It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Why is a Presidential Candidate Having a Gospel Tour? |
This week, Barack Obama has been dealing with harsh criticism of his use of Donnie McClurkin, an anti-gay Christian preacher, on an Obama for President gospel music tour that starts today. McClurkin says that gays are sick people who need to be cured through the power of Christianity.
Showing that he really doesn’t get it, Barack Obama says that he’ll make up for the problem by having a gay man say a prayer before McClurkin takes the stage for Obama. That’s like saying that you can make up for asking Adolph Hitler to campaign for you if you have someone Jewish campaign for you too. What Barack Obama doesn’t understand is that it’s not okay for his campaign to be inclusive of hateful, unscientific attitudes.
There’s another side to the story, however, that hasn’t been adequately considered: The question of what in the world a candidate for President is doing having a gospel music tour. Gospel music, after all, isn’t just music. It’s not just religious music. It’s Christian religious music, promoting certain kinds of Christianity over others.
Some might dismiss this as a nitpicky point, and say that Barack Obama is just recognizing the kind of music that targeted groups of voters enjoy. Ordinarily, I might give that idea some credence, but given the context, I can’t. The context of Obama’s Embrace The Change Gospel Tour is the 40 Days of Faith and Family that Barack Obama has declared in South Carolina.
As part of his 40 Days of Faith and Family initiative, Barack Obama is holding a series of campaign events at churches during their services across South Carolina. He’s using churches to help his campaign, entering into the special nonprofit, tax-exempt zone of religious organizations, and having preachers give him their pulpit for a time so that he can try to convince voters to support him. The Embrace The Change Gospel Tour is explicitly a part of Obama’s campaign to prove that he is worthy of a vote because he is a Christian. Gospel music was chosen because it is religious in content. The Christianity of Gospel music is part of Obama’s campaign message, not at all incidental.
That’s of concern to me as a non-religious American, because it implies that there is something defective with being non-religious, much in the same way that Donnie McClurkin says that non-heterosexuals are defective. Barack Obama cannot go around trying to show voters that he’s worthy of being elected because he’s an eager Christian without implying that a candidate for President who is not as eager about public displays of Christianity is somehow less worthy of support.
I think that Christians of good conscience ought to be bothered by Obama’s religious campaign as well. After all, Barack Obama is not promoting Christianity just for the sake of promoting Christianity. Obama is exploiting the social power of religion for his personal political gain. Obama has taken churches in South Carolina and temporarily transformed them into campaign headquarters. That’s not just unconstitutional and illegal - it’s profoundly disrespectful.
It’s also unwise, despite what Barack Obama says, to allow religious sentiments to shape public policy. Donnie McClurkin shows that. McClurkin’s prominent disdain of homosexuality is not rationally-founded. His anti-gay attitudes are based on his religious beliefs.
I’m aware that many religious people are sincerely supportive of the rights of homosexual Americans, but that’s not the point. The point is that when people base their political positions upon their religious beliefs, their politics lacks a foundation of critical examination. Mixing religion and politics encourages voters to make political decisions based on their feelings, rather than their rational consideration of the facts. Because Donnie McClurkin’s anti-gay agenda is based in his religion, he doesn’t have to justify it with facts and logic. McClurkin can just talk about his beliefs.
Barack Obama is not alone in this problem. John Edwards has been able to perform the same maneuver as McClurkin with his own anti-gay prejudice, dodging questions about his political opposition to equal marriage rights for homosexual couples by saying that it’s a matter of religious faith for him.
We need political leaders who will have the discipline to get serious, and speak to the American public about the issues that we face through the language of reason, not the distorted lens of emotion. That’s why we need to elect a presidential candidate who will not follow in the faith-based precedent set by George W. Bush.
(Sources: Chicago Tribune, October 26, 2007; BarackObama.com)
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How can I get Obama to come to MY church? What a PR coup! The best we’ve ever had is a Republican who was under indictment.
Gospel is just another kind of music, only slightly less annoying than disco or rap. The Gospel concerts are in public venues and they charge for admission.
