Obama the Uniter

I know politicians always claim to be "uniters and not dividers," but I believe there's one politician out there today that truly practices what he preaches. His name is Barak Obama, and he's rumored to be pondering a presidential run in 2008. With limited experience (only 2+ years in the U.S. Senate), many believe Obama's run is premature. I, on the other hand, tend to believe that Obama has the fortitude to challenge anyone that comes his way.

One speech in particluar is a great example of Obama's call for civility and change. It was his keynote address at the Call to Renewal's Building a Covenant for a New America conference. The speech is centered around how to bring religious and secular America together. He acknowledges the skepticism from both sects, and attacks the divide from the middle, not from one side or the other.

"We can talk to the press, and we can discuss the religious call to address poverty and environmental stewardship all we want, but it won't have an impact unless we tackle head-on the mutual suspicion that sometimes exists between religious America and secular America."

Obama goes on to explain that Democrats are being irrational when dismissing the role of faith in the American people, and the very real need to acknowledge it.

"But over the long haul, I think [Democrats] make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives -- in the lives of the American people -- and I think it's time that we join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy....[If] we truly hope to speak to people where they're at - to communicate our hopes and values in a way that's relevant to their own - then as progressives, we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse. Moreover, if we progressives shed some of these biases [against religion], we might recognize some overlapping values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of "thou" and not just "I," resonates in religious congregations all across the country. And we might realize that we have the ability to reach out to the evangelical community and engage millions of religious Americans in the larger project of American renewal."

Another excerpt shows Obama's suggestion to conservatives.

"For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn't the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted [religious] minorities."

Finally, I thought this example is the most poignant one involving his call to the religious community to understand the skepticism of the secular community.

"We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is ordered by God to offer up his only son, and without argument, he takes Isaac to the mountaintop, binds him to an altar, and raises his knife, prepared to act as God has commanded. Of course, in the end God sends down an angel to intercede at the very last minute, and Abraham passes God's test of devotion. But it's fair to say that if any of us leaving this church saw Abraham on a roof of a building raising his knife, we would, at the very least, call the police and expect the Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away from Abraham. We would do so because we do not hear what Abraham hears, do not see what Abraham sees, true as those experiences may be. So the best we can do is act in accordance with those things that we all see, and that we all hear, be it common laws or basic reason."

To me, Barak Obama is the only politician in America that inspires me (who isn't Bill Clinton). He is made from the same clothe as RFK, JFK, Clinton, and Franklin Roosevelt. The eloquence of his words is matched only by the sincerity behind them.