The Prophet and the Politician: Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright

Many friendships have been lost on the rocks and shoals of political campaigns. The falling out between Senator Barak Obama and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is the latest example of such casualties. What is most striking is the Rev. Wright’s strident message. He would probably say that this style is a cultural feature of the African-American church. In a response to questions at the Washington Press Club, Rev. Wright said that he had told Mr. Obama, that if he is elected President, Rev. Wright would be coming after him as the leader of a repressive government.

Is this prophecy – speaking truth to power – or is it an ego trip? Rev. Wright went to some effort in his address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to stress the prophetic nature of his ministry and its African-American style. However, Rev. Wright appeared to have transgressed certain boundaries of acceptable political speech. His condemnation of the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, positing them as something that was the natural outcome of United States’ policies abroad, went too far in many people’s minds. His appraisal of Louis Farrakanh, the Black Muslim leader who advocates Black separatism and superiority, as one of the most influential persons in the 20th and 21st centuries raised additional hackles More alarming was his support for the idea that the United States had created the HIV/AIDS virus to decimate African-Americans.

It was all too much for Barak Obama and for most of the people of the United States.

So how far do you go in prophecy, especially in the prophecy of invective? There is an argument to be made that the 9/11 attack had a lot to do with American actions against Osama Bin Laden that drove him from exile in Sudan to Afghanistan. Any student of U.S. history knows that American policies in many parts of the world have been part of oppression. Yet do you condemn a nation that has also had a history of doing many good things on the world stage?

What struck me most was the Rev. Wright’s anger. Was it the anger of a prophet zealous for his God or was it the anger of African-American oppression, frustration, and futility? When Sen. Obama first addressed the issue of the Rev. Wright’s preaching in a landmark speech on race in America, his talk was full of restraint, understanding, and hope. The element of hope has been greatly reduced in the Rev. Wright’s recent speeches.

Ironically, the title of Sen Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope, is taken from one of Rev. Wright’s sermons. In fact, it actually concludes his autobiography, Dreams From My Father. It is clear that Rev. Wright infused Sen. Obama with a deep sense of hope over 20 years ago. The prophecies of Jeremiah and others in the Old Testament tend to hold out an element of hope of future redemption – of reconciliation.

Unfortunately, two roads are diverging in the wood and the nation must decide whether it will pursue the road of hope or the politics of despair, division, and personal destruction.

Campaign USA 2008 – Moral Choices #1 – Priorities

The coming of God’s kingdom in a free society can be a messy affair – since we enjoy the wonderful freedom and moral obligation to vote. Morality – what we actually do – is about the dialog between the heart and the mind over the best thing to do. Ethics is the reasoned system we use to evaluate choices.

This post is the first in a series on the moral choices in picking a candidate. Beliefnet’s “God-0-meter” tracks the statements of U.S. candidates for president and rates them on a scale from secularist (we don’t need God or religion) to theocrat (God will run the country through our clergy.) The secularist and theocrat labels are unfortunate because they are so extreme in our political system that they seem comical.

Generally, the hot button moral issues are questions of individual sexual morality: abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, sex education, condoms for HIV / AIDs prevention, U.S. funding for overseas birth control. Many believers focus on the abortion issue and want to make the procedure illegal once more. For the most part, these are efforts to make public policy reflect traditional personal Judaeo-Christian morality as it did in the mid-20th century.

Social issues are usually things such as prayer in the schools, creationism versus evolution, displaying the Ten Commandments in courtrooms, and religious displays in public spaces. Public funding for private religious schools by voucher payments garners a lot of support. These issues are actually questions of the relationship between faith communities and the government.

There is a movement to broaden the question of moral choices in public policy. “Covenant for a New America” is an effort led by Jim Wallace of Sojourner’s magazine to unite liberals and conservatives to “make overcoming poverty a non-partisan agenda. look at the very broad priorities of human dignity and freedom: poverty, health care, education, equality of opportunity, and economic development. Stewardship of creation in terms of protecting the environment and minimizing global warming is now being emphasized. This movement represents a return by Evangelicals to social reform issues that were a focus during the first half of the 20th century. Major liturgical churches, such as Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, are placing a renewed emphasis on social gospel issues.

How do you choose a candidate morally? If your candidate wants to outlaw abortion, prevent the legalization of gay marriage, and require every courtroom to display the Ten Commandments, is that a morally correct choice? What if your candidate gets into office and then cuts support services for mothers, including access to birth control, and women are again forced to risk their lives in illegal back street abortions? What if your candidate wants to outlaw the death penalty, increase social programs, and use more diplomacy than military force in international relations? Is it a moral choice to support that candidate if he or she also advocates birth control to prevent the need for abortion and allows the price of energy to stay high to encourage new energy saving technologies and reduce green house gas emissions?

The problem is that there is a broad spectrum of Christian values with a variety of applications to public policy.

In the following posts we will take a look at the leading U.S. presidential candidates against the backdrop of a broad moral spectrum.