Nathan Schneider at Religion Dispatches:
Pass by Brown Memorial Baptist Church on a Sunday morning and you’ll hear a powerful sound. In between the spirituals—sorrow songs sung over a joyful rhythm section—you’ll hear Rev. Clinton M. Miller’s voice, rising over his microphone’s threshold, calling out through the static to responses from the packed pews.
Mixed in all that, these days, you’ll probably hear something about Barack Obama, or at least his echoes—”hope,” “politics as usual,” “change.” Keep walking, past the humbler Progressive Glorious Church of God in Christ, and there is a man on his stoop selling t-shirts with the big, colorful face of you-know-who on the front.
“This is Obama territory,” says Miller.
Read the rest of Nathan’s essay here.