Sen. Obama Dissects Dilemmas Facing Christian Politicians
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in front of a large Christian crowd yesterday combined philosophy, politics, and Bible stories to analyze the decision process and struggles of a Christian politician trying to keep Biblical teaching while living in a pluralistic society.
An audience of more than 600 people listened attentively to Sen. Obama at National City Christian Church as he gave his first-ever major speech on the intersection of politics and his faith during the Amos and Joseph Award Ceremony hosted by the Christian ministry Sojourners.
Obama, currently the only black senator, was the recipient of the 2006 Joseph Award, given to a person in a position of influence who uses the position to benefit those in poverty.
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During his speech, the son of a Kenyan Harvard-educated economist dissected the dilemmas and thought process for policy-making for a Christian politician.
“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into a universal rather than religion specific doubts,” said Obama. “What I mean by this is it requires the proposal be subject to argument and amenable to reason.”
The senator, who is pro-choice, continued by explaining how he made his decision to support certain abortion legislations.
“I may be opposed to abortion for religious reason, to take that as an example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I can’t simply point to the teaching of my church or God’s will,” he said. “I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths including those with no faith at all.
“Now this is going to be difficult for someone that believes in the inerrancy of the Bible as many evangelicals do, but in a pluralistic society we have no choice. Politics depend on our ability to persuade each other accommodating space on a common reality. It involves compromise, the art of what is possible, while at some fundamental level of religion it doesn’t allow for compromise and it is the art of the impossible.”
Obama used the well-known Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac to illustrate the philosophy of faith in politics. He retold the story of God’s order for Abraham to sacrifice his only son and his obedience “without an argument” to take Isaac up the mountaintop, bind him and sacrifice him. However, when Abraham’s devotion and faith was confirmed, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son at the last minute.
“But it is fair to say that if any of us leaving this church saw Abraham on a roof of a building raising his knife we would at the very least call the police and expect the Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away from Abraham,” said Obama as the crowd laugh. “We would do so because we don’t hear what Abraham hears. We don’t see what Abraham sees - true as those experiences may be. So the best we can do is act in accordance with those things we all see and we all view and let them become laws of basic reason.”
Sen. Obama’s speech took place on the last of a three-day anti-poverty conference in Washington, D.C., that sought to erase the division between denominational and political lines. Other senators who spoke during the conference included Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), Sen. Sam Brownback (R- Kan.), and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
