Obama, Warren, Faith and Change
This morning’s Japan Times reprints a Washington Post article by Sally Quin titled “Pastor Rick’s Evolution.” In her lead paragraph she writes,
Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration has been characterized as — at best — a giant blunder. But it might turn out to be just another canny move from this supremely confident politician.
I found myself liking this article and not just because of its evidence that Obama may have more influence on Warren than vice-versa. Reflecting on my response, I realized that it spoke to a lifelong conviction that judging people for what they are, or rather what we perceive them to be, assuming that we know what they are and that they will never change, is fundamentally wrong.
I have spent my life reacting to people’s attempts to put me in this or that box and infer some “therefore” about my life’s possibilities by showing them otherwise. I am, after all, so American, the descendant and heir of people who left behind who they were to recreate themselves. I am not naive. I recognize full well how so many of us get stuck in our self-definitions or face obstacles in prejudice. I know that we we are physical beings with strengths and limitations in our bodies and more of the latter as we age. I know that we have histories and have made choices that may have created situations that are, indeed, irretrievable. Still,whenever I hear someone say, to me or to someone else, ”You are X, therefore Y,” my immediate response is, “Says who?”
And why shouldn’t I believe that Rick Warren, a man of his time and tradition, could nonetheless be open to change? The major and minor crises of faith are part of my own experience. Had my life’s trajectory been just a little different, I might have wound up as a member of Pastor Rick’s congregation, or a rival with a church of my own.
Can he change? Can we change? Yes, we can.
Posted: January 24th, 2009 under Ain't That America, Best of the Blogs.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Max
Time: January 26, 2009, 12:14 am
John,
I am also very irritated by this habit of too many Americans. If I meet such Americans, they will tell me “Oh you said this, that means you believe in that”.
Many is the time I have met some American in Japan, who has spent a year or two in Japan, who starts to lecture me on all the faults of the Japanese. Now if I say “Well maybe that is not quite true…” I get a very indignant response that I do not know what I am talking about, I must be stupid.
Of course, the fact that I have lived in this country for 35 years, I speak fluent Japanese, I write my own blog in Japanese, means nothing to such a person. That is a serious problem with too many Americans these days, a smug arrogance that they know everything. Combined with George Bush, we had something really nasty.
I think if you consider this smug arrogance, it explains a lot of things, like how supposedly smart people could dream up “credit default swaps” or “subprime loans” and believe that these schemes could work.
Smug Arrogance.
Well, the good times are over. The time where America could have such a luxurious lifestyle is over. In fact, the survival of the United States of America is in doubt.
According to my studies, if nothing is done about Peak Oil, in about 15 years the US will disintegrate into a patchwork of feuding fiefdoms, like Europe in the Middle Ages. They will fight each other for food and water. Most will not survive.
I estimate something like half of Americans dead in 20 years.
Of course, if we include Global Warming into the mix, most food crops grown today will not be able to grown in the US, due to warming, except for Alaska.
That is, if nothing is done.
As you may guess, I am a real hit at cocktail parties. That is why Americans usually don’t invite me.
But Japanese do, and they listen to what I say. Japanese people are very aware of and worried about oil supply depletion and Global Warming.
Americans are too smug and arrogant, they think Barack Obama will make things like they were before.
However, I think the President understands these problems. For example, his pick for science adviser is a strong hint.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/12/18/white-house-science-advisor.aspx
Also, in the inauguration speech, he did say a lot about what individual Americans should do to serve. Very much in contrast to George Bush’s post 9/11 “Go Shopping”.
I like that word, “serve”.
I think that Barack Obama will surprise many Americans, I think he understands the true challenges we face.
And I think he is the only man possible for the job ahead, that is why I voted for him, that is why I defend him.
We just might save the world yet.
Comment from I.B.Lever
Time: January 26, 2009, 10:28 am
Max, I have my suspicions about the words, “saving the world”.
I am beginning to posture myself into the belief, that Obama may only be able to “postpone the inevitable”.
Comment from Max
Time: January 26, 2009, 11:01 am
My meaning is that it will not only be America that does this. It will be scientists from all over the world working in concert.
And it will be a very different world than we live in now, but I think that if we act fast, the human race may not go extinct.
Comment from JerryA
Time: January 27, 2009, 5:55 am
This is Eretz Israel, the Promised Land according to one of the founders of Zionism, Theodore Hertzl (1904)
http://abbc.net/islam/english/toread/thepromisedland.gif
They want the whole thing.
Comment from I.B.Lever
Time: January 27, 2009, 2:58 pm
The “promised land”, I’m amazed they did not include Northern Ireland and Alaska as well ?
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