Like many Kossacks, I have mixed feelings about Senator Barack Obama. When he wants to be, he can be a marvelous ambassador for the Democratic Party, as an attractive, articulate, and forward-looking public official. But he can also be infuriating in his tendency to tumble into Republican frames and level criticisms at the Democratic Party, providing the opposition with too many easy soundbites.
One of the recurring themes in Obama's rhetoric is that the Democrats are too often perceived as running away from religion, and that for Democrats to re-integrate themselves with their natural constituencies in working- and middle-class Americans, party officials need to project a more open and embracing attitude towards religion. This is a repetition of a (false) Republican frame, but whatever its accuracy, Obama's developed a reputation for believing it, and he's often quoted on this theme, for better and for worse.
The problem isn't that Democrats are "hostile" to religion, or Christianity, or any particular faith; the problem is that "Christianity" has been re-defined in our public discourse as nothing more than a strict, narrow expression of Southern Baptist-derived legalistic fundamentalism, while mainstream Christianity is all but nonexistent as a voice in our national debates. It is unfortunate that Obama seems to buy the interpretation that being friendly to Christianity implies being friendly to Dominionist precepts as if they
were anything but a mutant, malignant form of the faith.
But most American Christians aren't Dominionists, and indeed most American Christians are more than a little uncomfortable with the excesses of the James Dobson and Tony Perkins brand of fundamentalism. The problem is that there are very few national leaders who bother to make that distinction when talking about how we need to "be nicer to Christians."
But we've got a golden opportunity now to reclaim Christianity as representative of Democratic values, and a golden opportunity for Barack Obama to take the lead in realigning the Democratic Party with Christian values in the field of public perception. And this opportunity has presented itself in the torture issue.
The overwhelming majority of organized religions in America -- Christian and non-Christian -- categorically condemn the idea of torturing people. Indeed, it's (revealingly) only the wingnuttiest of the wingnutty sects that celebrate the process. Since Barack Obama has taken it upon himself to be the Democrats' liaison to religious figures, so to speak, he's got a magnificent opening to huddle with the leaders of mainline Christian, Jewish, and other churches, appear with them in public, and express his deep objections to the torture bill on the grounds that it's immoral and anti-religion -- which, indeed, it is. And it will be the Democrats standing on the moral high ground, even when expressed in religious terms.
The Democrats can re-integrate themselves with religious America without compromising Democratic values -- and torture is but one way they can do this. Not to mention the extra little added benefits of standing in favor of habeas corpus, which only happens to be the ultimate foundation of a free society. Barack Obama has the reputation and the credibility to accomplish this. It's a win-win all around.
So will Barack Obama step up? He's always talking about how Democrats "neglect" religion; here's a great chance to do the opposite AND do the right thing in the process.