On Mon, 21 Mar 2011, Michael Smith wrote:
> The real thing is worlds away from West. It's hard to put one's finger
> on it, but to my ear it doesn't ring true, and I have heard the real
> thing, and lots of it.
Perhaps because he's not preaching about god? He's rather using those mannerisms of scolding and inciting the audience in a very instrumental way to talk about politics and social theory. So it's a hybrid of the speaking style with something utterly foreign. He's treating political faith as if it were akin to a collective faith. He's also having a lot of fun doing it, in this "playing with it," and is clearly constantly very happy with himself, which is not something you will ever see from a real preacher.
In that sense, you are quite right to call it inauthentic. But of course, we know that we post modernists believe all authenticity is invented, and new "fake" kinds can be better than the old "real" kinds.
Come to think of it, perhaps the real problem for you is that what Cornell has done is married black preaching style to ultra post-modernism? I can certainly see where a Curmudicus might register that as a true sacrilege.
Michael