By Larry Jones
Religion really should have nothing to do with winning or losing elections,
but the religious right has made it so, despite Article VI of the Constitution,
which states that “” no religious test shall ever be required as
a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
You wouldn’t know that if you saw The Rev. Franklin Graham interrogating
Barack Obama at a recent gathering of evangelicals convened by the Obama
campaign. (You remember Franklin. He’s Billy’s son who John McCain
made nicey nice with last month.) Well, when the discussion with the
bunch of believers was nearly done, Franklin gave Obama the third degree
about what turns out to be the half-hearted Muslim faith of Obama’s
father and step father. You know what half-hearted faith is. It’s
the kind you have or used to have because as a kid you went to Sunday
School at Northside Baptist. So when some application asks for your
religion you put down Protestant unless you”ve taken the bold road
to openly state you”re an atheist.
Anyway, Franklin hammered Obama to see if he was a “genuine” Christian,
according to Franklin’s definition. According to Nation magazine,
Franklin wanted to know if this senator believed that “Jesus was the
way to God or merely a way.” To which Obama answered: “Jesus
is the only way for me. I’m not in a position to judge other people.”
One of the other prominent evangelicals
there was T.D. Jakes, the Black Pentecostal mega-church minister who
preaches a prosperity gospel message. Get right with God and good things
will happen to you including wealth. He has side-stepped the Black theology
about social justice. Yet Obama is reported to consult with Jakes on
a weekly basis and has called him “a role model of a Christian who
puts his faith into social action.” Not!!!
Now Obama has publicly stated that he plans not only to continue Bush’s
controversial faith-based initiative, but to extend it even further.
The program has often treaded on the separation of church and state
and there’s every likelihood this will continue. Bush has turned this
program into a political tool, sending grant money to groups that support
him. Further, he has drastically cut the funds he promised such that
the genuine social service promised has not materialized. But Obama’s
going full steam ahead with “faith based” funding. He says he will
make these programs the “moral center of his administration”,
THE MATTHEW 25 NETWORK
In early June a fundraiser was held for Obama by a new group called
“The Matthew 25 Network.” Here’s a brief Bible lesson: Matthew
chapter 25:31-45 is the story of people coming to a heavenly Jesus who
separates the good guys from the bad guys (actually Matthew calls them
sheep and goats. I don’t know what he had against goats.) And he tells
them that when he apparently was back on Earth and was hungry and thirsty
and without clothes and with other problems, no one came to help him.
And those on his left hand he apparently decided had done nothing to
help and went straight to hell. But the good guys who did help would
have eternal life because “just as you did it to one of the least
of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Apparently the “Matthew
25 Network” wants to be among the good guys and help Obama to at least
appear to among them, too.
The group was originally put together by Mara Vanderslice, a lobbyist
and political advisor who has tried for several years to get the Democrats
to speak out on religion. She was a John Kerry faith advisor in his
ill-fated run for president in 2004. Mike McCurry, a former press secretary
for Bill Clinton, will apparently be prominent in the Network. He has
stated that the Network will work outside the campaign and thus can
work specifically to bring evangelicals into the Obama fold. Inside
the campaign, Obama has Catholic focused and Jewish focused staffers
and may now have an evangelical focused staff member too.
The Matthew 25 Network a few days ago
launched a Christian witness statement by Obama on Christian radio.
He even used code evangelical words when he said he got down on his
knees and felt God was calling him. You can listen to him here.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Non-Christians probably won’t like it, but then they are probably
not listening to Christian radio. Obama did well among people of no
faith in the primaries, so perhaps he doesn’t need or want to reach
out to them.
PROGRESSIVES ARE GREATLY DISAPPOINTED
I don’t think a lot of progressive people are all that thrilled with
Obama these days. His willingness to vote for the new Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) even though it grants immunity from prosecution
to the telecoms which broke the law and let their networks be used to
spy on us because George W. asked them to. George broke the law, too.
Progressive folks also don’t like Obama statement that he might keep
Robert Gates as his Defense (read War) Secretary. And Gates has said
that he didn’t care who was president, apparently meaning that he
will prosecute the two horror wars no matter what. And I just read,
and progressives will be outraged at this, that America’s war mongers
right now have 26,000 human beings locked up in torture prisons around
the world, including on U.S. warships. And 80,000 have already gone
through this Medieval torture process. That’s like having everyone
who lives on Kaua”I in torture-prison-dark-holes with no lawyers and
often with no charges.
And then there’s Iran. Both the U.S. and Israel have itchy trigger
fingers and have put in place everything needed to bomb-bomb-Iran, as
John McCain likes to sing. Obama has said he would use every means available,
including nukes, to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. So he’s
on board for the third Middle East war.
Speaking of Israel, Obama was found kissing the behind of AIPAC, the
Israeli lobby, even to the extent of saying that Jerusalem should be
undivided. No other politician has gone so far as to call for denying
Palestinians their rightful section of Jerusalem.
Obama announced a few days ago to David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting
Network that he’s launching the “Joshua Generation Project.” In
the Bible, Moses died before he reached the Promised Land, so his successor
Joshua had to finish the job. The full program will be officially launched
in a couple of weeks, and a campaign spokesperson said the “” project
will tap into that excitement [for Obama among young evangelicals] and
provide young people of faith
opportunities to stand up for their values and move the campaign forward.”
The program will include house parties, blogging, and concerts. So Obama
is falling into the rock-concert-with-Christian- words mode. I don’t
know about you, but for me, that’s a fast way to wreck good rock music.
Perhaps we need to also remember that when Joshua fought the battle
of Jericho, the walls came tumbling down. Could that happen to the Obama
campaign? Right now voters can choose between the lesser of two evils
and that’s not a real choice. But voting is not going to cure what
ails America anyway. Better we put our energies into mobilizing great
masses of people to demand that this regime come tumbling down.
Just what kind of religious people is Obama reaching out to? Well, it’s
not the ones with compassion seeking justice and peace. It’s right
wing fundamentalists, many of whom think Bush’s wars are God’s will.
Just what kind of change is Obama going for? If he gets more
from the religious right on his side, along with his other rapid moves
toward right of center, the change he really wants is not what I want
and I doubt if it’s what you want either.
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P.S. If you are as fed up with the way things are going in the world
and with the way the Democrats are waffling away what principles they
may ever have had, then you should join people to demonstrate at the
Democratic convention August 25 – 28. World Can’t Wait and many
other
groups will be there. See the article at the top of this site’s front
page for details.
Larry Jones is a long time political
activist and former United Church of Christ minister who lives in Honolulu.