Presidents and Religion

March 14, 2008

Lets be honest; racial and religious prejudice are still rampant in our country. The founding fathers were (in general) white, privileged, deists who owned slaves. Yes, they talked about freedom, but their perception of freedom was limited. We had to take things one step at a time.

Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible that cut out the miracles and anything related to Christ's divinity. Oh, and it didn't include the Old Testament. And yet we apparently find it necessary that a Commander in Chief be a professing Christian from a mainline denomination. I'm not saying I don't want a Christian president, but that we also shouldn't require that a president be Christian.

Why is it that the possibility of Obama being a Muslim is so terrifying to us. Oh right, terrorists. Oh my God, he's black and a Muslim?!?! Saying that we shouldn't vote for a Muslim because they might be a terrorist is like saying we shouldn't vote for an Evangelical because they might be an abortion-clinic-bombing- gay-person-murdering- woman-oppressing- Conservative. And by the way, he's not a Muslim. He is a professing member of the UCC. I go to seminary with a lot of UCC people, and I've never heard them show any terrorist (or anti-Semitic) sentiments. In fact, the UCC members in my acquaintance are some of the most racially and socially inclusive people I know.

Speaking of questionable religious affiliation, why is it that few people question the weird constellation that makes up George W. Bush's religious practice? He styles himself as a "born-again evangelical" and aligns himself with leaders from the Religious Right, but he's a member of the United Methodist Church. That is, by the way, the same denomination as the Clintons, who were apparently pretty active and well-liked at Foundry UMC. Now, Bush has pretty much ignored or disagreed with most of the social positions of the UMC and even refused to meet with his own Bishops in the lead up to the Iraq war. He instead relies on the advice of those like Tim LaHaye, whose books revolve around the idea that the current events in the Middle East are the beginnings of the End Times. W chose Southern Methodist University as the site of his presidential library and the staff don't want it.

And then there's John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance," because they have done things like blame the 9/11 Attacks on gays, feminists and lesbians. And lets not forget about the SpongeBob/TinkyWinky conspiracy. But now McCain has to suck up to those very people in order to secure support from his party. That's messed up.

As for Obama's pastor, I don't pretend to know what the larger context of his "God Damn America" sermon was, but neither do most of you. I think it will be important to understand what exactly it is he was advocating, for a variety of reasons. Honestly, if I was an African-American who had lived through the civil rights movement and saw how far we still were from real racial equality, I might be frustrated enough to say those words too. Of course that probably wouldn't be helpful, and we do need to be very careful which words we choose. Still, it makes me sad that in the land of freedom of speech, critique of our country would make us "unpatriotic."