The Audacity of Faith -- Review


THE AUDACITY OF FAITH: Christian Leaders Reflect on the Election of Barack Obama. Edited by Marvin A. McMickle. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2009. xviii + 173 pp.

The Audacity of Hope is the title of Barack Obama’s best selling book, a book that helped propel his candidacy toward election to the highest office in the land. There was and is a bit of audacity in the decision of a young man with little national political experience to launch such a campaign, but as we know – it worked. We are now into the fifth month of his first term as President of the United States. He has come to office at a most daunting time, one that is plagued by challenges at home and abroad. Few times in history have been as challenging as this. Being that I’m a strong supporter, and have been from the beginning of his seemingly quixotic quest for high office, I have grand hopes for his presidency. Even when I disagree or am disappointed, I still feel confident in his leadership of our nation.

Many of us from the religious community were attracted to him in part because he seemed to understand better than most the real power and possibilities of faith. He is a person of faith and isn’t afraid to acknowledge that faith. He sees the connection between faith and works! He’s conversant with theologians as important as Reinhold Niebuhr, whom he quotes and looks to for inspiration. He acknowledges and harnesses faith in a way that most Democrats have been unable to do. Both Bill Clinton and Al Gore have deep Baptist roots, but as religious as they may have been neither of them came off quite as powerfully as Obama, who was and is willing to go into the thick of evangelical areas – like Saddleback Community Church – to dialog. He may be to some the anti-Christ or worse, but he has not been bashful about his faith.

With such a strong faith component to his personality (something he chose for himself rather than receive it as an inheritance), it should not be surprising that so soon in his term of office people of faith would want to reflect on his historic achievement – the first person of color to rise to the Presidency. In The Audacity of Hope Marvin McMickle, pastor of Cleveland’s Antioch Baptist Church and Professor of Homiletics at Ashland Theological Seminary, has drawn together thirty-three sermons, reflections, commentaries, and meditations. Many are written by Baptists, but not all. A majority are written by African Americans, but not all. There are well-known figures in this mix, including William Willimon, Dwight Hopkins, Gardner Taylor, Philip Yancey, and Tony Campolo, but others are not so well known (at least not to this reviewer). None of the chapters are long – some run as few as two pages. As in any work such as this there is a variety of quality. Some are memorable, and others not so memorable.

The contributions are organized into five sections: The first is rather celebratory and takes the title “My Soul Looks Back and Wonders How We Got Over.” In these chapters, we see the hopes and dreams expressed in hopeful terms. Who would have thought this to come true? That is, unless the hand of God is present. But, there is also the recognition that while America has taken a major step forward, this doesn’t mean that the quest for equality and racial reconciliation is complete. But, now is the moment to savor the possibilities, for as Gardner Taylor puts it: “The confluence of circumstances surrounding Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the White House is nothing short of startling” (p. 25).

Part II, entitled “Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr,” places Obama in the context of a dream that one day color would not be a barrier. Curtiss Paul DeYoung speaks of this election allowing for the first step to be taken into the Promised Land spoken of by Dr. King the night before he was assassinated. Although Obama in his suggestions that all things are possible might lead one to think that we’re further along the road of racial reconciliation than reality would allow, “his election is a significant milestone on that journey” (p. 61). Luis Cortes, a Latino, can claim his own victory, for now his children have the opportunity to be President. He writes:

“My prayer for President Obama, our nation, and our world is that in January 2017 I can say to my grandson, who will be eleven years old, ‘Grandson, you have lived to see the greatest president this nation has ever had. You now have an example to follow. Work hard, Grandson . . . for some day you can be President’” (p. 73).

That is the dream that Dr. King had, that color would be no barrier.

If Part I was celebratory, and Part II was an attempt to link this victory with a prophet’s dream, in Part III we hear a call to accountability, a reminder of what this new President has been called to do as President. Emilie Townes riff of a sermon is entitled “No Days Off.” Nothing more needs be said about that. William Willimon reflects on Obama’s oratorical abilities, notes its power to instill hope and offer direction. Indeed, Willimon compares Obama to the prophets of old, and seeks to hold him accountable to be more than simply an offerer of words. Tony Campolo reminds the President that he needs to do what the Lord requires of him. For instance, “the church should proclaim to Barack Obama what biblical justice requires of him, even if its voice is not heeded. Our new president should be constantly reminded by the church that, in the end, the only applause he should seek is that which comes from nail-pierced hands” (p. 98).


