Letters to the Editor
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Paul Dirks
It's a long road and it isn't easy, but simply declaring a certain Candidate as unacceptable because they're willing to incarcerate dopers is pretty much a fools errand. They're ALL willing to incarcerate dopers if they think that's what the public wants.
Two words.
Kucinich.
Paul.
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Re Barack Obama: Committed Christian—Called to Bring Change
“Why not simply confront the smear directly? Why not call out the emails and the whispering and shine a light of ridicule on it? In this context it would be appropriate to refer to his Christian beliefs and their importance to his life and his approach to the issues.” –Jim White
He has done just that in the past, please note how he responded to a similar smear by Alan (have baggage will travel) Keyes:
http://www.barackobama.com/2006/06/28/call_to_renewal_keynote_address.php
Additionally, in response to the “Obama is a muslim” attacks A.J. Plank, the Director of Obama’s Southern Nevada's grassroots campaign sent out this message: “Rather than spend my time replying to the emails directly, I will attach a list of links to credible sites debunking the claims in that email as well as similar claims raised on Fox News. The links are as follows:"
http://obama.senate.gov/press/070123-debunked_insigh/index.php
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/22/cnn-obama-debunk/
The email smear issue was also addressed by Snopes which was cited in the original email as a source of substantiation for the assertions made. As Snopes pointed out in refuting it, the people putting this trash out COUNTED ON the recipients being too stupid to even verify it, despite the fact that the Snopes link was in the piece of scurrilous crap being disseminated. Be sure to read the actual assertions being made and the refutations then made by Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
Does anyone think these viral emails are not burning up cyberspace in the Palmetto state?
I agree with 6Stringer:
“I find more of an issue pinpointing who is conducting the smear campaign.”
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Called to Serve?
"Bush has long been criticized for using the "called to" formulation -- the U.S. is "called to bring freedom to the world" -- as that is the standard evangelical formulation for what God instructs one to do."
Well, no! .... and yes! It's true Bush has been rightly criticized for using this rationale for his political decisions, since it's pretty clear that his belief that God called upon him to meddle in Iraq is a perversion of the meaning of "God's calling."
But the concept of the "call" is not specifically evangelical. It is as common in mainstream Protestant denominations and the Catholic church as it is in the Evangelical strains of religion, and it has a different, much older meaning than the current evangelical spin.
The first, most common meaning of "being called" is an initiate's reason given for entering the ministry or priesthood. The other, more general meaning, is that everyone has a purpose in the world, and when we find it for ourselves, that is our "calling."
When we have found our calling we are content with our life's work, which, if we are devout, has no conflict with the teachings of Christ. It has nothing to do with God giving us some sort of personal revelation of the meaning of life. We are to work to find that for ourselves.
I'm a musician. That's my calling. I knew it at the age of four. But, I've never written a religious piece of music in my life, and don't expect to. My pastor, who was also my father, taught me that the spirit of God is inside us. He taught me from birth that evangelism is a perversion of the meaning of the bible and the life of Christ. We cannot put the spirit of God into other people. That's their business, and God's.
Evangelicals have taken a perfectly good term and twisted it to mean that God's will is for us to remake the secular world - not just to evangelize for "Christian" belief, but to also realign our political institutions to conform to it.
Mike Huckabee's calling is political evangelism, and he believes that our political institutions should be realigned to conform with his beliefs. As far as I'm concerned, that's worshiping a false God.
Barack Obama's calling is of the original kind, to do good works and live life for the benefit of others. This is what Christianity meant before Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and George Bush got ahold of it.
In fact, the legacy of MLK is that it is possible to serve others, to minister to them, and to cry out for justice without ever demanding that the people being ministered to, served or cried out for should be required in return to adopt a particular church, or even a particular religion. MLK used religious language in the way Christ used it, as metaphor for life's meaning, not as direction we must obey.
The irony of all this for me, is that, this last summer, 35 years after I left the church for good, Barack Obama spoke to the Iowa Conference of the United Church of Christ from the pulpit in my father's church, where I had fidgeted through countless sermons as a kid. He brought tears to my eyes when he spoke of doing God's work, because he meant it in the tradition of MLK, and of my own father, as person doing simply what he was called to do.
I caucused for Barack Obama, alright - but, not because God or anyone else told me to!
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Again, just like his "Present" votes ...
Everything you've said is appropriate. What I can't understand is why neither Obama nor his legion supporters can take just criticism.
Obama's behavior with regard to your example, is exactly like the 130 "Present" votes he cast in the Illinois legislature, or the Congressional Black Caucus-CNN debate, where he was asked to account for saying that the Republican Party for the past decade or so, has been the Party of Ideas, and his becoming the President would restore to the Democrats. The good Senator's response was classic Bill Clinton - "I didn't say whether they were good ideas"! Very disingenuous.
The man was asked to account for the funding of his healthcare initiative - he goes off into a diatribe against Hillary Clinton, and at the end of 5 minutes, we are none the wiser. He blames the Clintons for falsifying his record, what little there is, but is not willing to state, on record, what falsehood the Clintons were knowingly spreading.
Look, I am a "colored person" as well, and belong to his generation. I am sick and tired of people insisting that I should be voting for him out of ethnic loyalty, just because of his antecedents. That is ridiculous. Obama has begun to be exactly like Huckabee, in that, he is all things to all people, just as long as he gets the votes. It might serve him well if he realizes that only the most fanatical and evangelical of the Republicans are pro-Huckabee; all the rest are as outraged as the rest of us, with his comments about tailoring the US Constitution according to the laws of "the Living God". If these debates carry on, and if Obama's performance continues to be dismal, he can pretty much write "finis" next to his bid to be the 2008 President. Its good to have objective people like you, analyze things from time to time.