Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s troubles vis a vis Reverend Jeremiah Wright have brought to mind a conversation with a favorite server at Schneithorst Kaffee Haus a couple of years ago. Susan had just read Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life and she was inspired to return to church, but which one.?

“The Lutheran church,” said her mother. “You’re German.”

So there you have it: religion as a means of shoring up one’s cultural identity. Good idea? In the short term, perhaps, but in the long term?

One of the most successful stories is, or was, Anglicanism. English national identity certainly benefited from the break from Roman Catholicism, or so it seemed at first. Now, centuries later, having finally backed off of colonialism and imperialism, Anglican England is far less religious than heretofore — hmmm — and full of “redundant” churches, so many that the weekly magazine CountryLife (March 20, 2008) held a contest to find “churches that have successfully adapted themselves to serve the wider needs of the community in which they stand.”

The finalists are churches that are now used for post offices, farmers’ markets, coffee mornings, fashion shows, quiz evenings, film screenings, private parties, contemporary art exhibits — you get the idea — all because of “dwindling congregations.”

Can what happened to Anglicanism happen to Reverend Wright’s Christian church? It is obviously — and unabashedly — tied up with an African American cultural identity. It, too, must have seemed a good idea at first, perhaps it still does to many. Perhaps it seemed a good idea to candidate Obama who, it is speculated, was attracted to a Christianity that reinforced his black identity.

Reverend Wright has said that all criticism of him is criticism of “the black church.” Within the last few days, however, other black pastors have publicly disagreed with him. One, Reverend Eugene Rivers, Azusa Christian Community, criticizes Rev. Wright for embracing a “left wing social science masquerading as religion.” Rivers and other black pastors are moving away from “black Christianity” and are emphasizing Christianity, not black, not white.

The highly diverse Catholic church — which James Joyce famously called “Here comes everybody” – is still not immune to cultural distortions: our local St. Stanislaus Church is a current and painful example.

Religion and cultural identity: a benign and comforting addition to religion — or a seductive and dangerous alliance?