Letter from non-member concerning Obama
Brad
I guess I'm what many would call a liberal, nonbelieving, humanist.
It's not a perfect description, but good enough. I have attended the
Dallas Unitarian Church several times. While it felt a bit too formal
for me personally, I did admire the church's emphasis on humanism and
kindness and its reluctance to use religious-specific language. From
what I read, many UUA churches prefer to leave out religious-specific
language because it is not "inclusive". I applaud these efforts. I
remember just a few years ago when your president, Reverend Sinkford,
made a statement about the importance of such language and many members
spoke up against it out of fear that Rev. Sinkford was advocating that
UUA churches begin including such "God-speak.". He quickly backed off
his statement. Again, I applaud the UUA members and leaders for
speaking up.
But I have heard little complaint from UUA leaders or members
regarding Senator Obama's religiosity. No, I'm not talking about the
Rev. Wright dustup. If you read Senator Obama's speeches (e.g. his
"Call To Renewal" speech, his "Politics Of Conscience" speech, etc.) you
will see that he says - in far greater depth than your president - that
America needs more religious-specific language in "morality
conversations" and he criticizes progressives for removing religion from
the "public square". Senator Obama goes so far as to say that the
efforts of progressives to "scrub" the English language free of
religious language has already "prevented us from effectively addressing
issues in moral terms." He also chastises a political party (the
Democratic Party) for not specifically reaching out to people of faith.
As a nonbeliever and humanist, I find great beauty in the fact that the
Democratic Party has generally reached out to people based on ideas, not
religion. He is dismissive of the feeling of children being asked to
say "Under God" in our patriotic (not religious) Pledge, emphasizes the
importance of the religious language used in past political speeches
instead of their beautiful, universal ideas, and he sent out
overly-Christian political flyers
(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/080121_Obama_Mailer.pdf)
that say, among other things, that he was "Called To Serve". Senator
Obama often uses Christian language in his speeches like "You need to
embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash way" and "Doing
the Lord’s work is a thread that has run through our politics since the
very beginning." He has given speeches in Christian churches asking for
prayers so that he may become an "instrument of God" and create a
Kingdom on Earth. All these things he said as a setting U.S. Senator no
less. Yes, Senator Obama becomes slightly more secular when talking
about creating law - that is, religious politicians must translate their
religious ideas into "universals" before creating a law. But goodness,
I think most people (especially on the Left) had reached that conclusion
a very long time ago.
We liberals (whether believers or not) used to not like the
above-mentioned things from our politicians, but I've notice a
disturbing silence from the Left regarding Senator Obama's religiosity
and his calls for more religious-specific language in morality
discussion & in the public square. If most UUA members deem
religious-specific language too exclusive and too inappropriate for
their churches (and I agree) then should you not also be voicing your
concern over Senator Obama's wishes for the nation as a whole? With the
Far Right already engaged in an unapologetic mixing of religious
language and politics, this is perhaps the most dangerous of times for
my liberal friends to suddenly begin participating in - or silently
ignoring - similar actions from the Left. The unwarranted low opinion
that this nation has for nonbelievers and the ridiculously high
religious litmus test for political electability will only become worse
unless concerns are raised. The mixing of religious language with
politics is already worse in America than in most Western Democracies;
if the Left participates in this, it will become much worse still. I
feel that our politicians should tone down their religious-specific
remarks for some of the very same reasons that many of *you* do not want
them in your UUA churches. That is, such language is not inclusive.
And yet, I have heard no complaints from UUA members or the UUA
leadership regarding Senator Obama. Why not? Perhaps such criticisms
have been made and I simply have not found them?
I thank you for your time,
Brad