Discovering Black Churches

By Amy Sullivan

(Political Animal)  DISCOVERING BLACK CHURCHES....I had to disappear to write my piece for this week's TIME on Obama and Jeremiah Wright--and now I have to run to the Hill for a live-on-CSPAN 2p.m. panel with E.J. Dionne and Michael Gerson on whether the religious right is dead (my short answer: no).

But I'll be back in a few hours to talk about why the Democratic party outsourced religion to black churches, and how that's hurt the party. It's also left most Americans with a Disney-fied impression of African-American religious leaders as folks who sit around listening to gospel music all day, spout inspirational phrases to slap on calendars, and generally act like Denzel Washington in "The Preacher's Wife."