Faith-full Leadership

Momentum seems to be building for Barack Obama as the primaries continue across the United States. Whatever the outcome, it is healthy that there is an actual race for the Democratic leadership and that there are two articulate candidates.

Someone sent me a spam email a few weeks ago and asked what I thought of its content. It was vile. The goal was to cast doubt on Obama's leadership potential. It claims that he is a closet Muslim who refuses to say the pledge of allegiance and will not face the American flag. These "verified" claims are simply untrue.

Along with the falsehood there is the rather blatant implication that any Muslim would be a poor leader for the country, that Muslims are not patriotic, and that Obama has some secret agenda which is advanced by claiming to be a Christian when he is not.

If this email hadn't received such wide circulation it could just be dismissed as absurd and pathetic. In his book The Audacity of Hope Obama is candid about his struggle with religious faith of any kind and his concern that being a Christian in particular might require the suspension of reason. While his father was a Muslim by birth, he was a skeptic and atheist. His mother is secular in her outlook and sent Barack to both Roman Catholic and Muslim schools for the quality of the education in general, not for religious reasons.

In his chapter called Faith Obama describes his commitment of faith as a choice rather than an epiphany. He describes walking down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ to be baptized as a Christian: "...kneeling beneath the cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth."

As neighbours of the United States we can pray that the best person will be elected to lead the country in the future and that these character assassinations come to an end in the meantime.

Bye the way, Obama won the "spoken word" Grammy a couple of nights ago for his audio version of The Audacity of Hope.