Obamanation at the Compassion Forum
http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/2762/1/Obamanation-at-the-Compassion-Forum/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 04/15/2008
The recent "Compassion Form" on the campus of Messiah College at Grantham, Pa., with Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was one of the more rare appearances of presidential candidates this election season. One blogger said, "It should have been called 'Fundamentalist Christians ask the Candidates Questions.'"
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The recent "Compassion Form" on the campus of Messiah College at Grantham, Pa., with Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was one of the more rare appearances of presidential candidates this election season. One blogger said, "It should have been called 'Fundamentalist Christians ask the Candidates Questions.'"
In spite of that comment, there are many Christians, fundamental and others, who are interested in a candidates religious beliefs, especially if they claim to be a Christian believer like Senator Obama has claimed to be. Religion is still an important factor in American life and in politics.
Perhaps the most interesting question asked Senator Obama was the one about his understanding of God's intervention in human history. The senator's answer was both revealing and disappointing.
Michael Luo writing in The New York Times Politics Blog sums up Senator Obama's answers when he writes: "He riffed comfortably about the balance between science and faith and...he adeptly sidestepped a question about whether God intervenes in history in real time, saying that he believed that God did intervene but that his plans are 'too mysterious' for him to grasp."
The transcript of the interview is even more detailed and revealing. Sidestepping seems an understatement here.
MEACHAM: Senator, do you believe that God intervenes in history and rewards or punishes people or nations in real time for their behavior?
OBAMA: You know, what I believe is that God intervenes, but that his plans are a little too mysterious for me to grasp. And so what I try to do is, as best I can, be an instrument of his will. To act in what I think is accordance to the precepts of my faith. I don't know what that master plan is. And I don't presume to know. And I think that none of us know..."
At this point in the interview is where a good follow-up question should have been asked. Yet, interviewers these days seem as ignorant of religion as those they interview.
One could say the whole point of Christianity is that it is a religion that takes history seriously. There is a salvation history, a Heilsgeschicte the German theologians used to talk about. It is strange that Senator Obama couldn't even make a passing reference to this salvation history.
That being the case, it is also strange that Senator Obama did not mention the Nicene or Apostle's Creed. These are classical statement of God's intervention in human history from the Christian point of view.
"The Nicene Creed is the most widely accepted and used brief statements of the Christian Faith...It is Common Ground to East Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other Christian groups."
Below are selections from the modern version of the creed, that of The Interdenominational Committee on Liturgical Texts.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only son of God...
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man...
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
...We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.
For the Christian believer, the most important intervention into human history by God is clearly stated in this creed. "For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven...and was made man." Why did Senator Obama overlook this point? Why is this "too mysterious" for him to grasp, when grasping it is essentially what it means to be a Christian?
Anyone who reads the Bible knows that there are other examples of God's intervention into human history. The Ten Commandments is an example that the senator could have mentioned. Likewise, the last book of the Bible tells us something of our future, although the exact details of that future are open to interpretation.
If the church you attend believes more in Karl Marx than in the Bible, then it is little wonder if salvation history is not discussed. How is it that a believing Christian could say, "I don't know what that master plan is," when the Bible tells him what it is in so many words?
Those answers the senators from Illinois and New York gave to questions at the Compassion Forum should be studied more closely. What remains a mystery from a Christian perspective is not God's intervention into human history, but the religious beliefs of Senator Obama.
In spite of that comment, there are many Christians, fundamental and others, who are interested in a candidates religious beliefs, especially if they claim to be a Christian believer like Senator Obama has claimed to be. Religion is still an important factor in American life and in politics.
Perhaps the most interesting question asked Senator Obama was the one about his understanding of God's intervention in human history. The senator's answer was both revealing and disappointing.
Michael Luo writing in The New York Times Politics Blog sums up Senator Obama's answers when he writes: "He riffed comfortably about the balance between science and faith and...he adeptly sidestepped a question about whether God intervenes in history in real time, saying that he believed that God did intervene but that his plans are 'too mysterious' for him to grasp."
The transcript of the interview is even more detailed and revealing. Sidestepping seems an understatement here.
MEACHAM: Senator, do you believe that God intervenes in history and rewards or punishes people or nations in real time for their behavior?
OBAMA: You know, what I believe is that God intervenes, but that his plans are a little too mysterious for me to grasp. And so what I try to do is, as best I can, be an instrument of his will. To act in what I think is accordance to the precepts of my faith. I don't know what that master plan is. And I don't presume to know. And I think that none of us know..."
At this point in the interview is where a good follow-up question should have been asked. Yet, interviewers these days seem as ignorant of religion as those they interview.
One could say the whole point of Christianity is that it is a religion that takes history seriously. There is a salvation history, a Heilsgeschicte the German theologians used to talk about. It is strange that Senator Obama couldn't even make a passing reference to this salvation history.
That being the case, it is also strange that Senator Obama did not mention the Nicene or Apostle's Creed. These are classical statement of God's intervention in human history from the Christian point of view.
"The Nicene Creed is the most widely accepted and used brief statements of the Christian Faith...It is Common Ground to East Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other Christian groups."
Below are selections from the modern version of the creed, that of The Interdenominational Committee on Liturgical Texts.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only son of God...
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man...
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
...We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.
For the Christian believer, the most important intervention into human history by God is clearly stated in this creed. "For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven...and was made man." Why did Senator Obama overlook this point? Why is this "too mysterious" for him to grasp, when grasping it is essentially what it means to be a Christian?
Anyone who reads the Bible knows that there are other examples of God's intervention into human history. The Ten Commandments is an example that the senator could have mentioned. Likewise, the last book of the Bible tells us something of our future, although the exact details of that future are open to interpretation.
If the church you attend believes more in Karl Marx than in the Bible, then it is little wonder if salvation history is not discussed. How is it that a believing Christian could say, "I don't know what that master plan is," when the Bible tells him what it is in so many words?
Those answers the senators from Illinois and New York gave to questions at the Compassion Forum should be studied more closely. What remains a mystery from a Christian perspective is not God's intervention into human history, but the religious beliefs of Senator Obama.