Posted on 07/09/2006 9:40:55 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11-1)
When Barack Obama stepped out and spoke at length about his faith, my initial reaction was it may start a flood of religious testimonials from Democrats who have accepted the assumptions of the Far Right.
On the other hand, when one looks at the question of religion and public policy over the sweep of American history, it is quite different from the picture painted by the Right. The Democratic Party over the past 50 years seems to have found itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
The rock is the public policy positions that were necessitated to make this country, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, live up to the full meaning of its creed. The hard place is a Republican Party standing in the wings waiting to take advantage of a public backlash that invariably comes from doing the right thing.
Consequently, it is a good thing for an elected official to speak confidently about his or her religious groundings. However it is something else to put them into practice in a political context. For example, since the Fourth of July was celebrated this past week, we can start with the founding of this great nation.
When this country was founded the largest moral issue of the day was side-stepped. In fact, the moral issue of the day was compromised by the Founding Fathers and written into Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution.
This section deals with the basis for determining how representatives will be sent to Congress.
It reads, "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons."
It was this three-fifths compromise that lead to the wide spread belief that African-Americans were viewed as three-fifths human. The number three-fifths was part of a political compromise that enabled the southern states to join the union knowing their interest in slavery was protected by the Founding Fathers.
Morality was sacrificed in favor of political and economic expediency. After all, the first six presidents of these United States were slave owners.
In the years leading up to the Civil War the economy of the South and the national economy orbited around slavery and the many byproducts of this inhumane system. On top of this economic base developed a system of values, beliefs, material rewards and benefits that taken together shaped the southern way of life.
Churches were an integral part of this lifestyle built on owning humans as property. Denominations like the Quakers and the Methodists got it right the first time and opposed slavery on moral grounds. Others, unfortunately, went along for the social and economic joy ride.
After the Civil War the country took a few steps toward aligning its social and economic policies with the moral vision of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church during the brief period we know as Reconstruction. However, this period was short-lived.
Terrorist violence, lynchings and legislative roll-backs of the laws passed during Reconstruction set the stage for the modern civil rights movement's fight against segregation and, ultimately, the call for the Voting Rights Act of 1964.
Remember what Lyndon Johnson said when he signed the Voting Rights Act in 1964: It is the right (moral) thing to do but with the stroke of this pen the South would be given over to the Republicans for the next 40 years.
Kevin Phillips, writing in his highly recommended book "American Theocracy," states, "The Democrats' crowning problem lay in a deepening mismatch with the cultural and religious viewpoints of the their erstwhile bastion, the white South."
He continues, "When Democratic administrations were in office, Washington authorities were as much at odds with the southern white majority as the carpetbaggers of old, which helps to explain the resentments unleashed."
Earlier Phillips estimates that racial policies accounted for one-third to 50 percent of the white South's defection from the Democratic Party. Thirty to 50 percent of white southern votes swinging to the Democratic Party's candidate would have spelled certain victory in 2000 and 2004.
The challenge for the Democrats is not they are insufficiently pious. Democrats need to do a better job of crafting their moral messages in the vocabulary of the church.
David Johnson's "Subject to Change" appears every other week in The Star. Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland and a former mayor of Harvey. He may be reached at djohnson@southsuburbancollege.edu.
Very telling, ain't it? This goof attributes the worst. Oh yah, dude - let them eat dog food.
Ya putz.
"Democrats must craft their own message of faith (BARF ALERT)"
The fact that they MUST craft a message about faith says it all.
Jerks wouldn't know a value from a pot of pi$$.
Just beautiful.
What Obama meant: "Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. The political affiliation of the speaker matters,"
(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)
A liberal attempting to communicate a "message of faith" reminds me of a duck trying to walk with swim fins on his feet. If you don't walk the walk, you'll never convincingly talk the talk.
Say it Rush: "How can we fool'em today?"
He can't even get himself to refer to Martin as Rev. or even Dr. King.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.