Barack Obama
says he's a 'person of faith' and challenges the Church and business
community to join with the government in the battle against AIDS:
"At a press conference on December 1... the possible Presidential
contender said, '...the network that Saddleback has helped to
create has as much reach as any institutional force in our culture
and has probably a wider reach around the world than just
about anything that's going on right now.... I hope one of the things
that comes out of this conference that Pastor Rick has emphasized
again and again, is no single branch of our society is going do
this alone. If government thinks they can do it by themselves they're
wrong. Churches have to recognize that they've got to be partners
with the government. Business has an enormous role....
"...you know the
separation
of church and state as a concept of the first amendment the
biggest practitioners and the people who advocated most fiercely
for it were actually evangelicals.'...
[Yes, but later liberal humanists turned the meaning upside down.
See
Foundations
for Faith and Freedom]
See
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan and UN Goals
Obama Asks Evangelicals To Assimilate
(7-5-06 -BP) "Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, considered a possible Democratic nominee for president in 2008, told left-leaning religious leaders at the Call to Renewal’s
'Building a Covenant for a New America' conference June 28 that in order to sort through some of the
'bitter arguments' about religion in America today, evangelicals
need to water down their views to fit in better with the rest of society.
"
'Democracy demands that
the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal,
rather than religion-specific, values,' Obama said at the event in Washington.
'It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.
'Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, as many evangelicals do,' he added.
'But in a pluralistic
democracy,
we have no choice.'...
[Not true! We
do have a choice! But those who refuse to trade Biblical truth for
universal values may face pressures and punishments that would have
been unthinkable in our "free" nation some years ago.]
"R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said Obama demands the impossible.
“Sen. Obama seems to believe in the myth of a universal reason and
rationality that will be compelling to all persons of all faiths,
including those of no faith at all.... This is secularism with a smile -- offered in the form of an invitation for believers to show up, but then only to be allowed to make arguments that are not based in their deepest beliefs.'”
Obama Wants Your Evangelical
Vote: "His
solid backing of the advancement of all 'hate crimes' legislation...
may be used to silence clergy who believe, according to their own
convictions, that homosexual behavior is wrong and preach the same
from biblical texts.
"...when a brave nurse
named Jill Stanek brought about national awareness to a practice...
that allowed the
starvation and neglect of newly born
children who had survived abortion procedures,
Obama—'the Christian'—opposed
her. He opposed the rights
of those children to be given the chance to live, and he advocated
against a ban
on such procedures—then known as
'born alive abortions.'... The only way Obama and his followers
can keep Christ and their liberal credo is to blow off huge chunks
of the Bible and replace the scripture with the make-believe notions
of postmodernism's new malleable 'Christ.'”
See
Warren's P.E.A.C.E.
Plan and UN Goals
Obama will visit evangelical megachurch on World AIDS Day:
"Like many fellow Democratic politicians, Sen. Barack Obama is no stranger to the pulpit.
But in December, Obama will go where few progressive Democrats usually
venture....Aides to Obama say he will appear at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, drawing attention to the kind of issue the senator from Illinois says should
unite all people of faith, regardless of their particular religion.
.... 'Sen. Obama has a deep respect for Mr. Warren's commitment to fighting AIDS and poverty,' said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"They met in January of 2006 while Mr. Warren was in Washington
and have become friends, speaking on the phone with some regularity.'"
See
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan and UN Goals - Part 3
Whom do we serve?
and
the next 2 links:
Dr. Rick and Kay Warren bring HIV/AIDS leaders to chruch:
"An impressive roster of speakers and special guests are scheduled to attend the two-day Summit including U.S. Senators
Barack Obama and Sam Brownback and U.S. Ambassador Mark Dybul, the
Global AIDS Coordinator and highest-ranking AIDS official in the nation. Additionally, the leaders of the four largest
non-government organizations (NGOs) will be presenting: Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse; Wess Stafford of Compassion International; Rich Stearns of
World Vision; and Sammy Mah of World Relief....
"Unique from every other conference on AIDS, attendees of the Global Summit on AIDS & the Church will explore six ways any church, regardless of size, can minister to people living with HIV/AIDS using the acrostic
C.H.U.R.C.H.: Care for and support the sick; Handle testing and counseling;
Unleash volunteers; Remove the stigma; Champion healthy behavior; and
Help with nutrition and medications. ...
"In addition to the C.H.U.R.C.H. strategy, the Summit will also feature details regarding the progression of the
P.E.A.C.E. plan, a worldwide effort to mobilize one billion church members to address the five biggest global problems.... The P.E.A.C.E. plan is currently being
tested in more than 80 countries through planting churches, equipping servant leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation."
Barack Obama takes on issue of Religion & Politics at
Call To Renewal Conference:
"Senator Barack Obama, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, spoke today at the
Call to Renewal Conference and outlined his views on religion and politics. The speech delivered by the senator from Illinois is perhaps the most well thought out speech on the topic since John F. Kennedy addressed the subject during the 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy, of course, argued in his speech for a firm wall of separation of church and state. Obama
affirms this important Constitutional principle but also argues that
progressives should not be afraid of religion or religious people (Kennedy
certainly wasn’t)....
