Obama makes bridging our cultural divides look easy. He takes a potential faux-pas - talking about condoms in an evangelical megachurch - and manages to make birth control seem like a faith-based solution. We've been led by a buffoon for so long now, that it's easy to forget what it's like to listen to a genuine leader:
We should never forget that God granted us the power to reason so that we would do His work here on Earth - so that we would use science to cure disease, and heal the sick, and save lives. And one of the miracles to come out of the AIDS pandemic is that scientists have discovered medicine that can give people with HIV a new chance at life...
Like no other illness, AIDS tests our ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes - to empathize with the plight of our fellow man. While most would agree that the AIDS orphan or the transfusion victim or the wronged wife contracted the disease through no fault of their own, it has too often been easy for some to point to the unfaithful husband or the promiscuous youth or the gay man and say "This is your fault. You have sinned."
I don't think that's a satisfactory response. My faith reminds me that we all are sinners.
I know somebody is going to object to the religious rhetoric, but I think Obama's fluency with the language of God is a crucial asset. Unlike Kerry, who always seemed awkard when it came to talking about his faith, Obama has mastered the form. The trick is to spout trite aphorisms - "we are all sinners" - with sincerity. If a Democrat can do that, they just might win.
Well, what to say? It's not so much that I object to a politician using religious rhetoric, and that I am discouraged to live in a world where this is effective.
i agree, jonah. "I don't think that's a satisfactory response. My faith reminds me that we all are sinners." this seems to be the most coherent religious sentiment i have heard in this current political climate, riddled with nonsense.