Barbara Lundblad might have asked for a show of hands from the 2,000 or so mostly white preachers sitting in front of her, but she was too polite to do that.

The question was how many of them had used their sermon time this past Sunday to talk about the issues of race in this country.

Lundblad was talking at a gathering in Minneapolis called the Festival of Homiletics, a five-day event that brings together preachers from a wide variety of primarily mainline Protestant denominations. She was reflecting on the national uproar over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's pastor. And she was wondering whether pastors had taken up the invitation of the National Council of Churches and the United Church of Christ to start what they called "a sacred conversation on race" this past Sunday.

Lundblad, who teaches preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, recalled a study done on whether pastors addressed the morality of war during the runup to war in Iraq. Many said no, that they were in churches that used the lectionary -- the defined set of scripture texts for each Sunday. Perhaps they couldn't find anything in those texts that would provide a jumping off point to comment on a life and death issue like war.

So, Lundblad puts words in the mouths of those who may have taken a pass on talking about race this past Sunday, which many churches observe as Trinity Sunday -- a time to focus on the three dimensions of God as creator, redeemer and Spirit (or in more traditional phrasing, Father, Son and Holy Ghost): "We couldn't figure out how to preach a sermon on race when we had to answer all those questions about the Trinity that people ... aren't asking."

The laughter that swept through Central Lutheran Church was an acknowledgment both of the absurdity of dodging the questions that people really have about how to live in a multi-racial society and the discomfort with bringing up the often explosive topic of race.

"Should we preach about race when we don't know how or don't know where to start?" Lundblad asked. She noted that as the presidential campaign unfolds between now and November, race will continue to be a central issue in the national culture.

"If this isn't the year to preach about race, then I don't know when it will be," she said.

So what do you think? What kinds of things should preachers be saying about the racial divisions in our nation? What kind of approach should preachers -- or congregations as a whole -- take to help create bridges across racial divides within a community like Madison and the surrounding area?