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People anticipate of George W. Bush as getting the aboriginal evangelical president. But Barack Obama may accompany his own evangelical ability to Washington.
For all the cogent changes Mr. Obama is accepted to conductor in, adoration may be one that humans didn't see coming. If the accomplished eight years accept been bedeviled by arresting bourgeois evangelicals like Pat Robertson and James Dobson, the Obama years may be the era of Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, social-justice-minded evangelicals in the archetypal of Walter Rauschenbusch and Martin Luther King Jr.
The religious shift Mr. Obama has ushered in is significant for black Americans and the country as a whole. For the first time in African-American political history (certainly since Booker T. Washington died in 1915) the most prominent political representative of black America is not a religious figure. Black political engagement, grounded in the Hebrew tradition of the prophets, is no longer the centerpiece of black political activism. That's big.
But for Americans overall, the social shift has been just as dramatic. Mr. Obama's presidency will mark the first time in American political history that the voices of progressive evangelicals – those driven more by the greater social good than by personal moralizing – will be privileged in the White House.
As the transition unfolds, there is much speculation about where the Obamas will attend church. More important, though, is how he uses his faith to lead. And if his actions during the campaign are any indication, Washington should prepare for new voices to emerge on issues of faith and values.
Mr. Obama courted the faith vote early and intensely. Town-hall meetings themed around "faith in action" helped him win crucial early states in the primaries. In the general election, the campaign expanded its faith outreach into a full-fledged American Values Forum initiative, complete with DVDs targeted to religious voters and organized house parties where supporters gave "testimony" for the Democrat.
Mr. Obama was always more comfortable talking about his faith than John McCain, but in the Democratic primaries, he emphasized more of a "civil religion" – the idea that collective hope could be a political force. Over the course of the campaign, he held closed-door sessions with evangelical leaders (including T.D. Jakes, Kirbyjon Caldwell and Eugene Rivers), shifted the language of his stump speeches and began emphasizing his own experience of being "saved by the blood."
Over the past eight years, media and political power brokers have tended to cluster all evangelicals under the same tent. But that's never been so and certainly is not now.
All forms of evangelicalism share core tenets: a belief in the importance of personal conversion through Jesus Christ (salvation); the commitment to biblical activism (authority of the Bible, not reason or experience); and an investment in public morality (public witness).
Where they differ is in their emphasis: Progressive evangelicals strongly emphasize the suffering of Jesus and his political struggles against the social order, while conservative evangelicals are preoccupied with imposing "biblical" morality.
Where Mr. Bush has been a Christian imperialist, Mr. Obama will be a Christian pluralist. While his own conversion roots him firmly in the Christian faith, his intellectual skills and international experience allow him to understand that there are many paths to the truth.
In government, look for an overhauled office of faith-based initiatives. In Denver, the Democratic Party's first "faith caucus" engaged a spirited discussion on the role and relevance of such programs and how they might differ from similar policies offered by Mr. Bush. Most likely, the least of these thrusts of progressive evangelicalism will empower the already flourishing network of Christian social programs that emphasize economic equality and burgeoning anti-poverty movements.
In general, the challenge for Mr. Obama will be to expand the networks he has built during the campaign to reshape the popular dialogue about the role of faith in politics. He will have to liberate the very notion of faith, which has been hijacked during the Bush administration for very narrow political interests.
And as the country gets used to a more embracing posture of faith, African-Americans will be challenged to shift further away from the prophetic religious tradition that has defined black political engagement for generations.
What we've known as the historic black church may morph into a combination of Iyanla Vanzant's deep spirituality, T.D. Jakes' powerful preaching, Al Sharpton's focus on justice, Jesse Jackson's rainbow coalition, Alice Walker's womanism and Johnny Ray Youngblood's community activism, all geared toward a racially inclusive, religiously pluralistic, non-hierarchical conception of faith that celebrates human dignity, values economic equality and has a global sensibility.
If it sounds like an enormous leap forward, think of the chasms already crossed this year. Old-time religion may just be ready for something new.
