Obama and Simple Christian Truthfulness
Posted on January 24, 2008
Filed Under Deeper Walk |
First, three rules for those who like to regularly forward mass emails offering sensational or conspiratorial or rumorish info to the rest of us:
1. Don’t.
2. If you must, please refer to rule #1
3. If you still must, please take 30 seconds and google. You’ll find that most of what you are about to send is a load of hooey.
*****
I received an email forward last week. My guess is a number of you did as well. Essentially, it was a fear-mongering piece drawing out (again) the familial connections between Obama and Islam. To begin with, many of the assertions were simply not true; and for every legitimate historical fact included, they added an interpretive layer on top that was nothing short of imaginative conjecture based on a whole boatload of prior assumptions.
It sent me over the moon. Really, it did.
And my reaction was not because I’m an Obama supporter. I like the guy. I appreciate much about his way and ethos, and I cozy up to some of his ideas. However, my political impulse and my convictions about the common good and social justice, etc., will most likely move me elsewhere. We’ll see… But that’s just not what this is about. This is about basic issues of Christian honesty and fairness, of integrity and baseline respect for our fellowman.
I was angered because of this: the subtle under-text of this vastly distributed email was that the patriots initiating it were somehow protecting our Christian nation from the infidels. One of the most egregious claims was that Obama had joined a Christian church for the sole purpose of political expediency. Please tell me how could one possibly know such a thing? Didn’t Jesus have something to say about such forms of subjective human judging - on the issue of one’s soul, nonetheless?
I read this email. And I grieve. I grieve that it seems we care about political maneuvering more than we care about the simple Christian discipline of truth-telling. I grieve that we sell out our subversive voice because of our infatuation with a cause (a cause other than God’s Kingdom, no less). I grieve because such things tell us where our loyalties truly lie. I grieve because it signals we want to win more than we want to live in the Jesus way, speaking what is true and honest and just.
Winning at any cost is not a Christian virtue, no matter the cause, no matter the spin.
peace / Winn
p.s. I must add this. One of the mistruths in the email was that Barack refused to be sworn in on the Bible but rather insisted on using the Koran. Regardless of what one thinks about such things in a pluralistic nation, the plain fact is that it is a lie. Barack was sworn in on the Bible, and the hilarious part is that there is a picture of Dick Cheney right beside him when it happened. Again: 30 seconds. Google.
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9 Responses to “Obama and Simple Christian Truthfulness”
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Amen and thank you. I got the same email last week and had the same reaction.
AE
My young adults group had a discussion two weeks ago about how religion and politics should associate (or if they should at all). In the end, we all agreed that the Kingdom should be at the forefront of what we think, believe and say. It is a hard thing to discern truth from lie many times, but if our hearts are stayed on God, instead of distracted by the things you touched on, then we will be in a good place…spiritually, politically, emotionally and in every other way.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Winn. It’s a necessary reminder in the middle of a somewhat messy campaign.
-Rachel
You said it well my brother! That’s real for you.
I think some people are just not self-aware that things like this offend not only the person they are about or the person receiving it, but it offends God too! Even when it is true, doesn’t make it right to e-gossip.
Thanks for Keepin it Real!
Thank you! Great point for us all to take into account. The only problem is it seems most of the instantaneous “hooey” believers are in their 40’s or older. If I had a dollar for every fictitious bogus “hooey” email my Mom forwarded me…..well, I’d have a lot of dollars.
Thanks for posting that. I didn’t get that forward but I’m tired of people associating Obama with Islam just because of a phonetic similarity to an Islamic extreamist.
and what made us really upset is:
1) the emails we received (well, one humongous blur of a crazy-arsed email and one link to an e-magazine, but both saying that obama is a muslim and as a muslim, he wants to destroy america, God, apple pie, the flag and Israel) were from loved ones. specifically, my well-meaning brother and my wife’s well-meaning friends. both dedicated Christians.
2) the blatant lies from the pit of hell and the nonsensical and bogus claims.
3) the xenophobia. from CHRISTIANS. in the 21st century.
thanks for sharing, Winn.
Keith Ellison a politician from Minnesota is the one who was sworn in on the Quran.
I got one that, even though it included a link to the snopes site debunking it as false, the sender acknowledged it and SENT IT ANYWAY (with the intent to propagate the falsehood as some sort of “conspiracy”).
Not so sure about the “post-40’s” comment (anecdotal at best). Personally, it took me a while to get my own teens and twenty-something kids to “check before you send.” Yes, I’m 40+.
I had an issue with the same e-mail. I had to call out a few people at my church for sending it to a number of people and ask them to send another e-mail and apologize. I read it and found the truth in just a few minutes (I use dial-up… no high speed in my area!). Come on Christians…. do a little checking before you send something like this out! I believe you are sinning when you do. The internet does not absolve you of responsibility.