“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matt 6:5-6
In this age of public professions of religion, we often forget that the best prayers are those we say in private.
Barak Obama wasn’t raised in any particular religion, but was inspired by Rev Jeremiah Wright to become a Christian. He has talked about that conversion extensively in print and in public. It was well before he became a politician and it continues to appear to be a fundamental part of his belief system.
Rev Wright practices a prophetic Christian ministry that is a tradition in the African American community. Rev. Wright’s congregation uses the Bible to try to make sense of two hundred years of slavery, three hundred years of legal segregation, and the current challenges of poverty, bad schools, unemployment, crime, drugs, and broken families. Just like Stephen Douglas before him Rev Wright holds the white American political structure responsible and predicts that God will judge them harshly.
This is going to make white people understandably uncomfortable because of its overt “angry black man” political message. I would suggest that this is no different than Irish Catholic Churches sending money that Northern Irish Nationalist used to buy guns and make bombs or Serbian Orthodox Churches sending money that Melosevic used to kill Croats.
At the end of the day it is difficult to judge any of the members of any of those congregations because the only part of their ministry we see is the part that makes us uneasy. It is also easy for us to say that the Serbian family should go to another church, for example, when doing so would sever cultural and social connections to the local Serbian population. Barak Obama did sever his relations with Rev. Wright because it appeared the Rev. Wright planned to take advantage of his relationship with Senator Obama to promote his own celebrity.
John McCain was raised an Episcopalian and, other than the cross in the sand story that has shown up in his speeches in the last few years, there is little in his early bio to suggest anything about his faith.
Locked in a tight race in South Carolina during the 2000 primary with George Bush, McCain announced that he had begun to attend his wife’s Baptist church. The pastor of that church confirms that Mr. McCain attends those services. That pastor also confirmed that Mr. McCain has not been baptized, which most Baptists view as a requirement to call yourself an adult Baptist.
He has also been associated with controversial pastors including John Hagee who called the Roman Catholic Church “the great whore” and Rod Parsley who referred to Islam as a “false religion” that America was called on to destroy.
Just as Rev. Wright felt that 9/11 was punishment for oppression, Rev. Hagee has said that Katrina was punishment for our acceptance of homosexuality, and Rev Parsley has said that America was founded in part with the intention to destroy Islam.
Not to be outdone, Governor Palin has a history with Rev Kalnins who warned that critics of President Bush might be banished to Hell and that people who voted for John Kerry might not gain entry to Heaven. Gov. Palin has also said that the war in Iraq was a task from God.
So what do we make of all of this?
My conclusion is that there is way too much religion in politics. Religion is and should be personal and shouldn’t be a qualification or disqualification for any public office. We should respect the wisdom of our founding fathers who understood that we would have a much stronger union if government and religion remain separate.
Next up family life