Kicking the UCC's John Thomas, White Person

As promised in a previous post.

John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ (my childhood denomination) has declared that we should hold a "sacred conversation" about race. We should have this conversation at Trinity, Rev Jeremiah T. Wright's - and Obama's - church. When you are the president of a major denomination, people usually regard you as a serious person. Newspapers and television news quotes you as if you are someone of authority; someone who Knows Something.

Sacred Conversation is an utterly vacuous phrase. People use such words when a) their thought is vacuous or b) they wish to conceal their real meaning. It's either Susan Sarandon or George Orwell. I am torn as to which is true for Rev. Thomas, whose other exploits are reported here. He wants a "preach-in" in May on the subject. Preach-in. The 60's are over, John.

I have a pretty good idea what the conference schedule is going to look like: what sort of person will be invited to speak, what the workshops will be about, what the conclusions will be at the end. The only interesting part will be to see how many other progressive causes will be successfully inserted into the mix. Will the greens, anti-globalists, feminists, socialists with hispanic surnames, anti-militarists, and sexual orientation advocates get to crash the party, or will they have to be content with just having their causes mentioned in every speech, in the requisite litanies of oppression?

If you do not yet believe that there are intellectual sins, and that such people are evil, I recommend C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.