Andre C. Willis is an assistant professor of the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School. His e-mail address is andre.willis@yale.edu.
For all the cogent changes Mr. Obama is accepted to conductor in, adoration may be one that humans didn't see coming. If the accomplished eight years accept been bedeviled by arresting bourgeois evangelicals like Pat Robertson and James Dobson, the Obama years may be the era of Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, social-justice-minded evangelicals in the archetypal of Walter Rauschenbusch and Martin Luther King Jr.
The religious shift Mr. Obama has ushered in is significant for black Americans and the country as a whole. For the first time in African-American political history (certainly since Booker T. Washington died in 1915) the most prominent political representative of black America is not a religious figure. Black political engagement, grounded in the Hebrew tradition of the prophets, is no longer the centerpiece of black political activism. That's big.
But for Americans overall, the social shift has been just as dramatic. Mr. Obama's presidency will mark the first time in American political history that the voices of progressive evangelicals – those driven more by the greater social good than by personal moralizing – will be privileged in the White House.
As the transition unfolds, there is much speculation about where the Obamas will attend church. More important, though, is how he uses his faith to lead. And if his actions during the campaign are any indication, Washington should prepare for new voices to emerge on issues of faith and values.
Mr. Obama courted the faith vote early and intensely. Town-hall meetings themed around "faith in action" helped him win crucial early states in the primaries. In the general election, the campaign expanded its faith outreach into a full-fledged American Values Forum initiative, complete with DVDs targeted to religious voters and organized house parties where supporters gave "testimony" for the Democrat.
Mr. Obama was always more comfortable talking about his faith than John McCain, but in the Democratic primaries, he emphasized more of a "civil religion" – the idea that collective hope could be a political force. Over the course of the campaign, he held closed-door sessions with evangelical leaders (including T.D. Jakes, Kirbyjon Caldwell and Eugene Rivers), shifted the language of his stump speeches and began emphasizing his own experience of being "saved by the blood."
Over the past eight years, media and political power brokers have tended to cluster all evangelicals under the same tent. But that's never been so and certainly is not now.
All forms of evangelicalism share core tenets: a belief in the importance of personal conversion through Jesus Christ (salvation); the commitment to biblical activism (authority of the Bible, not reason or experience); and an investment in public morality (public witness).
Where they differ is in their emphasis: Progressive evangelicals strongly emphasize the suffering of Jesus and his political struggles against the social order, while conservative evangelicals are preoccupied with imposing "biblical" morality.
Where Mr. Bush has been a Christian imperialist, Mr. Obama will be a Christian pluralist. While his own conversion roots him firmly in the Christian faith, his intellectual skills and international experience allow him to understand that there are many paths to the truth.
In government, look for an overhauled office of faith-based initiatives. In Denver, the Democratic Party's first "faith caucus" engaged a spirited discussion on the role and relevance of such programs and how they might differ from similar policies offered by Mr. Bush. Most likely, the least of these thrusts of progressive evangelicalism will empower the already flourishing network of Christian social programs that emphasize economic equality and burgeoning anti-poverty movements.
In general, the challenge for Mr. Obama will be to expand the networks he has built during the campaign to reshape the popular dialogue about the role of faith in politics. He will have to liberate the very notion of faith, which has been hijacked during the Bush administration for very narrow political interests.
And as the country gets used to a more embracing posture of faith, African-Americans will be challenged to shift further away from the prophetic religious tradition that has defined black political engagement for generations.
What we've known as the historic black church may morph into a combination of Iyanla Vanzant's deep spirituality, T.D. Jakes' powerful preaching, Al Sharpton's focus on justice, Jesse Jackson's rainbow coalition, Alice Walker's womanism and Johnny Ray Youngblood's community activism, all geared toward a racially inclusive, religiously pluralistic, non-hierarchical conception of faith that celebrates human dignity, values economic equality and has a global sensibility.
If it sounds like an enormous leap forward, think of the chasms already crossed this year. Old-time religion may just be ready for something new.
Andre C. Willis is an assistant professor of the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School. His e-mail address is andre.willis@yale.edu.
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