Obama's Faith

From Jon Meacham in Newsweek:

The tradition of which Obama is a part is best exemplified by another of his heroes: Lincoln. "Probably it is my lot to go on in a twilight, feeling and reasoning my way through life, as questioning, doubting Thomas did," Lincoln, who belonged to no church, said. "But in my poor, maimed way, I bear with me as I go on seeking a spirit of desire for a faith that was with him of olden time, who, in his need, as I in mine, exclaimed, 'Help thou my unbelief'." He added: "I doubt the possibility, or propriety, of settling the religion of Jesus Christ in the models of man-made creeds and dogmas … I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and catechisms."
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Asked about what he has learned from Lincoln's spiritual journey, Obama tells NEWSWEEK: "My religious influences extend to the Founding Fathers, and I would include Lincoln in that category. Because these were men driven by reason and were full of skepticism and doubt. So much so that some of them considered themselves deists as opposed to strict Christians as we'd call them. But look at somebody like Lincoln: [he] starts off, as far as we can tell, a deeply skeptical but powerfully moral person who, as he finds himself in the midst of history and potential cataclysm, feels it necessary to hang on to a more explicit belief in providence and faith. And so that resonates with me. I think that there's a place where, the more seriously you take the world and the more you find yourself struggling with good and evil and war and the great moral questions of the day, the more you have to fall back on some sort of north star. Or you get lost. The kinds of issues that might get confronted are so difficult that the weight you carry was so great, that the possibilities of paralysis are—Lincoln himself acknowledged are—sometimes too present. What gets him out of bed, that's powerful stuff."

Powerful stuff is right. Obama's models in the spiritual journey are Lincoln and the Founding Fathers. Not bad at all. But can the majority of citizens in the US, which is fast hurtling toward becoming a theocracy, stand this sort of honesty and ambiguity?

After reading the articles in Newsweek on Obama's faith, my estimation of the magazine has risen a few notches.

Here's the link to the longer article on Obama and faith. He sounds thoughtful and intelligent. What a breath of fresh air compared to the man who presently "serves" in the office of the president. I'm shedding tears that we've had someone like Bush as president for seven and one half years. I pray for relief and someone of a completely different type, next time around. Lord, have mercy upon us.