The Spirituality of Messianic American Leadership

12 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 Rethinking Religion A s George Bush entered his first term of office in 2000, Evangelical Christians greeted him with both political approval and messianic expectations . Now, seven years later, while many Evangelicals are disappointed with Bush’s performance and amid revelations of his true attitude towards this particular camp of his Christian supporters, Americans are still manifesting messianic expectations, but towards another presidential candidate. We no longer believe that our president can “rid the world of evil”—a promise not even Jesus Christ made. The horizon of our expectant gaze is not global, but introspectively domestic. A number of American voters now want a candidate for president who is without the sin of originally endorsing the war in Iraq. Senator Barack Obama, unlike the majority of the members of Congress and most of the current crop of presidential candidates, has always been against the war and never voted for it (since he was not a member of the U. S. Senate in 2003). Obama represents the latest version of a deeply ingrained American optimism , which believes in the inevitability of a better future for our country and its many different peoples. Senator Obama’s political campaign has overtones of a religious movement. The subtext of American presidential campaigns is the Christian revival meeting. In a revival, the evangelist appeals to the crowd of believers to trust Jesus and be born, again. Evangelists are the rock stars of Christianity. Their charisma leads people to make a confession and a commitment, and in doing so, the evangelist convinces the believers that nothing they might have done in the past, nor anything that is wrong with their lives today, matters. Mistakes are forgiven, sins of commission and omission are expunged, and the future is the realm where our best life will be lived. Our successful presidential candidates promise that voting for the man (and now woman) of the moment will lead to a new life and a better future. Michael Dukakis, who came from a Christian community that places more emphasis upon liturgy and sacrament than on exhortation and conversion, neither understood nor participated in this fundamental evangelical structure, to the disastrous demise of his campaign. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, lives and breathes this evangelical pattern of appeal since he came from a Christian community whose primary understanding of the faith is rooted in the revival service. Each communal gathering is both an opportunity for new believers to come forth and join and for old believers to have their faith revived. SenatorBarackObama’smovementisacompaniontoAmericanChristianity,onethat walks at times ahead or behind her evangelical cousin. Senator Obama is the latest representativeoftheAmericanreligionofoptimism,thefaiththatourlivesandourfuture will simply be better, not based on programs, work, suffering, repentance; life will simply The Spirituality of Messianic American Leadership by Gilbert I. Bond 5.Religion:Politics rev. 8/7/07 10:16 AM Page 12 be better since the future is ours and we are entitled to a better life if we justthinkpositivelyandchoseacandidate who doesn’t remind us of our past mistakes, or how difficult repentance and transformation truly are. I am not contending that Senator Obama is a purveyor of this ersatz Christianity. His appeal, however, has tapped the reservoirs of optimism that reside in America’s body politic. One doesn’t have to be a Christian to belong to the American church of positive thinking. One simply needs to believe in the future and the future will manifest as the fulfillment of our American hopes. Thereligionofoptimism,however ,offersforgivenesswithoutconfession , new life without repentance, transformation without suffering, and a resurrection without a death. Symbolically, Obama offers America an opportunity to overcome America’s original sin of racism, born of slavery, since he is ironically black but without the ancestry of slaverywhoseghostsperenniallyhauntthehousethatourfoundingfathersbuilt.Senator Obamaoffersthepromiseofhope—forourcountryandforourpersonallives—sinceheis theherooftwogreatAmericannarratives: boththeNativeSon’sandtheImmigrant’stale of success. He is probably the most important political symbol we have had since Ronald Reagan. IwouldliketoremindmyfellowAmericansthatitwasRev.Dr.MartinLutherKingJr., who was the author of Senator Obama’s most famous political quotation. Dr...