Barack's Beliefs

So, where do you think Obama fits in the spectrum of Christianity?
I think Barack Obama believes about Jesus and about conversion what your average evangelical does. He believes that Jesus is the son of God and that he died for the sins of the world and God raised him from the dead again. Where he begins to depart from orthodox evangelical Christianity probably begins with his view of scripture. He believes some of it might be of human origin, and some scriptures may be of more weight than others. So in a sense, [his is a] traditional theological liberalism that tends to treat scripture as being at least partially of human origin. But then you add that sort of young postmodern twist. Postmodernists don't really reconcile systems of thought. In fact, they're not sure systems of thought are possible. Theologically speaking, they might pick one from column A and two from column B, whether it all fits together or not. So he's a theological liberal with a postmodern emphasis.

"We worship an awesome God in the Blue States"—you've essentially dubbed that line from Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech his "trumpet call" for a rise of a religious left. What historic shifts occurred that made such a rise even possible?
First of all, the religious right has lost almost all of its national leadership. Second of all, polls are showing a pretty decided shift among some evangelicals to Democratic candidates and more left-leaning views. So you'll have a certain percent of evangelical voters who voted for Bush once or twice but will now be voting for Obama. Finally, you have these new young voters who are deeply religious in nontraditional ways and left-leaning in their politics. In[to] the middle of all of this steps Barack Obama, who is young, articulate, who's focused on social justice and who is also deeply Christian but of a nontraditional type.

Under Obama, how would this religious left redefine the relationship between politics and religion in America?
The emphasis would be different. In the years the religious right sort of held the high ground, the two moral issues were abortion and same-sex marriage. Now, even the people who are as conservative as the more traditional evangelicals are saying Christianity speaks to more than those two moral issues. There's also poverty, the moral justification for war and social justice. So what's happening is there's a bit of a shift from just those two religious right moral issues to a broader range. Now you hear evangelicals saying, "Neither party represents every moral position that I hold. So I am going to have to choose between the moral causes that I care most about." For many right now, poverty, the war and social justice are outweighing abortion and homosexual issues. This is galvanizing the young, rallying the religious left and even winning over a lot of evangelicals who were hoping for a different emphasis in their evangelical Christianity when it comes to politics.

If Obama becomes the next president of the United States, how can we expect his faith to inform his policies?
I think he'll attempt to come to each issue of policy from his foundation of faith. But because of the very nature of his postmodernism, it won't be as though he's proceeding from a clear doctrinal line, the way we might anticipate someone like George W. Bush would. You can pretty much anticipate how conservative evangelicalism is going to approach a certain issue. That won't be the case with Obama. He is as likely to advocate [for] gay rights one minute and then criticize the Supreme Court for forbidding the death penalty in child rape cases the next. He's done both. Both positions are informed by faith, but you can't really draw a straight line between them. I think it's going to be a uniquely postmodern approach to faith and policy. He'll definitely bring the values of his faith to each issue, but you won't be able to anticipate from one issue to the next what his position will be.

As a conservative evangelical, would you vote for him?
I would be willing to vote for him, except for a couple of policies that are a litmus test for me. Abortion is a primary issue for me. I like him, and I respect him. I hope there are opportunities for joining together to make a difference in this country. [I share] his focus on social justice and his views of war. So there's not as much polarity as you might think.

© 2008