The Monday Nut

Please define the following – Christian Democrat.

Having a hard time?  Then I would guess a read through The Faith of Barack Obama (by Stephen Mansfield) is something you should do before November 5.  If you have ever read Senator Obama’s speech to the Democratic Convention in 2004, you may have noticed a line that was swallowed whole by the rest of his speech.  “We worship an awesome God in the Blue States.”  Mansfield grabbed onto this almost invisible and unheard line and turned it into an interesting book which has piqued my interest in Obama. 

I haven’t shown a lot of interest in Obama so far in The Monday Nut, as is the wont of a blogger…I had mentioned in previous posts that his delivery technique was a well-rehearsed amalgamation of Bill Cosby and Christopher Walken…and I mentioned that he was the only Reaganesque character in the race (talk about how great America is, then talk about how to make it better).  However, I’ve always seen Obama as just another liberal idealist who believes his moral compass always spins in the right direction (toward Valhalla).  Mansfield made a music analogy in the book when he intimates that Obama (and much of his generation) does his faith “like jazz.”  Mansfield is trying to get the point across that Obama’s faith is multi-faceted and takes inspiration from myriad sources…To get my point across as to why I haven’t paid much attention to Barack Obama, I’ll “sample that riff” and say Obama is like jazz in every way.  It’s the same old standards being played over and over again…he’s just got a better saxophone, a nicer stage presence, and the guts to change a couple notes here and there.  But, it has always still sounded like “Star Dust” to me.

Obama is a liberal, no questions asked, and though Mansfield seems to swoon at times in the book, he is smart enough to take on the tough issues that surround what he sees as an up-and-coming movement on the American Left to wrest Christianity from the Right.  For instance, how can one claim to follow the teachings of Jesus in his private life, yet still fully support partial-birth abortion in the public arena?  It is one of many instances in the book elucidating how Obama struggles to worship the God he came to accept as his savior and also worship the “state” itself, all while building a massive wall between the two.

Mansfield spends a considerable amount of time on Obama’s membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ, trying to explain why the Senator allowed himself to be mentored by the newly anointed fire-brand Jeremiah Wright.  I like many others reacted negatively to the ideas purported by Reverend Wright, but at the same time, I have never supported any minister sullying the pulpit with politics regardless of his denomination or political leanings.  The two chapters on Reverend Wright and Trinity United alone are worth the price of admission.  Mansfield makes a valiant attempt to tell us “The Rest of the Story” and I found my opinions of Wright tempered.  Every man has his failings, whether he is a “man of the cloth” or not.  The list of positives attributed to Wright is long…  I also understood why Obama struggled with his decision to distance himself from a church he had been a member of for 20 years.  One does not make such a decision lightly (or at least shouldn’t).

It is clear that Obama is a man torn between many things.  Mansfield has written the definitive book on the spiritual journey of this junior senator from Illinois, a man we hardly knew just two years ago.  As he says in the opening of Chapter 3: Faith Fit for the Age, “Men find God in varying ways, even within the Christian fold.  For most, faith comes in a progression, through a layering of truth over time.  I have walked much of the same roads as Barack Obama, and much of this book contains personal truths.  I would surmise this is true for almost every person of faith.  There are many questions to be asked and many answers to be understood.  I do not envy Obama as he tries to balance his faith with his political ambition.  In the end, it could be his undoing…because as Mansfield points out, in some cases, he is fighting against both sides of the political spectrum simultaneously.

If for no other reason than to better understand the man who might be the next President of the United States, I highly suggest this book.  It is well written and (gasp) for the most part, objective.  As I mentioned earlier, Mansfield seems to swoon in parts, but still presents all the issues we’re thinking about in a frank and honest manner.

In his blog post about why a Christian publisher (Thomas Nelson) decided to publish this book, Mike Hyatt (President & CEO) claimed the agenda of the book was: “to explain Obama’s faith, to put it in historical context, and to explore what it might mean for our collective future.”  Mission accomplished, and more.