barack obama makes nice with religiosos
Very seldom to politicans capture my heart the way Barack Obama has. And it’s not just because he’s Really Really Good-looking. No, it’s because he’s charismatic and cool, two other relatively superficial aspects but perhaps slightly more important than physical attractiveness. Two years ago when I was enjoying the theatrical spectacle that was Indecision 2004 and its accompanying partisan conventions (I am continually awed and entertained by the coordinated signage in the crowds, and had to even give the Republicans credit for creating a visual read of their prime accusation against John Kerry by waving thong sandals above their heads and chanting “Flip-Flop!”) Obama’s address to said Democratic gathering was quite enthralling. Finally, a Democrat you can look at and say, “That man could be president.” Indeed, I’d put serious money on him becoming president someday. He’ll beat Hillary to it, at any rate.
Anyway, he’s in the news today saying that Democrats should work harder to “reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans.”
Though I relish any opportunity for a glimpse of Sen. Obama, this is not a particularly newsworthy statement. It is, in fact, common sense, but the Democrats have not been particularly familiar with those two words over the past seven years. Not that the Republicans have, either, but at least they know how to capitalize on people’s church-sponsored fear (of hell, of homosexuals, of anyone in and around the vicinity of the Arab world).
In America, there is no separating religion and politics. If the Democrats want to win, they have to enter the religious arena, which is what Obama is saying here. Here in Canada we don’t have the same dichotomy where anyone who is a “real” Christian automatically votes Republican. Of course, there have been and still are political movements that are girded by a framework of social conservatism and appeals to certain conservative religious communities, mostly here in western Canada, but nothing that approaches the divisiveness in the United States. Even charismatic, totally rad Obama can’t win over the evangelical, conservative Republicans — the Falwell and Robertson crowd, as it were.
But the question is, can the Democrats capture the imaginations of the so-called “religious left?” Does such a movement even exist? The Sojourners crowd is trying to convince people that it does. Or even more importantly, is there centre-of-the-spectrum religious contingent that could be won over, who, when shown that the Republicans appeal to a twisted imperial version of Christianity, would vote Democrat? There has to be, otherwise Christianity is in more trouble than anyone ever thought.
I’m very skeptical. After all, there’s only one Barack Obama and tons of other Democrats who keep on dropping the ball. It’s like Jon Stewart continually asks — “How will the Democrats mess this one up?” It’s not a matter of “if.” I fully expect the Democrats to lose in 2008, especially if they keep up this Hillary Clinton nonsense. I don’t have as much of a problem with Hillary as some, but America is nowhere near ready to elect a woman president, network television dramas notwithstanding. Black men have traditionally achieved rights before women in the US, and there’s no reason to believe the presidency will be any different (another reason why Barack will be president before Hillary). As Ariana Huffington said, if the Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton, it’ll basically be a giant party suicide.
By the same token, if more moderate American Christians don’t stand up to the illogical and unethical tactics of the religious leaders associated with Republican politics, it will only prove to the rest of the world (non-believers, infidels, Canadians) that Christianity is more effed up than we already thought. This kind of bullshit doesn’t serve the Kingdom of God, folks.