|
Cathleen Falsani writes of Obama that he is not shy about saying he has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ [MORE] |
by Barack Obama
Native son of Illionois
Over the long haul, I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people, and so avoid joining a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.
To begin with, it's bad politics. There are a whole lot of religious people in America, including the majority of Democrats. When we abandon the field of religious discourse -- when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations toward one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome -- others will fill the vacuum. And those who do are likely to be those with the most insular views of faith, or who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.
More fundamentally, the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religiosity has often inhibited us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms. Some of the problem is rhetorical; Scrub language of all religious content and we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice.
Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address without reference to "the judgments of the Lord," or King's "I have a Dream" speech without reference to "all God's children." Their summoning of higher truth helped inspire what had seemed impossible and move the nation to embrace a common destiny. Of course organized religion doesn't have a monopoly on virtue, and one need not be religious to make moral claims or appeal to a common good. But we should not avoid making such claims or appeals -- or abandon any reference to our rich religious traditions -- in order to avoid giving offense.
Our failure as progressives to tap into the moral underpinnings of the nation is not just rhetorical, though. Our fear of getting "preachy" may also lead us to discount the role that values and culture play in addressing some of our most urgent social problems.
[Several urgent social problems listed]
Solving these problems will require changes in government policy; it will also require changes in hearts and minds.
[Discusses crime and guns in inner cities, need for anti-gun laws]. But I also believe that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels somebody disrespected him, we have a problem of morality. Not only do we need to punish that man for his crime, but we need to acknowledge there is a hole in his heart, one that government programs alone may not be able to repair.
[He says he is not suggesting that liberals should suddenly start pretending to get religion, show up at black churches around election time, clapping to the gospel choir and sprinkling a few biblical verses in their speeches]
I am suggesting that if we progressives shed some of our biases, we might recognize the values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of "thou" and not just "I," resonates in religious congregations across the country. We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal.
[Praises megachurch pastors like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes for mobilizing vast resources to confront AIDS, Third World debt relief, genocide in Darfur. Praises 'progressive evangelicals' like Jim Wallis and Tony Compolo for lifting aloft the Bible injunction to help the poor. Praises his own church for sponsoring day-care programs, building senior centers, and helping ex-offenders to reclaim their lives.]
Walt Whitman: The core of democracy is the religious element. All religions, old and new, are there.
[Quoted by President Bill Clinton in his introduction to Madelein Albright's The Mighty and The Almighty]
A Christian -- struggling to believe
Obama speaks of his own road traveled "toward a deepening religious commitment" within African American Christianity. In fact, it is to the African American religious tradition that he attributes the impetus that helped him "shed some of his skepticism and embrace the Christian faith."
Tells how he was drawn to the power of the black church, its impact in spurring social change.
"Out of necessity the black church had to minister to the whole person. Out of necessity the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation. It had to serve as the center of the community's political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. In the history of these struggles, I was able to seen faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. In the day-to-day work of men and women I met in church each day, in their ability to "make a way out of no way" and maintain hope and dignity in the direst of circumstances, I could see the Word made manifest.
And perhaps it was out of this intimate knowledge of hardship, the grounding of faith in struggle, that the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on the world. Long before it became fashionable for television evangelists, the typical black sermon freely acknowledged that all Christians (including the pastors) could expect to still experience the same greed, resentment, lust, and anger that everyone else experienced. The gospel songs, the happy feet, and the tears and shouts all spoke of a release, an acknowledgment, and finally a channeling of those emotions. In the black community, the lines between sinner and saved were more fluid; the sins of those who came to church were not so different from the sins of those who didn't, and so were as likely to be talked about with humor as with condemnation. You needed to come to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it; rich, poor, sinner, saved, you needed to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away -- because you were human and needed an ally in your difficult journey, to make the peaks and valley smooth and render all those crooked paths straight.
It was because of these newfound understandings -- that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved -- that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But kneeling beneath the cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.
So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called "The Audacity of Hope." And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.
It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.
[tells how much he appreciated the Senate Bible study sessions, his respect for the gospel chaplain of the Senate -- Barry Black. His involvement in and appreciation for the Wednesday morning Senate prayer breakfasts, the sincerity, openness, humility and good humor with which even the most overtly religious senators (mentions Rick Santorum, Sam Brownbeck, Tom Coburn) shared their faith journeys]
[Discusses at length the profound repugnance he felt for the hypocrisy of conservative Republican Alan Keyes (like Obama, a Harvard educated African American) in using his religion as a battering ram to attempt to discredit Obama and other black liberals.]
Various commentators have reacted negatively to Obama's evangelistic style (bully pulpit). In Atlantic's (The Daily Dish), Andrew Sullivan objected to Obama's faith-based approach: "Yes, Obama is aggressively staking his candidacy in part on an explicitly religious appeal."
Then there's Gene Healy, mildly ridiculing Obama's camp meeting, revival style campaign
"Religion at its best comes with a big dose of doubt. I'm suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding."
[Barack Obama]
thanks to wanda barton
The Presidential Prayer Team has a goal of
mobilizing millions of people to pray for our President,
our leaders, our nation and our Armed Forces. I Timothy 2: 1-2
God Bless America
"This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor."
[President John F. Kennedy]
KENNEDY LINK
Related Links we recommend:
selected by Bob Shepherd
Let's be friends
Divided by God
The Lincoln Debate
Lincoln as Infidel?
A gospel for the lowly
Love to confront evil
Words from Maya Angelou
Faith and doubt intertwined
Interpreting Lincoln: Billy Herndon
Assessing Lincoln: Tolstoy's praise
Populist religion in America's roots
Good and bad of the revivalist heritage
Living down the dark past of religion
The greatest wealth we leave our heirs
