Sen. Barack Obama delivered his “religion” speech today in Philadelphia, in which he was expected to explain his relationship with the pastor of his church, as when Mitt Romney was forced to explain his faith to the LDS skeptics earlier in the primary campaign. 

However, Obama’s celebrated gifts as an orator were conspicuously absent today. Mostly, he seemed uncomfortable with the position he was in, since the address turned out not to be about religion, but about race (more specifically a racist preacher), and the unfortunate circumstance in which he found himself and his co-parishioners, with racism and religion inextricably intertwined.

Religious leaders who make race central to their message are quickly dismissed by the mainstream as cultist, sectarianist, or pagan. With one glaring exception: “Afro-Centric” Christian churches. The fact that this exception not only exists, but is tolerated, and even celebrated, is the predicament Barak (and Michelle) Obama find themselves in. No matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to explain it.

Not that Obama didn’t try. He mostly made excuses, then an admission:

Some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.

Except that it isn’t a truism: it’s a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, who was himself quoting Rev. Billy Graham:

 Eleven o’clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.

and at least Dr. King properly made the attribution in his speeches.

But the reason it isn’t true is because “segregation” is imposed by the state, and no laws dictate where people may worship. When people make choices freely, it’s called association, not segregation.

And people are responsible for their choices. They should be able to explain them. But when the state forces separation, it’s the state’s responsibility, not the individual’s.

The most disappointing aspect of Sen. Obama’s long speech was that if he had only known and explained the important difference between segregation and association, and if he had simply explained why he had voluntarily associated himself and his family with the racist Jeremiah Wright, the speech would truly have been audacious.

But such audacity may be too much to hope for.