Daily Blog (More-or-Less) Launched

Friends: I am launching this effort to depart from my haphazard writing ways and enter the blogosphere as a regular contributor. I'll attempt to write something every weekday, perhaps weekends, too. I ask your kind indulgence in allowing for events in work or family spheres which may inhibit this ambition, or at least give me a good excuse to duck the writing duties. That said...let's talk about Barack Obama's theological-political assessment of race in America during his March 18 speech.

I have not been an Obama supporter, so I listened to the speech with a somewhat critical ear. Yet, as the message developed, I found that he addressed this divisive subject with remarkable courage and genuine insight, something you don't expect to hear in a political address. Most speeches are aimed at the middle of the perceived public sentiment at the time they are delivered. Most politicians pack their talks with glittering generalities--affirmations of noncontroversial values like freedom, prosperity, education and peace. Obama went to the heart of the matter and frankly admitted that race is an issue for everyone and everyone has feelings of discomfort about the subject. When a theologian and preacher like Rev. Jeremiah Wright says things which sound hateful to some listeners, what we have to do is reject the hate speech while understanding the forces which produced this kind of reaction in a well-read and profoundly spiritual man. Obama's white Grandmother had a different experience in America. She is, in Barack's words, "a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

This kind of fierce honesty calls for higher discussion of the real issues which divide us, which is incredibly uncommon in American politics. Obama says it is unavoidable if we want to make real change: "Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality."

He even had the courage to critique religion in America at large: "The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning."

Obama calls for honest dialogue that allows for the fact that all segments of American society have strong feelings on racial issues, and that feelings of discomfort and disenchantment do not necessarily mean a person is hopelessly racist or that the nation at large is the cauldron of evil which Rev. Wright seems to find.

This is a powerful message. If you haven't heard his talk yet, it is widely available online in video format. [ Here's the YOU Tube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU ]
But more importantly, Obama has called for all of us to enter the discussion about race in America without descending into the angry, hateful rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright. It is a goal worth our struggle, and even those of us who may not support him for president nevertheless owe Barack Obama a word of thanks for raising the issue.

RevTom