catholicsphere

I am looking forward to President Obama following through on his promise to unite the people of the United States. It is a primary reason for giving him my vote back in November.

But, there has been something that has concerned me about his intentions, and that is the possibility that he may exclude at least one segment of the population — namely, faith-filled Christians, despite him being a professing Christian.

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama speaks about elements of faith being included in discussion and debate in the public square, and even codified in our law:

Progressives might recognize the values that both religious & secular people share when it comes to the moral & material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of “thou” and not just “I”, resonates in religious congregations across the country.

Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. To say that men and women should not inject their personal morality into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, mush of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

What our pluralistic democracy does demand is that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths. [pp 216-219]

I agree with this, but not without some concern or reservation that it will be used as a license to ignore the points on matters which are deemed “religious” or “moral”.

If President Obama does exercise such license, then it will be that we will have simply exchanged one extreme for another — one who embraced religion and religious values with little thought, and the other who rejected it in the same way.

My hope is that, in addition to taking action on the economy, the war and other social issues facing the nation, President Barack Obama will show that the religious and moral issues do not demand either full embrace or full rejection. Instead, I hope and pray that he will listen fully to the arguments on both sides of the issue and at least find a point of intersection that can bring us all closer together on issues that have divided us for way too long.

My prayers and best wishes to President Obama — his family, and this nation — as he (and all of us) embark on a historical journey to recapture the ideals of the American way of life.