Review-The Faith of Barack Obama (Stephen Mansfield) Pt. 2
Barack and me
Even though I had read The Audacity of Hope more than a year ago and have been following him since the famous speech at the Democratic Party Convention in 2004, I was pleased to see Mansfield rewind and give the chronological context of Obama’s life and his interaction with the people, cultures and traditions that helped bring him to where he is today.
Since I was old enough to vote, I have only ever done so for the Republican Presidential candidate. I will admit that this has primarily been based on the fact that I became a Christian in 1990 and submerged myself in a Christian subculture that said Christians are Conservatives and so are Republicans, therefore Christians always vote Republican.
In the book, Mansfield does a great job of pointing out that Barack has a strong connection with those of us in the post-Baby Boomer generations. I am no exception to the statistics and polls that might bear that out. Reading over Barack’s childhood I realized that we shared many things in common:
• Our moms divorced twice while we were at home.
• Alcohol played a component in our parents’ divorce.
• We had some exposure to Catholicism.
• We have lived outside of the U.S. as kids.
• We’ve both been let down by spiritual mentors and the things they have said.
• We’ve both been abandoned by our biological dads.
• We’re both half-black…okay just made that one up to see if you’re still reading this, although I was once told in high school that I was black like one of the “brothas”.
Anyhow, my purpose in pointing this out is that I don’t think I am unique in this. Many Christian people my age and younger have similar connections to Obama, and it’s for that reason, as pointed out in the book, that many are willing to consider overlooking some of the other issues that would have traditionally kept us from even considering a vote for him (with the possible exception of The Issue, which I will touch on tomorrow).
For most of younger America, the gap between Barack and McCain is huge. While we respect McCain a great deal for his service to the country - his story was written in the past - Obama’s story is the future and some believe he can lead us there. Watching the Olympics this week seems to hammer this point home for me, America seems to be fading as the world leader in some respects. We are not regarded the way we once were and we seem to approach globalization with an elitist and presumptious manner, McCain only seems to fuel this sentiment.
Also, Barack seems to understand that evil is an invisible force, something that is resident in every nation and culture, and while I don’t agree with his particular theology, I don’t think I have to in order to agree that love is what will conquer this evil. Barack claims the source for that love in his life is Jesus Christ. McCain on the other hand simply says evil has a name - Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda. While I don’t disagree that these are perpetrators of evil, I think this is an example of the difference in the two men’s faith as pointed out in Mansfield’s book,
McCain’s faith appears to be folded neatly and tucked away in a drawer somewhere, it is compartmentalized and pulled out when necessary as a talking point. In Obama, we sense a desire to see faith woven into our dialogue once again and for us all to determine the outworkings of that as a united people is where our hope lies. Consider this quote from Mansfield:
“Religiously, the majority of America’s young are postmodern, which means they do faith like jazz: informal, eclectic, and often without theme. They have largely rejected organized religion in favor of a religious pastiche that works for them. They think nothing of hammering together a personal faith from widely differing religious traditions, and many acquire their theology the same way they catch colds: through casual contact with strangers.”
While I wouldn’t say mine is a faith that is based on widely differing religious traditions (I am a bible-believing, Jesus-loving type), I would say that I am not adverse to learning from different cultures and other religious belief systems in order to more fully engage with the world around me. What do we gain by demonizing other cultures and religions, how do we lead them to a loving Christ?
Whether or not Obama is a true believer (something that is not for me to decide), if enough Christ-followers took this to heart and began to live it out in our culture, confronting evil would no longer be something assigned exclusively to the United States military.
