The Evangelism of Obama: America’s First Black Nominee for President Preaches the Prosperity Gospel

The Democrats of this country, and no few Republicans and Independents, have seen the glory of the coming of a change, thanks to the inspired rhetoric and promise of Barack Obama. The youthful senator from Illinois set Denver’s Invesco Field ablaze last night with his acceptance speech, the concluding act of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. And the comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King’s seminal “I Have a Dream” sermon, itself delivered 45 years ago to the day, go beyond race relations and a call to action. Both the men and their words proclaim hope, faith and deliverance – an old prophesy for a new age.

Obama accurately diagnosed America’s yearnings for a return to the national spirit of the administrations of FDR and Kennedy, precious legacies being treated like heirloom garb thrown out in the yard for the dog to sleep on. The country’s rising temperature around this general election year is more than convention hoopla, or the exasperating wait to elect the least egregious choice among a field of lesser evils and unknowns. Never mind the fundamental repairs required for America’s global reputation, as well as her health, welfare and infrastructure; those goals have long seemed hopelessly out of reach as Bush&Co. continue their backward march on the promises made and the promises kept by the defining eras of the ‘40s and ‘60s. Obama targeted a national hunger – not mere nostalgia, or even a faint hope for a return to simplicity, but a widespread demand for the ethics of servant leadership. It is no coincidence that such advocacy for “mutual responsibility” is found in another of his biblical proclamations last night: “I am my brother’s keeper.”

He wasn’t preaching to the choir, either – such was the persuasiveness of his oratory, not to mention his political platform. As Charles Karel Bouley wrote, “I was going to vote for Barack Obama because I had to. After his acceptance speech, I’m doing it because I want to.”

After weathering many interminable religion-related non-starters this spring (Rev. Wright, etc.), Obama’s stentorian locomotion has left in its wake the de facto premise that a separation of church and state means, essentially, no church. The American dictum that God or religion has no place in politics, or even in a truly democratic society, is a notion so superficial and misguided that perhaps the final evidence came last night. The 85,000 people at Invesco Field, and many more of the record 38+ million TV viewers, are ready for a change, and the change they want is what Obama defined, delivered, and declared by faith with nonpartisan godliness: a genuine “prosperity gospel.” -- KT