Walton on Obama's Father's Day sermon

I liked the way Obama's sermon on Sunday balanced a call for responsible fatherhood with talk of the need for better public policy to meet fathers halfway. But it's interesting that, while such a speech plays a particular way to its intended primary audience (the national media and public), it exists in another world entirely for its physical primary audience (a black congregation)--as an example of what has become in many places an annual tradition of using Father's Day to criticize, not honor, black fathers from the pulpit.

The always-excellent Jonathan Walton offers some criticism on this point. He's too hard on Obama, who did not, in fact, spend the bulk of the sermon patronizing, totalizing, and berating black dads. But it's an important perspective, and it provides useful context for those who haven't spent much time in black churches.