The presidential candidate crosses swords with Dr. Dobson over hermeneutics. James Dobson, who vowed not to vote for John McCain made front-page news by commenting on a speech delivered two years ago. Oddly enough, it is the Democratic candidate's willingness to talk theology that keeps Dobson relevant in this election. Speaking in 2006 before the Call to Renewal conference, Sen. Barack Obama explained his views on the relationship between faith and public policy. The speech drew widespread praise as a long-awaited Democratic affirmation of
religion's contributions to American society.
"Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, 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."
Obama "gets it mostly right." Obama said, "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. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all."
This approach is probably good politics. Indeed, one politician not commonly associated with Obama already practices this strategy. You won't hear from President George W. Bush direct appeals to United Methodist Church teachings to justify his opposition to same-sex marriage or abortion.
In his 2006 speech Obama made a hermeneutical point when he doubted that the U.S. Defense Department could survive application of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. If we knew what was in there, Obama implied, we wouldn't find it such a simple thing to say our politics were based on Scripture. "So before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles," Obama said. "Folks haven't been reading their Bibles."
If only it were as easy as reading our Bibles. Analysis takes more work. Fortunately, the church has already invested a lot of time into understanding the tensions Obama brought up.
Usually, politicians want no part in these theological debates. Otherwise, they would provoke Christian leaders such as Dobson to say, "He is deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology." But Obama is no typical politician. That which makes him interesting makes him controversial.
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