Another pastor gets it Wright

(Sorry, couldn't resist the much-abused headline pun. When I wrote my earlier post for Utne, I almost called it "Wright is Right"--get it?--till I Googled the phrase and realized just how late and how obvious I was. Okay, start reading for real now--)

While Sen. Clinton would never keep attending a church in which a pastor employed hyperbole as a rhetorical device and is dutifully appalled that Sen. Obama would--what is this "black church tradition" you speak of, Senator? Aren't you supposed to TRANSCEND race?--turns out her own pastor is a bit more sympathetic to Rev. Wright.

The Reverend Edward Matthews, UMC pastor from Arkansas, downplayed Angryblackpastorgate in a conversation w/ the NY Sun. Sen. Clinton remains a member of the Little Rock church Matthews served in the 90s.

(A point that strikes the Sun reporter as odd--it's "the only church of which Mrs. Clinton is a member"--despite the fact that it's standard to belong only to one church at a time, and it's quite common for people to retain formal membership in one church while moving and worshipping elsewhere. My own membership remains in a church I attended two cities and three churches ago. Largely because I'm not yet invested elsewhere as deeply as I was there. Anyway.)