A revealing interview with Obama, on his religious beliefs and values, has come to light – that to my mind greatly enhances the significance of his ascent to the most powerful leadership position in the world. The interview took place in March 2004, when Obama had just won the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat that he eventually won. It was conducted by Cathleen Falsani and published in the Chicago Sun-Times. It’s available, in a lightly edited version, at http://www.WantToKnow.info/008/obama_religious_beliefs_views.
Obama speaks of being rooted in Christian faith and his belief “that there are many paths to the same place, and that there is a higher power, that we are connected as a people. There are values that transcend race or culture that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.” He speaks of the influence of his mother, a Christian but “not a church lady,” who married an Indonesian who wasn’t a practicing Muslim, and going to Catholic school in a Muslim country. “My mother was a deeply spiritual person. She would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world's religions, and talk to me about them. And I think always, her view was that underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people and how you aspire to act not just for yourself, but also for the greater good.”
Obama speaks in the interview about how the community organizing work that he did in Chicago in the mid-1980s was primarily inspired by the Civil Rights movement. “The Civil Rights movement has a powerful hold on me. It’s a point in time where I think heaven and earth meet. Because it’s a moment in which a collective faith transforms everything. So when I read Gandhi or I read King or I read certain passages of Abraham Lincoln and I think about those times where people’s values are tested, those inspire me.” Gandhi, King and Lincoln are his three great role models that he returns to several times in the interview.
His commitment to Christianity is inclusive and definitely not fundamentalist: “I’m a big believer in tolerance…religion at its best comes with a big dose of doubt. … as somebody who’s now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart – there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.” On the positive side of religiousness, he speaks of how he came to appreciate “the power of the historic black church, and the power of that church to give people courage against great odds. And it moved me deeply.”
In a beautifully nuanced statement on the role of religious faith in politics and public life, Obama affirms that “Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion. I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country.”
In response to the interviewers question about prayer, Obama says “I have an ongoing conversation with God. Throughout the day I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why I’m doing it. …The biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral compass. Those are the conversations I’m having internally. I’m measuring my actions against that inner voice… it tells me where I think I’m on track and where I’m off track.” The process of inner questioning that Obama describes is what I’ve been calling a simple direct form of divination: to speak of “asking myself” implies the belief that there is something or someone within me that knows more than I do, some higher, wiser or divine source of wisdom or intuition.
Later, he returns again to this theme, that in the time pressures of public life, instead of setting separate time periods for prayer or meditation, “it’s much more sort of as I’m going through the day trying to take a moment here and a moment there to take stock. Why am I here, how does this connect with a larger sense of purpose?” So meditation “on the run,” so to speak, and the constant conversation with your inner spiritual and moral intelligence – this is his practice. Gandhi, King and Lincoln are his guides. We are fortunate indeed to have elected this man President – he has the leadership qualities needed in this time of catastrophic change.
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