"Sadly, people like
Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have defined for many what it means to be Christian.
Secularists, said Obama, 'are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.
To say that men and women should not inject their 'personal morality'into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.'"
(Rev. Chuck Currie, 6028-06)
UCC member Sen. Barack Obama's keynote address:
(6-29-06)
"I appreciate the opportunity to speak here at the Call to Renewal’s
Building a Covenant for a New America conference.... I’d like to talk about the connection between religion and politics and perhaps offer some thoughts about how we can
sort through some of the often bitter arguments that we’ve been seeing over the last several years.
...
"
Mr.
Keyes announced towards the end of the campaign that, '...Christ would not vote
for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is
inconceivable for Christ to have behaved.' ...I had to take Mr. Keyes seriously, for he
claimed to speak for my religion, and my God. He claimed knowledge of certain truths.
... Mr. Obama says he’s a Christian, but supports the destruction of innocent and sacred life.....
"At worst, there are some
liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant,
insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word
'Christian' describes one’s political opponents, not people of faith.....
"Americans are a religious people. 90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution....
"I was not raised in a particularly religious household, as undoubtedly many in the audience were. My father, who returned to Kenya when I was just two, was born Muslim but as an adult became an atheist. My mother, whose parents were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists... grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion herself. As a consequence, so did I.
It wasn’t until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma.
...
"Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts.
You need to come to church in the first place precisely because you are first of this world, not apart from it. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away – because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey.
It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and
affirm my Christian faith.... The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side,
I felt that I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.
That’s a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans –
evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives....
"...as progressives, we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.
Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we
discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome –
others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith....
In other words, if we don’t reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat
Robertsons and Alan Keyeses will continue to hold sway.
...
"Some of the problem here is rhetorical – if we scrub language of all religious content, we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice.
... Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day,
Martin Luther King – indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history – were not only
motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not
inject their 'personal morality' into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
"...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.... Some of this is already beginning to happen.
"Pastors, friends of mine like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes are wielding their enormous influences to confront AIDS, Third World debt relief, and the genocide in Darfur. Religious thinkers and activists like our good friend
Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo are lifting up the Biblical injunction to help the poor as a means of mobilizing Christians against budget cuts to social programs and growing inequality.
...
"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values.
It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.
I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law
banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or
evoke God’s will.
"Now
this is going to be difficult for some who
believe in the inerrancy of the Bible,
as many evangelicals do.
But in a pluralistic
democracy, we have no choice.
Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of
common aims based on a
common reality. It involves the
compromise, the art of what’s possible.
"At some
fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It’s the art of the
impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s
edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such
uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such
commitments would be a dangerous thing....
"...reconciliation between faith and democratic
pluralism requires some sense of proportion. This goes for both sides. Even
those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural
edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in
Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more
culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life. ... But a
sense of proportion should also guide those who police the boundaries between
church and state. Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of
separation – context matters."...
Comments on the above speech:
UCC member Sen. Barack Obama discusses faith and politics:
(6-29-06)
“'I think it is unfortunate any time the media does not accurately portray the
true beliefs of the American people,' Obama told United Church News. 'There are millions of
religious Americans who are offended when their faith is used as a tool to attack and divide, and who see a positive role for the church in solving both social and moral problems....'
"I
nterviewed on the heels of a major address on the connection between religion and politics at the
'Pentecost 2006: Building a Covenant for a New America' gathering in Washington, D.C., Obama
cited... the teachings of the
UCC as foundation stones for his political work.
'Just as my pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United
Church of Christ in Chicago, welcomed me as a young man years
ago, UCC churches across the country open their doors to
millions of Americans each Sunday, and they accept, love and
counsel all who enter," Obama said. "This spirit of
inclusiveness has served as a model for me in my time in the
Senate, and the love for one's fellow man that the UCC stands
for is the foundation of my work.'...
"Using the speech as a call for continued dialogue and bridge-building between religious conservatives and progressives -- reminding his audience that each had work to do to achieve meaningful discourse -- Obama used his own faith story, and likened his path to becoming a member of Trinity UCC to that trod by “millions upon millions of Americans -- evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives.'...
"'I think it’s time that we join a serious debate about how to
reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy,' said Obama....
"Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund and a speaker at the conference, called the address
'very, very, very thoughtful.'
....Later -- during his interview with United Church News -- Obama continued his
thoughts about religion and politics; specifically, the role of religious
principles in reaching a balance between national security and social justice
concerns. 'I believe that democracy
demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal values,' Obama said.
'Social justice and national security are both universal values, values that may originate for some in their religious beliefs, but are
shared by us all.'”
(by Barb Powell, UCC.org)
See also
Re-inventing
the World and
Justifying Mind Control
Facilitating
permanent social change and
Using
Dissatisfaction (a crisis) for social transformation