Posted by Dave on 03/19/08 at 01:22:13 pm
Categories: Barack Obama, Campaign 2008, Community

Mark Schmitt has an excellent article on the communitarian aspect of Obama, and specifically Obama's church:

His work as an organizer led him to the church, the church was the heart of the community in which he was working, he became religious because of his commitment to social change. It was neither personal, nor familial, but part of his forming an identity, but not just as an individual, as a member of a community.

Most importantly, what he found at TUCC was more than social change. What he found there was community. What he found was a sense of belonging to others.

Obama should not, and cannot, just reject and leave TUCC. Because that would be rejecting the very community, and in reality - family, that he has grown to be a part of over the past twenty years.

For those who have been reading this blog for a long time, you know that I find the communal aspect of religion, and specifically that of Christianity, to be the core component. The essence of the Christian life is community. Sometimes it is wonderful. Sometimes it is really, really messy. Sometimes you love the people you are with. Sometimes you cannot stand them. But it is community, and you are committed to one another in that.

Obama was and is committed to the people at TUCC. And he is committed to his communal relationship with Rev. Wright. A commenter at Ezra Klein's blog said it like this:

His second point is that Obama didn't choose religion and his church for personal reasons. He came to it as a result of the necessities of organizing. But once there, he found something more meaningful than simply the word of God: he found community, a second family. To abandon his church then, even in the face of Wright's unpalatable remarks, would be to abandon that community. That's not something one does lightly.

And that is exactly right. You do not just leave the community you are in. You do not "abandon" the community that you are invested in and that has invested in you.

Again... did Rev. Wright say some controversial things? Absolutely. Is Obama right to reject some of those things? Perhaps. But I do not expect nor desire to see Obama reject his friend and abandon his community.

And I respect him even more for not doing so.

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