Obama Straddles the Divide

The speech by Obama at Notre Dame on 2009may17 didn't have any fiery rhetoric. It wasn't a stirring call to action. It was an attempt to bridge a divide. It was a call for tolerance cloaked as a "stand firm in your beliefs" message:

In this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you've been raised and educated. Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. Stand as a lighthouse.

But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It is the belief in things not seen. It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, and cause us to be wary of self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open, and curious, and eager to continue the moral and spiritual debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works, charity, kindness, and service that moves hearts and minds.

The reality is that the US is riven by intolerance. The great lesson of the wars in Europe during Reformation was that ultimately everybody needed to learn tolerance for other moral viewpoints. A civil society requires people to advocate but not attack, to be morally resolute but not divisive, to acknowledge human frailty. That was the message that Obama brought to the heart of the Christian Right. Hopefully it will work. Only time will tell.

I personally dislike all the "God talk" rhetoric, but I agree with the underlying message: We must find a way to live together as one human family...