Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.Update: "I take Christian faith seriously."
And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their Bibles.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Obama's faith
He shows a glimpse of it here, in his address to Call to Renewal.
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I think that one of the interesting post-Internet 24-hour news cycle changes is that a lot of people know a lot of single Bible verses, but are less clear on the overall arc - the full stories, the names, the events. We like our small sound-bites of news, but it's dangerous, I think, when dealing with any Holy Writ. I meet more and more students who know chapter and verse for bits and pieces, but are unfamiliar with what happened, for example, at Jericho when Joshua dropped by, who he brought with him, how they were chosen, etc.
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