Perhaps most important of all, he believes in a “living word of God,” one that ever reveals and expands, that comes from unexpected sources. “When I read the Bible,” he has written, “I do so with the belief that it is not a static text but the Living Word and that I must be continually open to new revelations whether they come from a lesbian friend or a doctor opposed to abortion.”
These “new revelations” might come from a non-Christian religion as well, for Obama does not believe his Christianity is the final word. “I am rooted in the Christian tradition,” he has said. But “I believe there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”
Already in his first months in office, then, he has hosted a Jewish Seder, attended a Baptist church, and put a Pentecostal in charge of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and Neighborhood Partnerships. He invited a gay Episcopal bishop to speak at an inaugural event, but he also asked the most prominent American evangelical of our time to give an opening prayer. And when he spoke at the University of Notre Dame recently, he both honored the Catholic tradition and defied that faith’s stand against abortion rights, all the while saying we must carve out a new unity on the issue of abortion. And this is what we can expect a big tent faith-based presidency, rooted in a non-traditional approach to Christianity yet seeking to draw in nearly every religious tradition. For this, he understands, is how the majority of the people he serves would want it to be.
Does this mean he stands for nothing, not committed to anything…unprincipled?
No. 1: Perhaps it means that, at least in matters religious, Obama sits lightly to received tradition. In this area, he may be our first postmodern, or at least posttraditional, president.
[blockquote]Perhaps most important of all, he believes in a “living word of God,” one that ever reveals and expands, that comes from unexpected sources.[/blockquote]
Like the Angel Moroni.
Oh, wait. They’re English Calvinists gone bad too but Not Our Sort, Dear.
[url=http://sergesblog.blogspot.com/]High-church libertarian curmudgeon[/url]
Neither hot nor cold. Doesn’t believe in the afterlife, yet is a Christian?
Obama’s Jesus: “I don’t go to prepare for you a place. Tough luck. Have a nice day.”
Ok. So how is this new revelation determined? And how, in any way is it athoritative? Kind of fits with what he is doing to GM. Making it up as he goes along and using raw power to enforce it?
Br. Michael,
General Convention will explain it all.
#2, I believe Clinton was the first postmodern (“it depends on what is is,” as he had the temerity to claim).
The article mentions that he defied the RCC’s teaching against abortion rights.
Why did he not defy the teaching of other churches ? Was there
some purpose in singling out a particular faith ? In the interests
of “fairness”, can we count on president Obama to defy the
teachings of other religions ? Perhaps other faiths have no
teachings which are worth the effort to defy.
No. 7: Good question. I thought about Clinton, and considered that example you gave. But compare the two presidents only in the area of religion. That’s why I came down on the side of Obama as the first. Of course, it’s a close call and a matter of a good bit of personal opinion.
Don’t know why Obama is in a ‘church seek’ mode. He obviously is just a perfect fit for a mainstream TEC parish. The man has ‘Piskie’ just plastered all over him!
Obama is in the fine tradition of many presidents who possessed a more ‘rational’ sort of creed, from Washington to Jefferson to Lincoln and beyond.
Yes – that’s the claim (mistaken I think) that such belief is “more rational”.
President Obama seems to me to stand in that great stream of US religious life – that one sees in deism, unitarianism, social gospel christianity, modernism etc. (I don’t by any means intend to say that they are all the same but that one might trace the threads of commonality).
He would fit well in another, less political, UCC congregation and it would probably be good for him, his family, and that church.