OBAMIANITY

Why is Sen. Clinton Talking about Rev. Wright?

Josh Marshall writes about the latest Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy:

But in the debate about Wright, which Sen. Clinton has just reignited, it seems to be spoken of now as an unquestioned assumption that Wright traffics in racist rhetoric or hate speech. But is that really true? I've seen some stuff that strikes me as whacky. I've heard soundbites that critics would not have much trouble spinning as anti-American. But are there really quotes that justify the charge of racism?

It seems to me that Senator Clinton is deliberately stirring up trouble so she can more easily win the votes of anxious whites who are uncomfortable with what they hear from Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

This looks like a shamefully self-interested shortsighted tactic. What about the future health of the Democratic Party? What about the historic loyalty that African-Americans have to the Democratic Party? What about even her own strategy of winning the general election if she by some miracle gets nominated?

Is she just playing for the semi-racist-not-so-educated white vote in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina? Why else would she talk about Rev. Wright the way she is doing? Why isn't she helping defend Senator Obama from all the Rev. Wright-related racist and ignorant attacks? What are African-Americans going to think about Senator Clinton now?

Baptist Press Criticizes Obama's Speech on Race

Last week the Baptist Press of the Southern Baptist Convention published an article about Obama's speech on race relations. Most of the article was a straightforward account of the speech, but at the end of the article, there was this:

Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow for family empowerment with Family Research Council Action, said Obama's speech did not address the underlying nature of his beliefs, which are characterized by "a 21st century form of big government socialism."

"Those are the beliefs of liberation theology," Blackwell, an African American himself, said in a statement. "Those are the offensive root beliefs underlying many of Rev. Wright's sermons. And though Barack Obama does not embrace Mr. Wright's offensive language, he does embrace this government-solves-everything-through-socialism worldview.

"His speech was magnificent in its elegance and rhetoric, but today Mr. Obama reminded me yet again of his worldview that embraces, among other things, partial-birth abortion, military weakness and economic socialism," Blackwell said.

Is this the best the Southern Baptist Convention can do? As far as I know, Blackwell is not even a Southern Baptist. But was it really that difficult to find someone who had at least a few positive words to say about Obama's speech? Southern Baptists often lament that they are viewed critically and unfairly by many outside their denomination, but with an article like this, maybe they deserve sometimes the bad press that they receive.

This is somewhat personal to me because I have a Southern Baptist background and I am well aware of the racist history of the Southern Baptist Convention. The whole reason to create the convention in the first place in 1845 was to allow slave owners to become missionaries. So you would think that the current Southern Baptist leadership would be more sensitive to issues of race and more appreciative of a speech that is being universally praised as a creative and daring breakthrough in race relations.

The Real Barack Obama

Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family begins an e-mail sent out today with:

What does it take to be the most liberal member of the United States Senate – farther left than Ted Kennedy, John Kerry or even Hillary Clinton? For the answer, take a look at a man who could be the next president of the United States: Barack Obama.

Sen. Obama was recently named the most liberal U.S. Senator, based on the annual voting analysis by the non-partisan and highly respected National Journal. If he emerges as the Democratic nominee, one of the critical jobs of Focus Action will be to uncover the real Barack Obama—not the feel-good orator who speaks of “change” and “hope,” but the man who would be the most left-wing president in our nation’s history.

The e-mail ends with this:

Throughout our history, great Americans have stood up to grave challenges of all sorts. As this latest wave of secular liberalism threatens us, I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you in prayer and action – in defense of the family.

Thanks to Focus on the Family, we are finally able to see that the real Barack Obama is not a Christian interested in Jesus' message of social justice, but a godless far leftist liberal secular humanist who wants to destroy the family.

It seems to me that Obamianity is closer to Christianity than Dobsonianity.

Obama as the Anti-Christ

According to Ben Smith's Blog at Politico.com, there is a popular email out there making the rounds with this content in it:

Obama 'Frightens Me'. The Bible has warned us that 'A man will come from the East that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!' When will our pathetic Nation quit turning their back on God and understand that this man is 'A Muslim'....First, Last and always....and we are AT WAR with the Muslim Nation, whether our bleeding-heart, secular, Liberal friends believe it or not. This man fits every description from the Bible of the 'Anti-Christ'!

Could it really be that Obamians are followers of the Anti-Christ? This seems to be a popular idea. How many people really believe this?

How many more people really believe that Obama is a politician who is truly committed to taking seriously what it at the heart of Jesus' message?

Would it not be better and more accurate to say that Obama is simply a politician with some values that happen to partly overlap with the values practiced by both liberal and conservative followers of Jesus?

