The Audacity of Faith

Someone kindly passed on a copy of Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope. Obama is one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls south of the border. While I have read the book by fits and starts I am impressed by his intelligence, his willingness to speak of his own flaws, and the sense that he has a genuine faith.

In the States the issues of faith, usually Christian, are far more politically important than here in Canada and religion ends up being worn on sleeves and everywhere else at election time.

The cover article of the latest Christian Century http://www.christiancentury.org/ points this out. It looks at Obama's home church in Chicago and its Africentric approach. It was at Trinity that Barak Obama became a Christian, experiencing a powerful, emotional conversion during worship. While Canadians may be leery of mixing religion and politics in some strange alchemical brew we might benefit from some lively discussion of faith by our political leaders. Surely God loves politicians too.