How can you keep a candidate from going to church, especially if that’s what he’s used to? And he can’t get up and speak in church about religious matters? That speech was pretty much religious. Although it WAS posted on his campaign website….hmmm…
What really concerns me is those “Ninjas for Obama”.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/SCHQ/CRkG
Yup. Now what did I do with my white belt?
Comment by Iroquois — 10/26/2007 @ 3:37 pm
Iroquois, you’re not paying attention to the facts.
Fact #1: The Obama campaign identified gospel music as a tool for using a Christian religious rationale to persuade voters to support Barack Obama.
Fact #2: Barack Obama didn’t just attend the churches as a private citizen. He did so, explicitly, as a part of his campaign schedule.
Fact #3: The content of the speech was religious, but the purpose of the speech was to convince people to vote for Barack Obama, and to give money to his presidential campaign.
Fact #4: The churches are coordinating with the Barack Obama for President campaign, not just being friendly with Barack Obama the private citizen. They are using the power they’ve accumulated through their tax exempt status to promote a campaign for public office, and activity that is absolutely not tax exempt, and that is, in fact, highly regulated.
Comment by Peregrin Wood — 10/26/2007 @ 8:23 pm
If those are the facts, Peregrin, the links you provided sure don’t show it.
#1. How do you know that? You don’t. You’re just asserting it.
#2. No, he didn’t. He regularly attends church when he is at home in Chicago. He also attends church when he is on the road campaigning.
#3. How can you tell what someone’s motives are? Do you read minds? He expressly did NOT ask for money.
#4. No, they’re not. Name me one specific church that is “promoting a campaign for public office”. Churches can promote issues, and many mainstream churches–including Obama’s home church–consider it to be their religious duty to address issues of social justice.
It’s a very interesting piece you wrote, and makes me feel more uncomfortable with Obama than I did before. I don’t like it when people wear their religion on their sleeve. But you’re going into areas where you just don’t have the facts to back you up.
Comment by Iroquois — 10/26/2007 @ 11:49 pm
Iroquois, yes they do. Check out the description of the Gospel Tour and “40 Days of Faith and Family” on BarackObama.com, one of the sources I cite.
#1: The Gospel Tour is part of Obama’s “40 Days of Faith and Family”, which is explicitly religious in focus. It’s not “40 Days of Music”.
#2: The church campaign events are on his presidential campaign calendar as “40 Days of Faith and Family”, which was planned as a way to promote his presidential campaign. This is not just Barack Obama attending a church because he’s away from home. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign contacted the church leaders ahead of time, and arranged for time for Obama to get up and make a speech - as a part of his presidential campaign, in order to help Obama convince voters that he is Christian enough to be President.
#3: I can tell that the motive of Barack Obama’s church visits is to get people to support Barack Obama as a candidate for President of the United States because the church visits are an official, planned part of his presidential campaign. The motivation of the presidential campaign of Obama ‘08 is to get Barack Obama elected President. What do YOU think that Barack Obama’s motivation is in running for President? To find some nice duck decoys?
#4: You’re just asserting that they’re not. Apparently you don’t want to believe it. D. Paul Monteiro is the Deputy Director of Religious Affairs of the Barack Obama for President campaign. The Obama campaign is explicitly using religion to promote his candidacy, and these church visits are a part of that. Monteiro contacted the churches, on behalf of the campaign, to arrange for Barack Obama to give his speeches during church services. This isn’t about abstract social justice. It’s about Barack Obama running for President, and non-profit, tax exempt churches using their considerable power to help him do it, and get around campaign finance laws in the process.
You want me to name one church that has used its resources to promote Barack Obama for President? The Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, South Carolina.
That’s a fact.
Comment by Peregrin Wood — 10/27/2007 @ 7:22 am
Do you really think, Peregrin, that after all the times I have fussed about your links, that I would comment on something you wrote without reading your links as well? Just on the outside chance that you WEREN’T bullshitting me, I googled the church you asserted was promoting Obama for president–did a site search for the word “obama”–which turned up, guess what, zip, zero, zilch, nada.
So now we’re left only with Peregrin’s super secret powers that allow him to know what people are thinking without providing any facts to back it up.
In other words, Peregrin’s response is, “Yes it is, because I say so.”
My response to Peregrin is, “No it isn’t, because I say so.”
