Barack Obama's transition team is ringing in the New Year with a series of meetings with religious groups reports Dan Gilgoff at US News. It is striking that the names that dominate the list are the very ones that some people (Rick Warren: "The mainline is sidelined") have declared dead such as mainline Protestants, reform Jews and social justice Catholics.
"There is the feeling that these are not perfunctory meetings but serious meetings with people in policymaking roles who know the process well," says James Winkler, general secretary of the public policy arm of the United Methodist Church, who says that he or his staff have attended nearly a dozen meetings with the Obama transition team so far. "This is not something meant to bring in the faith community to keep them happy but to solicit our views and ideas."
It's not surprising the Obama and his team are turning to these groups. Whatever people say, they still represent a very large part of American society. Obama himself is a product of mainline Protestantism and these were the religious groups that supported his candidacy most vigorously along side historically black churches and Muslims. I wonder how this preferred status will play out in the revival of religious progressives in the place where it matters most - in the pews.
Having a conservative evangelical in the white house (although it turns out Bush was really a social conservative and a religious liberal) coincided with a boom for the evangelical wing of the Christian faith as people had a constant reminder of that faith tradition in the spotlight - for better or for worse. Will Barack Obama do the same for the more liberal religious traditions? Will mainline churches see a revival? My hope is that progressive churches, synagogues, mosques and temples will seize this moment to remind people of the social nature of their faith that calls for radical compassion for others near and far. This will affect how religious people understand the current economic crisis, the environment, war, and equal rights for all people including gay and lesbians. A Barack Obama presidency will hopefully be a boon for a more enlightened approach to religion which does not fear science and eschews a fundamentalist or literalist approach to scripture.
This can be done without sacrificing the personal spiritual substance that each religious individual requires. I applaud evangelicals like Rich Cizik, Rick Warren, TD Jakes, and Bill Hybels for how they widened their congregations' focus from stictly personal religoius religion towards social issues such as AIDS in Africa and poverty. Conversely, traditonally social justice religious bodies will do well to remember that in these hard times each person should be reminded that God cares for them individually and desires for their personal well being and trasnformation.
True religion provides both - social and personal salvation.
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Ah, come on, now guys! Rick Warren is a notoriously limited (socially, spiritually and intellectually) religious snake-oil salesman with despicably homophobic and misogynist views. So, if you think that gays are sick incestuous pedophiles and women are Nazis allowing abortions rather than carrying a child out of incest or rape...then, by all means, pray with naive Barack O. and Rick. Incidentally, does anyone care that immature, middle-schooler Jon Favreau, the blatantly punkish sexist, has been promoted by His Hopeness to "Director of Speechwriting". Now, that's Change we can Hope for, eh?! Shame on BHO for permitting Rick Warren to lead his Inauguration! Rev. Wright was at least honest in his views. He did say that "Obama is a typical politician who'll say and do anything to get elected". Rev. Wright wasn't wrong!
Hi Asinus, (kinda funny to write that)
The religous liberal post is in reference to a post about his faith that I put up a couple weeks ago. Just FYI if you want to follow up.
I understand Your Name's anger but perhaps not the extreme of it aimed at Rick Warren. There are people who probably warrent it more.
Peace,
Paul
I think more people are having their eyes opened to the "real" Rick Warren. I certainly have and see Obama's choice as a positive in the long run.
Obama is getting strong support from a large number of United Methodist Church (UMC) executives, pastors, and members.
The media has mostly ignored Rev. Dr. Joseph Echols Lowery (87-year-old) of Atlanta, "the dean of the civil rights movement," will be delivering the benediction at Obama’s inaugural. Rev Lowery has made passionate speeches at UMC conferences for equal rights for gays.
Rev. Lowery is a retired UMC pastor - a mainline church specifically mentioned by Warren in his interview with Steven Waldman at Beliefnet. Warren said we do not care about Jesus, the cross, repentance. He said we are Marxist in Christian Clothing, we are sidelined, irrelevant, and dead. He made the same statements at an event in 2006.
James (Jim) Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society, United Methodist Church (UMC), is my hero. He has spoken out very strongly against George W. Bush's Iraq War and torture. He sent a scathing letter to Bush before the war, which said the war was against the teachings of Christ and there was no strong evidence to start a war. In 2006, he called for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, both members of a UMC. Winkler has taken some hits from more conservative members, but he keeps going. Winkler supports full gay right in the church and in civil life.
Winkler has already met with the Obama administration more times than the Bush administration, which was zero times. Winkler's office is across the street from the Capitol
Winkler did not make any public statements for Obama until after the election. He has written several very positive articles about Obama since the election:
Church and state
An excerpt from a speech, “Religion and Politics in America from a Protestant Perspective,” that Jim Winkler delivered in December in Rome.
"Barack Obama’s Philadelphia speech after the controversy caused by his mainline Protestant pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is among the most definitive statements about religion and politics ever articulated in U.S. history. Here is an excerpt: "
http://tinyurl.com/axcnmd
Hope survived, 11/10/2008 http://tinyurl.com/9s9yyx
"I was present at the meeting of the Council of Bishops on Nov. 4. There was great enthusiasm and delight at the news Barack Obama has been elected president. All present are aware we are witnesses to history.
....
There will be plenty of time in the future to discuss policy issues, though. Now is a time to celebrate a remarkable accomplishment. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said he envisioned a black man as the President of the United States by 1988. While the wheels of change move ever so slowly and Dr. King’s vision wasn’t realized until 2008, nonetheless a significant milestone has been achieved.
It is difficult, if not impossible, for many of us to comprehend the hope this milestone represents for a people whose roots in the “land of the free” began in slavery. This moment demands reverent reflection. Change was the mantra of this election, and that was true on many levels. Mostly, though, it was about hope, and this time, hope survived, perhaps to a magnitude that has never before been known.
Thanks be to God!"
I echo Winkler, Thanks be to God and pray that God guides Obama and keeps him safe.
Faithful christians pray for our new president elect, Obama. God chose John the Baptist and all christians were terrified of him. The United States of America was created with God as our father that is why we cannot lose IN GOD WE TRUST or we will be just like all of the other countries in the world..
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