The Untrained Ear

On March 18, 2008, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, in the wake of increasing awareness of, and controversy about, his pastor’s inflammatory rhetoric, gave a speech containing the following words:

Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

I had heard the “Reverend” Wright’s words. They did indeed sound “jarring” to me. Many other words spoken by religious figures, politicians and pundits do as well.

So I guess that makes me The Untrained Ear.