Comment by Iroquois — 10/27/2007 @ 5:14 pm
Nonsense, Iroquois. I cited the sources, which show what I say they show. You don’t like it. That’s another matter.
Take a hint from CNN’s article today on the crisis sparked by Obama’s gospel stupidity: “Obama’s efforts in the Palmetto State have overwhelmingly targeted African-American churchgoers.”
That’s not African-Americans that Obama’s campaign has been targetting with its gospel tour and political speeches at churches. It’s African-American churchgoers.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/27/obama.gospel/index.html
The article refers to the campaign speech that Obama gave at that church in Greenville.
Comment by Peregrin Wood — 10/27/2007 @ 10:22 pm
Peregrin, did you even read the articles you linked to? Look at them again. They just don’t say what you’re claiming they say.
The first link is to the Gospel Concert Series. Your link states: “Senator Barack Obama is committed to brining people of all faiths together to put their faith into action to change this country for the better.” The three concerts listed are at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, Greenwood Civic Center, and The Township Auditorium. Admission is $10. These are all public venues. Not one takes place in a church.
Your second link has a picture of Obama sitting in a church pew, apparently listening attentively. Is he supposed to stop going to church just because he is running for office? You don’t really suppose a presidential candidate can just show up willy-nilly at some church with all his secret service detail without having some telephone contact between his people and the church, do you? That would be a totally unreasonable expectation.
The CNN article you link to in your last comment does NOT say Obama gave a campaign speech at a church. Do a “Find” function on that page for “campaign speech”. It’s not there. It doesn’t say that anywhere.
I don’t find it at all odd that a political candidate would try to unite various voting blocs. Instead of complaining about Obama identifying himself as Christian, why don’t you complain about the Fox news sources that try to falsely portray him as Moslem?
Comment by Iroquois — 10/28/2007 @ 12:29 am
Ooops, did I close all the carrots? The words in bold were supposed to be “of all faiths together“.
Comment by Iroquois — 10/28/2007 @ 12:35 am
Iroquois, I didn’t just cite those articles. I also cited the web site BarackObama.com, which has a lot, a lot, a lot more information. I’ve given you the name of one of the churches Barack Obama has given a campaign speech at. On the Obama campaign web site, there’s even a recording of that speech.
I didn’t say that the additional CNN article I provided a link to talked about a particular campaign speech. It does talk about the larger program of targeting churchgoers as voters, to gain their support for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, of which the campaign speech Barack Obama gave at the Greenville church was a part.
You’re trying awfully hard to avoid the clear fact that the Obama for President campaign has been coordinating with churches to use the power they’ve built through their tax-exempt status in order to promote the Obama candidacy. Why?
I don’t have a problem with Obama identifying himself as Christian. I have a problem with him organizing a campaign that is designed to give voters the idea that they should vote for him because he is Christian. There’s a big difference.
Comment by Peregrin Wood — 10/28/2007 @ 6:37 am
If your “f
Comment by Iroquois — 10/28/2007 @ 9:15 am
If your “facts” are so “clear”, you should be able to post a link. None of your links say what you claim they say. Now you’re citing an entire website? That’s really a reach.
In my first comment, if you have even bothered to read my comments so far, I referred to a short reflection Obama shared with those who attended the church he visited. Now you are saying he also gave a “campaign speech” at a church. Again no link.
If churches are supposedly campaigning for Obama, why can I not even find Obama’s NAME when I do a google search of the church website?
Once again Peregrin’s answer is “Yes, it is, because I say so.”
And my answer is “No it isn’t, because I say so.”
I think Peregrin is just unhappy because Obama goes to church. Some people do go to church, Peregrin, and some of the people who go to church also run for office. You might as well get used to it.
On thing I find interesting about the photos of the church Obama is attending is that unlike his home church, which is specifically afro-centric and has been much criticized as being racist, this church is ethnically diverse.
Comment by Iroquois — 10/28/2007 @ 9:47 am
Iroquois, your obsession with links to the exclusion of all other sources is getting pathological. The information on BarackObama.com is quite easy to come by, and I’ve explained it in depth.
Comment by Peregrin Wood — 10/28/2007 @ 1:39 pm