Love the Sinner, Condemn the Sin

All right, I said I was not interested in election politics - and I'm not - but I seem compelled to comment on Obama's race speech. This is obviously his response to the whole 'Reverend Wright, your pastor, hates America' thing. Before reading everyone else's reactions to it (most of which are sadly predictable), it is a good idea to read and listen to the actual speech. It's available here. First of all - partisan politics aside, its a damn good speech. We all know that this particular issue is one that causes most politicians to run like frightened rabbits, lest they be compared to Jesse Jackson. Obama handled the topic extremely well. While many political analysts will break the speech down line by line, searching for things they do or do not like, we must remember that speeches like this one are about mood and tone, not necessarily about the specific words (although the words are extremely important, for the reasons above). When you watch the speech - replete with American flags and all the trimmings of a State of the Union address - and you hear the message of unity that Obama has been preaching since his candidacy began, it's hard not to feel the initial feel-good emotion that Obama has been riding for the last 6 months or so. Lots of people have commented on the speech and its effects. The hard line Republicans have (predictably) attempted to tear it down, while the Democrats have praised it repeatedly. However, the speech wasn't given to those people, in the same way that politicians do not campaign to those people. The target audience is the famed "independent", and a such, we should look at the key points of the speech from that perspective. It was Personal Much of the speech involved anecdotes from Obama's life, and served to show how these events helped to shape his outlook. It seemed Heart-felt Barring any information to the contrary, There is no reason to see deep-seated political machinations here. True, the entire premise of the speech was a political response to a character attack. However, even in this, Obama seemed able to deliver a message that did not dwell on the accusations against him, but rather explained his situation - including his relationship with the Reverend. It was Strong, yet Smooth In a political era where "strong" usually means threatening others with the use of force, this speech was strong in a different way. Firstly, Obama did not disown the Reverend, even as he condemned his statements. this is a key point. Lover the sinner, condemn the sin. How appropriately Christian. It is Consistent with his Theme This speech would not have worked for most candidates, black or white. The reason Obama is able to get away with this kind of speech is because he has been preaching unity for the entire campaign. If Hillary Clinton tried to give a similar speech, promoting unity and togetherness, she would be (rightly) scorned for it, because it would be instantly recognizable as a sham. The sham would be obvious because her entire campaign has been about "traditional" campaign tactics - mud-slinging and deriding one's opponent. Obama has been (mostly) removed from these tactics, and so a message of unity does not sound hypocritical when coming from him. I have read much gibberish regarding this entire incident, but I think the most surprising thing I have read (surprising in a good way) was this interview with - of all people - Mike Huckabee. It is quite interesting to see that, of all the Republican commentators, Huckabee seems to "get" what Obama is saying better than anyone else. Perhaps it his experience in the deep South. Decide for yourself: [Obama] made the point, and I think it's a valid one, that you can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do. You just can't. Whether it's me, whether it's Obama...anybody else. ...Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Reverend Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say "Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that." (Mike would know too, being a preacher himself) Importance alert! ...And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me. There is no way in hell I would have expected this out of Mike Huckabee. Perhaps, now that he is out of the race for President, he feels that he can speak more candidly. I must admit, if this is the Mike Huckabee that other people know, then I can see why he garnered the support that he did. He may have been better off toning down the 'Im a Christian' rhetoric and sticking to his Christian understanding and forgiveness of other people's shortcomings. Judging books by their covers has never seemed less appropriate.