arizona?

KENYA! SOCIALIST!!1! WAAAARGGHGBGLBGBLG!!1!1!!1!one!
10
a sermon that lasted thirty minutes ? they got off easy. at the fellowship missionary baptist church in chicago, i've been to services that start at 11am and end as late as 2:30pm. then we go down to he church basement or gathering hall and eat.. then sometime between 3pm and 4pm the youth choir might have a program.or there's a baptism. b.t.u. meeting is at 6pm but there might be another concert by another choir with some music from a visiting church..there's a radio broadcast from 9pm -10pm..of course if there's some shouting, tongue speaking,and holy ghost dancing, you can expect not to get home until just shy of midnight.
11
Charles & Rev. Dr. DJ Riz,
Indeed, that is correct. Sermons/services in the black church do last longer. I vividly recall a baptism being performed (the tub filled with water and the congregant dunked in the water) at one service I attended. Totally cool.
12
Uh, Paula - the speech or "sermon" was long because SIX, not one, but SIX people died. 30 minutes divided by 6 people is 5 minutes each. Not nearly enough time to verbalize the scope of this tragedy, IMO.
13
@12 - you realize that, in Begala's comment, there weren't any single-person deaths, right? How long should Clinton's speech have been, with 100-something deaths?
14
The actual length hadn't occurred to me, but it did seem a bit longer than either Clinton's or Reagan's. But then again, he had something to say.

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