| |
November 6, 2008
An Invisible Shield Around President Elect Barack Obama
 On November 4th,
Barack Obama became the first “black” man elected to the U.S. Presidency.
Now, days later, broadcasters are still churning-out stories about the
significance of this moment in history and the impressive momentum generated
by this confident man. This letter is yet another insight into the
significance and momentum of this moment. I write it recognizing that
perhaps half of my congregation opposed Barack Obama and perhaps it might
feel better to leave this alone for now and stick to religion. Let me assure
you that I intend to stick to religion.
Explaining to my 9 year-old son Evan the significance of this moment in
history, I told him I am most profoundly impacted not just by the presence
of a black man on the presidential stage, but by the awareness that a man of
obvious mixed race (indeed most of us are of mixed-race) has achieved such
significance, such a resounding endorsement. “Growing-up in Louisiana,” I
told him, “I was not free to truly imagine dating a black girl. No white
person I knew did so. In fact we heard the message that interracial dating
and marriage were against God’s laws. ‘Where else do you see that in
nature,’ they would say. ‘Mules. What does that tell you?’ they would ask
rhetorically.
The Hebrew testament of the Bible does in fact discourage interracial
marriage. Read the last chapter of Nehemiah. In spite of Paul’s letter to
the Galatians reminding them that a new day had dawned and the categories of
“man” and “woman”, “Greek” or “Jew” were no longer necessary (Gal. 3:28),
people in my hometown still justified their distaste for cross-racial love
using Nehemiah and the mule.
But now the child of an interracial union has been elected president. Many
voting against Obama were concerned about his inexperience and not his
racial background. So that means a sizeable majority of Americans have
rejected simplistic treatment of Biblical passages like Nehemiah 13:23-27
and they are gaining a sense of what Lyndon B. Johnson imagined back in
1965:
"The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an
end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in
our time. But that is the beginning. The Great Society is a place where
every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his
talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and
reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where
the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of
commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a
place where man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors
creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the
race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the equality of their
goals than the quantity of their goods. But most of all, the Great Society
is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work.
It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward destiny where the
meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor."
(May 1964 Address at University of Michigan)
I am amazed and warmed today that people seem to want “The Great Society” .
I want my son to live in the Great Society. I believe Johnson and Martin
Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama are the giant ark that will lift us to our
destiny. And I believe the Spirit of God is the wind in the sails!
Lest we believe Obama will simply do everything for us, what might
Christians do in the days ahead?
As I watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, I often noticed the glass
shields on his right and left. Bullet-proof shields. This was a stark
reminder that we live in an age of terrorism. And given the potential for
home-ground terrorism among those who use Bible history to buttress modern
bigotry, the shield seems all the more critical. I pray that God can use me
as just such a shield for Barack Obama. Let me be the first to take the
bullets of bigotry. Let me be the first to encounter mistaken assumptions
about inter-marriage so that I can absorb that hate and, God willing, offer
a transformational word. Let me be the invisible shield that protects the
latest great hope for The Great Society.
Grace and Peace to You,
Pastor Doug Robinson-Johnson
|
|
