OBAMIANITY

Is it About the Future of the World?

From an article in the Times of London about Samantha Power:

She is also thrilled by the impact Obama is already having on world affairs: “I have a friend who just came back from Burma last week and said all that anybody is talking about on the streets of Rangoon is Barack Obama. What is incredible is how many constituencies he can appeal to, how many boundaries he can cross effortlessly – of race, of age, of geography and of religion.”

“Obamamania”, she believes, owes much to the building of a movement by dedicated supporters. “The only way we were going to win was to have organisers who were willing to freeze their asses off in rural Iowa when it seemed like there was going to be no political payoff. The corollary is that those who are helping Obama do so with quasi-evangel-ical fervour. I think Obama supporters, by and large, do not see this as mere politics. They see this as the future of the world."

It is interesting how the Obama movement, or as I like to call it, Obamianity, prefers to separate itself from politics, or at least to distance itself from politics as usual, from politics as merely politics. Obamianity is not about politics, but about the politics of hope, about what Obama has said many times as he has finished his rallies, "let's go change the world."

Obama seems to know that in American culture, politics is a very hard sell, and in order to get people involved he has had to radically change the usual political vocabulary. And yet some people are still not buying Obama's repackaged political product. My most vivid example of this is that I am the only one in my family who is even remotely interested in being an Obamian. My parents and my two older brothers and their families are not moved by the Obama movement either because their politics are radically different, or because politics for them is simply a distasteful dish never even to be imagined or consumed.

So obviously there are limits to Obama's charisma, to the way he can "bamboozle" people into becoming his followers. Will Obamianity be able to add more converts during the general election? Or will the already saved lose their faith as politics becomes its usual vulgar enterprise as we approach November?

Objecting to Obama's Religious Tone

Jose Antonio Vargas in the Washington Post has a good report out today about the Obama fever on the internet. In his report there is this:

"I just can't stand it. Whenever I hear him speak, I shake my head, thinking, 'Are people hearing his campaign's overtly religious tones?' " says Michael Hussey, 29, an Internet entrepreneur who runs RateMyTeachers.com. Hussey is a libertarian, his politics a cross between Ron Paul's and Rudy Giuliani's, he says. After reading about the Messiah blog on the conservative site Instapundit, Hussey started a Facebook group where members post comments such as "I hear he shoots lightning out of his fingertips to smite the unbelievers!" The group has 37 members.

It is interesting how some are very sensitive and offended by Obama's political rhetoric. For them a political candidate should not talk about hope, a higher mission, or a call to service. They apparently want politicians to only express dry bureaucratic points. For them, politics is not a communal project that requires encouragement and inspiration but a secretive profession better left to technocratic experts. Or better, perhaps for them, politics should not even be a communal project requiring everybody's participation and passion. They are saying, perhaps, just leave us alone, don't try to manipulate us into caring about our neighbors, or looking at the world as if we have obligations to one another.

Misunderstanding the Promises of the Church of Obama

More tiring and repetitive thoughts from a columnist who does not understand the deeper and more positive implications of Obamianity:

And apparently, Barack Obama is the new messiah. Here's how a 20-year-old woman in Seattle described that Obama feeling: "When he was talking about hope, it actually almost made me cry. Like it really made sense, like, for the first, like, whoa ... "

This New Age glossolalia may be more sonorous than the guttural emanations from the revival tent, but the emotion is the same. It's all religion by any other name. Whatever the Church of Obama promises, we should not mistake this movement for a renaissance of reason. It is more like, well, like whoa.

Whoa? The only whoa I see here is the deliberate absence of generosity, the smug unwillingness to give young people the benefit of the doubt, the blindness of not seeing the truer meaning of our political and cultural moment.

The Promise of a Moral America

Speaking of progressive Baptist academics, I just saw (I am a couple of weeks late to this) that Michael Westmoreland-White seems to be an Obamian. He needs to talk to Texas in Africa referenced in the post below. In his excellent blog, Levellers, Michael concludes a very comprehensive post about his preference for Obama, by writing:

The bottom line is that I believe Obama is the president we need at this time. He won’t be perfect or a savior–no politician is.  But with progressive social movements to keep pushing him–and with his visionary ability to reach beyond narrow constituencies, I think electing Obama can give us back the promise of a moral America. I don’t want to be a Christian nationalist.  But I would like to be a Christian who is not deeply ashamed of my country.  An Obama presidency, I believe, offers that opportunity

Giving us back the promise of a moral America. Nice thought and let's hope that Obama can at least try a little to make it so.