One of the questions that Barack Obama’s presidency raises is whether or not we’re entering a post-racial era. I think many whites want to think that we already live in a nation where color doesn’t matter, that we can be color blind, that the voting rights act and affirmative action are no longer needed (if they were ever needed in the minds of some). Now, with a President who is African American (biracial if you wish), an African American family living in the White House, not just working there as servants (remember that it was slaves that built that house), and a Latina Supreme Court nominee, surely we’ve entered that aforementioned promised land? In Part IV the contributors seek, for the most part, to rein in our expectations. The one contribution that seems to celebrate the possibility of this post-racial world is written by someone who is white and male. Dwight Hopkins, a black theologian from the University of Chicago and a member of Trinity UCC (Obama’s former church), reminds us that the very fact that Obama is considered a black president is related to the old “one drop rule.” If you have one drop of African blood, you’re black. But Obama is not simply black or white.

“The forty-fourth president of the United States is American. Like all citizens, this Hawaiian, Polynesian, Indonesian, Asian, white, Kenyan, and black human being is caught up in the narrative of the black-white paradigm – a structure still rooted in the absurdity of the one-drop-of-black-blood rule. Yes, he is black. But no one can deeply understand him unless he or she appreciates the rainbow ethnic mixtures of Hawaii” (p. 115).

This is a step-forward, but there is still work to be done. We are, as Valerie Bridgeman puts it in the “vortex of change,” a time when “seismic shifts occur in cauldrons of elation and violence” (p. 124).

The final section, Part V, carries the rather general title of “Biblical and Theological Perspectives.” That title might give the impression that none of the earlier contributions were either biblical or theological, but that would be to misunderstand the book. In many ways each of these final five contributions continue what was undertaken in the earlier chapters. Lifting up hopes and dreams, while offering realistic perspectives on the task ahead. Yes, they reach into the biblical and theological realms, but they continue the themes set before. Otis Moss III, who succeeded Jeremiah Wright at Trinity UCC, notes that he was disturbed, after the election, to hear the suggestion by many pundits that “the struggle against racism is now over.” These comments led him to reflect on Joshua 1, where we learn that God’s people need to be “realigned, readjusted, and reoriented t olive in a post-wilderness time and a pre-Promised Land phase” (pp. 159-160). Joshua faced a huge task as he led the people into the new land. And Obama’s election, while momentous and historic, “we must be sure that our shouts of triumph are peppered with the sobering reality that our broader struggle for human dignity is not yet over.” Indeed, we must “work to make this moment in time not merely a cosmic coincidence but a historic trend” (pp. 161-162).

This is a book published just months after the inauguration of the forty-fourth president. It comes out before we know what kind of President Barack Obama will become. We can see hopes and trends, as well as areas of concern. Those of us who are Christian leaders need, as this book reminds us, to keep things in perspective. Whatever our politics, we are are first Christians, and our job requires more of us than simply support the status quo.

Now, four years hence a different book might be written. We may need to be more prophetic, holding a president that we placed great hopes in to a higher standard. But for now, this series of essays and sermons sets us on the right path. The writers remind us that there is a divine agent afoot, and the President has the choice of whether to follow along or reject that leadership. And we as the people of God need to attend to our business of praying for and holding a President accountable to the faith he professes. Reading it will surely bear important fruit, not just for citizens, but for people of God – whether or not they are big Obama supporters.


Comments

It strikes me that, at the end, you get to the point. This book is too soon.
Robert Cornwall said…
Michael,

I wouldn't say its too soon, I would say that it only represents an initial assessment!
Abdul said…
Hussein Obama is a Muslim, not a Christian. If he has any faith at all, it is Muslim.
Anonymous said…
There is no religious test for the office of the president. I was sort of hoping he was atheist. That way he could've been unbiased.
Remember the guns n' religion comment?

We could’ve saved him later, after he worked everything out.

David Mc
Curtis said…
David Mc,

You need some education. Atheists are not unbiased.
Anonymous said…
Of course they are unbiased. Who do they favor then?

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