Obama's Faith

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23 Mar 2008 06:43 pm

A reader writes:

I wonder what the Christian right are going to do now. Out of this ordeal about Rev. Wright’s preaching it has become clear that Barack Obama is a real Christian running for president.

Think about it, he has just been subjected to an all out attack of religious persecution by the mainstream media against a traditional branch of American Christianity and he has bravely and with little apparent support, defended his pastor, his church, his religion, and his faith in God. I think the media doesn’t realize what is going on here. Barack Obama is emerging not only as a great political leader, but as a defender of faith in America. It started as David and Goliath and is now Daniel in the lion’s den as well.

I wouldn't go that far. I certainly don't believe anyone should vote for or against Obama - or anyone - on the basis of religious faith. But I have long felt the quiet power of Obama's doubt-filled, socially engaged, moderate Christianity. It is a great cultural salve against Christianism and fundamentalism. The Hannity-Ingraham-Hewitt right should be a little leery in their attacks on him in case their own often cynical deployment of religion as a political tool is revealed too baldly as the sham and blasphemy that it is. Andrew Sprung analyzes one of the more toxic recent examples in the WSJ here. Another liberal's take is here.

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