God's message through Barack Obama
Tuesday, March 04 2008 @ 08:03 AM PST Contributed by: johnvs
So what is it about Barack Obama? Why the huge attraction to this political phenom? Some say it’s his charismatic oratory. No doubt that’s true. The man can talk! But the bigger draw may lie in the content of his message; his hope for reconciliation.
In a world shattered by schism – war, racial divide, ideological conflict, religious fundamentalism, socio-economic disparity, and partisan bickering – Obama preaches reconciliation. He dares to dream of the possibility of something greater, something more. He’s young, idealistic and foolish enough to hang on to the power of hope ... Our jaded and cynical world needs this kind of naiveté.
We yearn for this kind of saving message. Deep inside, we want to believe that reconciliation is possible; that things can be made right. Obama embodies this reconciliation. Physiologically he does. In a nation plagued by a history of racial tension, Obama’s mixed heritage brilliantly unifies. A black Kenyan dad and a white Kansan mom; can you see the power in this image?
African blood that, this time, crossed the Atlantic of its own free will, on a jet, to go to university, as opposed to unwillingly traveling in the belly of a slave ship; Hollywood couldn’t script this any better!
Obama’s ideology is also reconciliatory. His thoughtful, articulate, post partisan, post modern, post black and white lyric is wholly refreshing to, and representative of, the post baby boomer generation. Many have grown weary of the, “you’re either with us or against us” mantra. They won’t live inside of that kind of camp mentality any more.
The simplistic extremes of fundamentalism, left and right (both of which Obama takes issue with!), are just not relevant or attractive today; the complexities of life are much more grey than that. And Obama’s followers know that he knows that. When he’s willing to see the good in a Republican idea, willing to meet face to face with an international “enemy,” when he’s both honest and self effacing about his own foibles and fallibilities; that makes him both real and believable.
In his best selling book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama uses very uncharacteristic language for a politician; words like listening, empathy and humility. In his prologue he honestly expresses his personal concern with avoiding, “the pitfalls of fame, the hunger to please, [and] the fear of loss,” that come with serving in public office.
What kind of American politician talks this way? By being this kind of leader, Obama bridges another huge gap; the one between the politician and the populace. To many a citizen this guy seems refreshingly authentic and genuine. His honesty reveals character; a character we’d like to possess more of and follow. We’re yearning for leaders who can wisely stand above the fray in this way.
Obama also embodies socio-economic reconciliation. Raised by a single mom for most of his life, he knows what it is to want.
He grew up playing with poor kids in Indonesia. His wife Michelle grew up on the poor, South Side of Chicago. Both of them understand where they came from and both of them are now living the American dream. Within their own lives they’ve bridged a big societal gap, economic disparity; their life experiences now allowing them to speak authoritatively to both sides.
Is it any wonder people are attracted to this political candidate? It’s almost as though his reconciliatory message, his reconciliatory self, his reconciliatory hope, is perfectly suited for such a time as this. And the people know it!
In his chapter on the American Constitution, Obama speaks of Abraham Lincoln’s profound wisdom in engaging the deliberative function of a democracy in a very divisive time, “I like to think that for Lincoln, it was never a matter of abandoning conviction for the sake of expediency. Rather is was a matter of maintaining within himself the balance between two contradictory ideas – that we must talk and reach for common understandings, precisely because all of us are imperfect and can never act with certainty that God is on our side; and yet at times we must act nonetheless, as if we are certain, protected from error only by providence.”
This is the kind of leader the free world needs.
