Obama says his spiritual quest was driven by two main impulses. He was looking for a community that he could call home””a sense of rootedness and belonging he missed from his biracial, peripatetic childhood. The visits to the black churches uptown helped fulfill that desire. “There’s a side very particular to the African-American church tradition that was powerful to me,” he says. The exuberant worship, the family atmosphere and the prophetic preaching at a church such as Abyssinian would have appealed to a young man who lived so in his head. And he became obsessed with the civil-rights movement. He’d become convinced, through his reading, of the transforming power of social activism, especially when paired with religion. This is not an uncommon revelation among the spiritually and progressively minded. (“There’s no more dramatic story in American life” than the story of the civil-rights movement, says North Carolina Rep. David Price, who knows Obama professionally and writes about politics and religion. “You could not continue to be kind and gentle in your personal life and also be denying other people’s humanity.”) When Gerald Kellman recruited Obama to go to Chicago as a community organizer, he remembers, the young man was “very much caught up in the world of ideas.” He was devouring Taylor Branch’s “Parting the Waters,” which is part history of the civil-rights movement, part biography of Martin Luther King Jr.
In Chicago, Obama found that organizers and activists there (and elsewhere) were employing a progressive theology to motivate faith groups to action. Using the writings of Paul Tillich and, especially, Reinhold Niebuhr””and also King, African-American and Roman Catholic liberation theologians, and Christian fathers like Saint Augustine””local religious leaders emphasized original sin and human imperfection. Christ’s gift of salvation was to the community of believers, not to individual people in isolation. It was therefore the responsibility of the faithful to help each other””through deeds””to respond to the call of perfection that will be fully realized only at the end of time. Adherents of this particular theology frequently refer to Matthew 25: “Whatever you neglected to do unto the least of these, you neglected to do unto me.” Everyone, in other words, is in this salvation thing together.
Obama’s organizing days helped clarify his sense of faith and social action as intertwined. “It’s hard for me to imagine being true to my faith””and not thinking beyond myself, and not thinking about what’s good for other people, and not acting in a moral and ethical way,” he says.
Obama, after his speach on faith, had no trouble ending his 20yr friend ship with the “broken & flawed” Rev Wright. The deeply spiritual Obama had no trouble allowing a child born alive in a botched abortion to be put to death. Obama has shifted on about 7 positions in the last few weeks from FISA (which he help block twice), gun control, and his promise (“I PROMISE”) to immedialty end the war in Iraq. Obama’s “friend” and spirtitual advisor, the Rev Wright, summed it up best “Obama is what Obama is, a politician”!
And John McCain is so much more of a saint?
John McCain isn’t pretending to be a saint.
John McCain isn’t the subject, either.
T
The reason he is not pretending to be a saint is that he is Episcopalian.
Good shot, Pb! I needed a laugh. Problem is, I think he attends a Baptist church in Arizona.
[i]On issue after issue, Preckwinkle presented Obama as someone who thrived in the world of Chicago politics. She suggested that Obama joined Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for political reasons. “It’s a church that would provide you with lots of social connections and prominent parishioners,” she said. “It’s a good place for a politician to be a member.” [/i]
[url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?printable=true]LINK[/url]
Hold the presses:
Obama is a politician? I thought he was anointed by the angels?
Please: as I’ve said repeatedly, Obama is a canny, smart, politician. How does one do the following: break into Chicago Politics; take on the ideological left-wing; harness the Chicago machine; and then defeat the Clintons without being a politician? How does one create one of the most organized political campaigns in history without having some political smarts. It becomes harder to say that Obama’s lack of experience matters; that he isn’t tough. He’s smart enough to take Rezko’s money but had enough integrity not to return him any favors. He defeated the ideologically left candidate by challenging her signatures.
Of course, he’s been pretty clear about his own faith journey. It is intellectual and slow, more like a scientist rather than a poet.
Was Obama ever pretending to be a saint? In a Democratic debate he was asked who would MLK vote for: he responded that he wouldn’t vote for anybody. He’d hold politicians accountable. I’m perfectly aware that he is a political animal. He’s always been that. He’s ambitious and is intent on building relationships and instituting policies that include a wide number of voices. That, to me, seems like good politics – especially if you want to run the country well, and not in a way that is ideologically driven.
I will say that he seems to have toughness; good political sensibilities; an ability to collaborate with people who think differently; while keeping his own idea of what is right and wrong. The left wants him to be a leftist: the conservatives think that he is one. What seems to be the case is that he will rule from the center. But it will be a good government administration, not one that wants to destroy it, while taking all the spoils.
So I guess all this faith stuff is just for show, (“A really goood Political show” in my best Ed Sullivan imitation) ? Isn’t the least of these a child spurned by it’s mother fighting for life in a abortion clinic? Politics of change? A rose by any other name smells the same, so does BS!
Doesn’t Dumping a friend, mentor,and pastor of twenty years for political expediancy say something about Obama’s personel values? It is OK to use Rezko and his money because Obama is smart? Shifiting positions and beliefs with the political wind is ruling from the center?
Dave, Obama wants to win.
I’m not sure if sticking with Wright would help him do that. The way I see it, Wright threw down the gauntlet and challenged Obama and called him dishonest. Obama took it as a personal attack. Politicians take money all the time: think Abramoff and his cohorts. The difference is when a politician remains independent or not. As far as shifting beliefs, Obama has always said he would rule from the center. This has bee how he managed since he worked at Harvard. Those who think he’s “shifting with the political winds” haven’t been paying very close attention.
What is refreshing is that here is a politician who can change his mind when he learns new facts. Here is someone who can handle people who think differently and appreciate when they are right (say, merit pay for teachers, etc). It’s judgment.
And as far as personal values go, he’s not dumped his wife for someone younger. Nor has he been indicted in any scandal. He clearly loves his family and runs his organization with integrity. Compared to the other option, Obama looks pretty good.
Uh John, we are I beleive, comparing Obama to his words. He PROMISED to end the war in Iraq (remmember Bush 1 and no new taxes) and scolded Clinton for her support, called the surge a failure. Now it is we will wait and see what the Generals say, (maybe he changed again in the last few minuets). Obama quoted scripture, Mathew 25 I believe. How is he comporting with IT?
At the core, Obama is really no different from George Wallace: a talented opportunist who will do or say anything to get into office. So, really, he can spare us all the flapdoodle about “new politics” and being “the people we’ve been waiting for.” We’ve seen him come and go for centuries.
If you want to compare McCain and Obama’s characters fine. Here is how I see it. Obama said he could no more denounce his minister than his grand mother, then under the bus went Wright for political expediancy due to a little criticism. McCain spent 5 years in terrible conditions and returned home on a stretcher because of his choice to honor the code of conduct and remain in solidairity with the other POW’s. McCain worked to pass McCain Kennedy to help illegal immigrants , worked on McCain Fiengold , was head of the gang of 14 to get badly needed Judges on the bench. Each one of those decisions has cost McCain. Obama votes present if it is a tough vote to avoid political repercussions. Obama promised to accept public money during the election if McCain would then Obama backed down on his promise. Name one time Obama has crossed the isle to vote? Name one bill Obama has sponsored or wrote (other than the ones hijacked in the state senate). Name one tought decison he has made that cost him? Obama voted twice to let babies born during botched abortions die, are hese babies struggling to breath and live not the least of these? McCain adopted a baby from Somalia that would have died.