The Obamination of Religion
http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/2620/1/The-Obamination-of-Religion/Page1.html
Robert Klein Engler
Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago, and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School. His book, ''A Winter of Words,'' about turmoil at Daley College, is available from http://amazon.com.By Robert Klein Engler
Published on 03/20/2008
After Senator Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia, most commentators claimed that the Democratic candidate, who did not want to make race an issue in the presidential election, has now done just that.
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After Senator Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia, most commentators claimed that the Democratic candidate, who did not want to make race an issue in the presidential election, has now done just that.
In fact, matters are even worse than that for liberals. The real issue that Senator Obama raised is the issue of religion. In turn, he created a liberal nightmare. Liberals, who have maintained for decades that religion is irrelevant in American life and politics, are now stuck with a candidate who has made religion the central issue.
Daniel Bell's book "The End of Ideology" was popular in the 1960s. Echoes of it live on today in the liberalism of Senator Obama's Democratic Party. These liberals believe that religion, as an ideology, is no longer important in American society. Elites with cultural and scientific knowledge will inherit the earth. Need we call them by name?
Now, just the opposite has happened. Senator Obama has opened a can of worms (snakes?) by his association with Black Liberation pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. What is this religion that pastor Wright preaches? How does Christianity in the black church turn into "God damn America?" Instead of the end of ideology, the Democrats are now forced to explain their front-runner's ideology.
Just what does Senator Obama believe besides being lead to Jesus Christ by pastor Wright? There are core Christian beliefs just as there are core Marxist beliefs. You'd expect a Christian pastor to at least preach the Bible, yet nothing we have heard so far from the pastor in the form of sound bites is from the biblical text.
His church's webpage claims: "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."
As U. S. President, will Barack Obama remain true to his "native land" or true to the United States of America? If anything, the drive-by media ought to pose questions like this to the senator from Illinois.
Senator Obama was a member of Trinity United for about twenty years. It begs the question to ask what influence the pastor had on the senator. Unless, of course, such church membership was for political reasons--you join a church to get the votes you need to win an election. But no politician in Chicago would do a thing like that!
Edward Gibbon argued in his book about the decline and fall of the Roman empire that religion was also a powerful current in the sea that was the Roman state. Gibbon wrote that the philosophers in the empire thought all the religions were false, the people thought all the religions were true, and the politicians thought all the religions were useful--an audacious argument if there ever was one!
By making religion the central issue of his campaign, Senator Obama has fired up the Internet and the blogs. Already membership in Trinity United Church of Christ is equated to membership in a cult on some webpages. Voters are now asking questions not just about belief but also about the content of belief.
The drive-by media do not want to touch the hot potato of religious content, because they don't know what to do with it. Ideology was supposed to be at an end. Now, it can't be ignored, because e-space is everywhere.
Ideology has not come to an end in this election cycle. It's just begun. The only thing that may come to an end is pastor Wright's tenure at Trinity United. It looks like he's outlived his usefulness.
In fact, matters are even worse than that for liberals. The real issue that Senator Obama raised is the issue of religion. In turn, he created a liberal nightmare. Liberals, who have maintained for decades that religion is irrelevant in American life and politics, are now stuck with a candidate who has made religion the central issue.
Daniel Bell's book "The End of Ideology" was popular in the 1960s. Echoes of it live on today in the liberalism of Senator Obama's Democratic Party. These liberals believe that religion, as an ideology, is no longer important in American society. Elites with cultural and scientific knowledge will inherit the earth. Need we call them by name?
Now, just the opposite has happened. Senator Obama has opened a can of worms (snakes?) by his association with Black Liberation pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. What is this religion that pastor Wright preaches? How does Christianity in the black church turn into "God damn America?" Instead of the end of ideology, the Democrats are now forced to explain their front-runner's ideology.
Just what does Senator Obama believe besides being lead to Jesus Christ by pastor Wright? There are core Christian beliefs just as there are core Marxist beliefs. You'd expect a Christian pastor to at least preach the Bible, yet nothing we have heard so far from the pastor in the form of sound bites is from the biblical text.
His church's webpage claims: "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."
As U. S. President, will Barack Obama remain true to his "native land" or true to the United States of America? If anything, the drive-by media ought to pose questions like this to the senator from Illinois.
Senator Obama was a member of Trinity United for about twenty years. It begs the question to ask what influence the pastor had on the senator. Unless, of course, such church membership was for political reasons--you join a church to get the votes you need to win an election. But no politician in Chicago would do a thing like that!
Edward Gibbon argued in his book about the decline and fall of the Roman empire that religion was also a powerful current in the sea that was the Roman state. Gibbon wrote that the philosophers in the empire thought all the religions were false, the people thought all the religions were true, and the politicians thought all the religions were useful--an audacious argument if there ever was one!
By making religion the central issue of his campaign, Senator Obama has fired up the Internet and the blogs. Already membership in Trinity United Church of Christ is equated to membership in a cult on some webpages. Voters are now asking questions not just about belief but also about the content of belief.
The drive-by media do not want to touch the hot potato of religious content, because they don't know what to do with it. Ideology was supposed to be at an end. Now, it can't be ignored, because e-space is everywhere.
Ideology has not come to an end in this election cycle. It's just begun. The only thing that may come to an end is pastor Wright's tenure at Trinity United. It looks like he's outlived his usefulness.