Obamislam

From Obama and the Bigots - New York Times:

To his credit, Mr. Obama has spoken respectfully of Islam (he told me last year, on the record, that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset”). If he were to go further — “and so what if I were Muslim?” — many Americans would see that as confirmation that he is a Sunni terrorist agent of Al Qaeda who is part of a 9/11 backup plan: If you can’t reach the White House with a hijacked plane, then storm the Oval Office through the ballot box.

Let's hope Obama can find the courage to actually say "and so what if I were Muslim." The hope and promise of Obama's candidacy is partly about imagining a world where religions can co-exist peacefully. Obamians and Obamuslims holding hands for a better world.

Rolling Stone's New Hope

From  A New Hope : Rolling Stone:

We need to recover the spiritual and moral direction that should describe our country and ourselves. We see this in Obama, and we see the promise he represents to bring factions together, to achieve again the unity that drives great change and faces difficult, and inconvenient, truths and peril. We need to send a message to ourselves and to the world that we truly do stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And in electing an African-American, we also profoundly renounce an ugliness and violence in our national character that have been further stoked by our president in these last eight years. Like Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama challenges America to rise up, to do what so many of us long to do: to summon "the better angels of our nature."

Rolling Stone magazine seems to have caught the Obamian fever. Good to see them use words like "spiritual", "moral", "promise", "character". Rolling Stone is looking for some "values voters". Let's hope they choose Obama.

Atheists and Evangelicals Prefer Obama

From Street Prophets: Barack And Hillary (And The Beat Goes On):

How crazy is it that Obama, with all his foregrounded faith, can't take the Protestant or Catholic demographics from Hillary? I'm assuming that the "Other Christian" includes non-denominational evangelicals, and there Obama takes a convincing lead. Taken together with his strong lead among the 3% of self-described Republicans who have crossed over this cycle, I'd say that means that pretty much every conservative evangelical that has gone Democratic has voted for Obama. More craziness: after all the crap Obama took from the netroots about his faith speeches seeming to leave out the non-religious, he has a strong, though not overwhelming lead among that very group.

Obamians seem to be more inclined to newer approaches to religion and non-religion. Hillaryland seems to be the place for people with strong connections to old time protestant and catholic traditions. What is fascinating is that Obama attracts both more conservative evangelical Christians and non-Christians. What does this mean? Is it just that Obamians are younger?

Does this mean that Obama is in a better position to help bridge some of our religious divides? Can passionate evangelical Christians find some common ground with equally passionate atheists?

Gay Marriage and the Sermon on the Mount

From Crosswalk.com:

"I will tell you that I don't believe in gay marriage, but I do think that people who are gay and lesbian should be treated with dignity and respect and that the state should not discriminate against them," said Obama on Sunday. "So, I believe in civil unions that allow a same-sex couple to visit each other in a hospital or transfer property to each other. I don't think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state. If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.

Interesting use here of the Sermon on the Mount. It would be better for Obama to just say that he is against state sponsored marriage period. Otherwise, it sounds like gay marriage is second class and not worthy of state approval while non-gay marriage is ok. It looks to me that Obama's belief about gay marriage is simply a tactic to bridge the cultural gap between people who are more open to homosexuality and people who have problems with it. By being against gay marriage, Obama is softening his pro-gayness with the anti-gay crowd in the hopes that the anti crowd will see his point about the Sermon on the Mount and treating people fairly.

Passionate about Justice

From The Dallas Morning News:

On Friday, Mr. Obama stopped in the Rio Grande Valley, meeting with about 150 Hispanic evangelicals at the University of Texas at Brownsville. "I know that sometimes people are hesitant to mix church and state," he said. "But it's also important to remember that Jesus was an advocate. He wasn't afraid to go into the temple and throw that table down, drive the money lenders out. He was passionate about justice. Not just peace – justice."

Obama is saying that the "church" of Jesus does not only belong to the "state" of the Christian Right. Even more provocatively, Obama is suggesting that the heart of Jesus' life and message is closer to his understanding of progressive politics.

The Obamian Common Purpose

A quote from an Obama speech given yesterday in front of a group of hispanic evangelicals in Texas:

Whenever I hear folks talk about how we can’t come together as Protestants, Catholics and Jews, believers and non-believers alike, I think about the evangelicals I know who may not agree with progressives on every issue, but agree that poverty has no place in a world of plenty, that hate has no place in the hearts of believers, and that we all have an obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation.

Whenever I hear folks say that Republicans and Democrats can’t come together around a common purpose, I look to the work that Hispanic evangelicals like you are doing to mobilize voices in Congress for comprehensive immigration reform.

This is Obamianity in action trying to bridge the many cultural and political divides we have here in the US between religions and between the religious and the non-religious.

How far and in how much detail can Obamians continue to look for agreement and common purpose? And will this work only until Obama is elected president? Or, will the promise of this unity help to truly transform politics in a way we haven't seen happen in 40 years?