The deafening silence of African American civil rights organizations and churches

In this morning's Commercial Appeal, Wendi C. Thomas asks important questions about race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression with regard to the police beating of Duanna Johnson. Thomas hit the nail on the head:

For Johnson, neither Rev. Jesse Jackson nor Rev. Al Sharpton have brought the national spotlight to town, and I think I know why.

Those who can be counted on to look out for the civil rights of black people are highly unreliable if that black person is gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender.

It's time to recognize that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" (Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963).

One of our few exceptions--'Boro discussion of Rev. Jeremiah Wright

We've made a deliberate choice not to say much about the presidential race at this blog. Coverage and then some is rampant all over the web. It's important to have spaces dedicated to state and local politics. However, this story at the Daily News Journal seems to fit the bill of a Tennessee angle on a national story.

Doug Davis took some time with Murfreesboro area African American pastors to discuss the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The article focuses on the pastors' reactions to characterizations of the Black Church by Wright and the media. The pastors are also grappling with the distinction between prophetic religious speech and politics. Reading the piece, you can't help but be left with the conclusion of the Rev. Graham Matthews of Key United Methodist Church that "there is no monolithic black church in the United States..."