“‘You have some good ideas,’ they would tell me. ‘Maybe if you joined the church you could help us start a community program. Why don’t you come by on Sunday?” I would shrug and play the question off, unable to confess that I could no longer distinguish between faith and mere folly. Between faith and simple endurance. That while I believed in the sincerity I heard in their voices, I remained a reluctant skeptic. Doubtful of my own motives. Wary of expedient conversion. Having too many quarrels with God to accept a salvation so easily won.” -Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father”

Given that I was raised an upper-middle class white boy in the posh suburbs and he grew up under much different circumstances, there haven’t been many things in Obama’s books* that I can relate to on a purely “me” level, but in both works the way that he approaches his religious beliefs and concerns: The desire to believe met with an instinct of skepticism. Obviously, Obama’s church is not my church, but nonetheless this part spoke to me.

* – I finished Dreams From My Father, finished The Case Against Barack Obama, and by tomorrow I will be finished with The Audacity of Hope. I should have spread these out as I am going into overload. I think I’m going to pass on Barack Obama: Illuminati Puppet for the moment…


Category: Church

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3 Responses to A Salvation Too Easily Won

  1. Willard Lake says:

    Since the original post was about the biographies (either auto- or supposed) of the candifates, I think this article (a little long, but enlightening) may be in order. It is from this months Rolling Stone magazine:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

  2. Peter says:

    I (lukewarmly) support Obama in the election, but I really, really wish he would publicly denounce Jeremiah Wright in the strongest possible terms. And add Rezko and Ayers while he’s at it.

  3. trumwill says:

    If you’re wondering why there are two comments where there used to be plenty, that’s because of (among other things) a miscommunication. I was displeased with the direction the thread here was going and emailed Web to ask him to “let the thread die”. My wording was vague and he understood it to mean to delete his comments while I was only intending for the conversation to stop until I could put in my two cents and redirect the conversation back to the actual topic of the post.

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