Texas in Africa Dares to Question the Obamessiah

Texas in Africa is one of the finest blogs I have seen and the author is a Baptist and a promising young academic in the field of African and political studies. I assumed she would be an enthusiastic practicioner of Obamianity. But instead, she writes:

But I have to say: the Obama messianic stuff creeps me out a little. The other day I linked to a quip Melissa Rogers found that was to the effect that, "This is a race between a New York Senator who was born in Illinois and an Illinois Senator who was apparently born in a manger."

Exactly. I'm all for enthusiasm about the democratic process, but this is getting a little out of hand. Poster setups like the one above creep me out a little.

Sure, some may be going off the deep end with excessive fervor, but I am surprised how this is bringing out so much negative and critical commentary. To me, the fact that so many have decided to be involved with politics is a much huger and much more positive story. Why aren't people focusing more on this? Why the need to always comment on the surely false perception that there are many Obamanic irrational fanatics in our midst? Is this not the very sort of fear and cynicism that the gospel of Obama is trying to push back?

Obamianity and the Ethic of Nonviolence

From the big daddy weave: Hillary or Barack? John Lewis' Struggle To Decide:

I hope Congressman Lewis casts his vote for Barack Obama. But not because Obama is black. And not because of pressure from his constituents to ratify their decision. I believe Congressman Lewis should cast his vote for Obama because Lewis' ethic of nonviolence is more compatible with the positions taken by the Senator from Illinois.

I hope so too. Obamianity does not have the same inspired idealism of pacifism as early Christianity, but Senator Obama did have the good sense to know that the war in Iraq was unwise. The civil rights movements of the 50's and 60's was indeed centered on an ethic of nonviolence and one can only hope that Obamians will follow in these steps.

John McCain: The Anti-Obama

John McCain last night:

"I will fight every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent and empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history and a return to the false promises and failed philosophy that trusts in government more than the people."

Deception. Emptiness. False and shallow promises. A hollow detachment from history. Failed ideas. Mistrust of people. It almost seems like Senator McCain is not a believer in Obamianity. Why all the negativity? Why is it so hard for McCain to see that all Obama is trying to do is trust people so that they can be more motivated to be active participants in their own government?

Who exactly is the one here falsifying hopes and promises?

Is Robert Creamer an Obamian?

Robert Creamer writes:

People want to be inspired. Inspiration is about making people feel empowered to be more than they are. They want to be inspired because they desperately want meaning in their lives. They want to be part of something larger than themselves and they want to feel that they can play a significant part in that larger purpose.

Meaning comes from being devoted to something outside of yourself -- to a cause, to a person, to a religion, to your art.

Creamer is making the argument that is central to Obamianity. Why is Senator Obama, a mere politician, inspiring people the way artists, musicians, and prophets inspire people?

Obama is on the way to making politics an object of intense cultural interest. He is laying the groundwork to popularize progressive politics. What will all this mean a year from now? How do we prepare for this in 2008? What are the central dogmas of Obamianity?

Obamianity as a Social Movement for Change

It is no accident that many are associating the fervor and excitement surrounding Senator Obama with religious forms of expression. Social movements for change are often related or deeply connected to religious traditions. Even explicitly secular movements for change are enveloped in a general charisma that suggests religious enthusiasm.

It is also no accident that a good majority of African-Americans are now solidly in Obama's camp not because he is black, but more fundamentally because he is clearly living out his politics both in rhetoric and substance in the tradition of the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's.

Surely Obama is fulfilling the very best of the promises of the civil rights movement, a movement that had lost some of its power and focus since the late 60's with the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Is it possible that Obamianity has miraculously arrived at the end of the depressing Bush regime to push us forward into another period of creative social change and progress? Could we really be this fortunate? Is this why there is a palpable sense of possibility and hope in so many that better days are ahead of us?

Bush, Obama, and Christianity

President Bush worked hard in 2000 and 2004 to gain the confidence and vote of conservative Christians. He spoke about Jesus changing his heart and he sounded sincere. He apparently converted to an evangelical style of Christianity when he was in his 30's or early 40's.

Senator Obama also tells a story of how he came to Jesus in his mid 20's. It almost seems like both Bush and Obama realized that getting "right" with God was necessary, or a very important ingredient for their future political success.

Obama's Christian testimony, however, does not follow the usual evangelical cliches. Obama's transition from agnostic, quasi-unitarian (his mother was anthropologically appreciative of the variety of religions), or not-really-caring-that-much-about-religion to a thoughtful or questioning Christian seems more like an attempt to solidify his community ties. He stresses the social justice aspects of the Christian faith.

Obama seems more interested in practicing Christianity through good works than in theorizing about it. It remains to be seen if conservative Christians will be sufficiently impressed with Obama's style of doing Christianity enough for them to vote for him.