the audacity of hope
Recently, I became somewhat motivated to start reading more. It was about that time that I realized, I’m not a person who is driven by motives. This presented a problem. Somewhere in there, however, I thought of audio books. What a fantastic idea! Not only could I read the books that I have always wanted to read, or maybe recently wanted to read, but I don’t even have to read! Near the top of the list, Barak Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope”.
Now I don’t intend for this to be a formal book review, but I do want to touch on a couple things the book discusses that I find important and noteworthy, given the upcoming election. I haven’t yet listened to the entire book, read by Obama himself, but I did listen to the section that I find the most interesting and important, his chapter on religion.
Don’t get me wrong, Obama has a vision for this country. Should he be elected in November, I’ve no doubt that he will put some of his ideas into practice, which he discusses in the book. Ideas of how to fix the national debt, medicare, and the education system are only some of the ideas he touches on. While this is all well and good, there is one thing that I look for in a candidate, and that’s a man of faith.
In listening to his chapter on religion, a chapter Obama titles “Faith”, one would hope he would discuss a proper definition of faith. Unfortunately, however, Obama explains that the black [Christian] church taught him this:
Faith doesn’t mean we don’t have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world.
Obama uses these two points to describe his turning point or rather the point where he “embraced the Christian faith”. However, proper study of the Bible will reveal points completely contrary to what Obama discusses. The book of Hebrews defines faith in this way:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1)
According to Hebrews 11, there is no room for doubt in our faith. The Bible uses the words sure and certain for a reason. In other words, the fact that were are absolutely positive about what we believe is what actually makes it faith! There can be no doubts!
Additionally, the book of Romans makes it very clear that we are no longer part of this world.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(Romans 12:2)
Yes, we live in this world, but as Christians our citizenship resides in heaven. Period. So I guess, in a sense, we do need to endure this world, but at the same time we must ”relinquish” our old way of thinking, living, and even loving.
Obama also explains that Jimmy Carter was the one who originally introduced the term “Evangelical Christian” into modern politics, and he explains how people like Ronald Regan, Jerry Falwell, and both Bushs were able to mobilize these “Christian foot soldiers” into political action. He blames the fact that the issues that are important to evangelical Christians such as gay marriage, abortion, intelligent design, prayer in schools, etc., are the issues that often fill the headlines. And these issues create the single greatest gap in American politics. He acknowledges that democrats “don’t get religion”, and while that may be, I’d like to clear up the problem with any political party trying to “get religion”. Simply put, religion is worthless. It makes me cringe to hear Christianity compared with Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, along with the rest of the world’s religions. If we agree that Christianity needs to be set apart from the rest of them, there needs to be a clear difference about it. Fortunately, there is and it lies in a simple definition of religion.
Religion is mans’ efforts to reach God.
Christianity, on the other hand, is God’s effort to reach man. Now I’m not in a position to judge Obama and his understanding of Christianity. But if he could prove to me that he grasps this knowledge, he would most undoubtedly, earn my vote. Why is this so crucial to me in an election? I relate it to a story in Matthew. In an attempt to test Jesus, an expert in the law questioned him about which commandment was the most important. Jesus replied,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
(Matthew 22:37)
Jesus knew that out of all the laws set forth, if a man were to follow this single command, all the rest would be fulfilled. For example, a man who loves the Lord is not going to lie, or idolize, or murder, or covet. He will live above reproach. In much the same manner, I believe that if a man professes to a faith based on grace and what God has done that the rest of his life will fall into place. This includes his politics. This country was built on faith and by men of faith. And more than two hundred years later, this country still needs a man of faith.
Part of my hesitation to believe that Obama is the man of faith this country needs is in the way he references the evangelical Christians as “they” and not as “we”. Now I understand that in his explanation of the Christian religion, Obama takes a third person approach. (Granted, his does profess to having “embraced the Christian faith”.) But his failure to fully move this explanation to the first person in the latter part of the chapter has me concerned. When listening to the chapter, and Obama’s recognition that the “religious” generally fail to follow politics of the leftists, it seems more and more to me that this chapter was merely included to show the (again in quotes) “religious” that he is, in fact, a man who is also religious. But as I stated earlier, this isn’t good enough. This country both deserves and needs more than a man of mere “religiosity” and superficial religious debates. It needs a man whose foundation lies in the Word of God, and man who understands the importance of that Word in politics, and a man with nothing less than a doubtless faith.
