Senator Obama, let our people go!

Today, Senator Obama spoke about his plan to bring money to faith-based programs. And while there is no doubt that many of these programs work and Obama would do a much more even-handed job of getting them money than Bush ever did, he also talked about faith and our obligations to help others. In that regard, Obama has set standards for himself to follow.

Most Christian denominations teach that when we accept Jesus, we become free from the bondage of sin and darkness. But that freedom comes with a responsibility -- a responsibility to help others. From the earliest foundations of time, we are taught that God rejected the notion that we are not our brothers' keepers, specifically rejecting the Republican and Libertarian notions that we are only responsible for our own well-being and not the well-being of others. The notion that we are not our brothers' keeper has shown its ugly fruits in the horror that was Katrina, where 10,000 people died thanks in part to the tragic non-response of the Bush administration.

The right-wing notion that all we have to do is say a prayer and be saved has been debunked from the very beginning by Jesus' own words, where the sheep are not necessarily Christian and the goats are not necessarily non-Christian. And in that regard, Senator Obama has a very clear responsibility to uphold the standards that he set out for himself today.

The cries of the Iraqi people have surely reached God's ears in the same way that the cries of the slaves in Egypt in Pharaoh's time did. To Senator Obama, we lay this charge -- Senator, let our people go. It may seem strange that I equate them like this. But their struggles are our struggles, and their sufferings, hurts, trials, and tribulations are ours. Nobody else will take them up on this; therefore, we must. We don't have the kind of power that Moses did to call down plagues on Pharaoh's house. But we do have the power to stoke the growing sense of moral outrage that millions of Americans are starting to feel about the Bush policy of perpetual warfare.

If Senator Obama is to become the man of faith that he aspires to be in today's speech, then he must be able to follow a simple policy -- one where his first responsibility is to be his brother's keeper, no matter where that brother happens to be around the world. That applies to this country, where millions of people are still living in poverty and unable to get healthcare. That applies in Africa, which will not solve their problems by themselves. That applies to Iraq, where over a million have died by our hands and millions more displaced.

As he himself said today, he would not be doing what is right unless he is out doing the Lord's work. That does not mean that he therefore has a 24-hour cell phone to God. The commandments are simple and are the same that have been handed down through the ages -- love the Lord and love your neighbor. Everything else is just details. What I would ask is, how is it an act of love to continue a policy which has sent 4,100 of our troops to their deaths with no just cause? How is it an act of love to displace millions of people and create a refugee problem that will dwarf the Palestinian problem?

There will come times in each person's life when they will have to make a critical choice. And John McCain came to a critical choice in his life in 2004 -- should he become John Kerry's vice president and leave a party with which he was publicly disenchanted with? Or should he sell his soul so that he could make one last run at the White House? Sadly, instead of taking the courageous choice and risking everything for the good of the country, he chose the safe way  like so many others before him did. Barack Obama will be faced with this choice when he comes to power in January -- should he take the safe path and keep us in Iraq? Or should he keep his promises and get us out of Iraq. Obama should do whatever is expedient -- it doesn't matter when we get out -- one year or three years -- as long as it is based on reality. It is better to have a good plan and get out in three years than it is to have no plan at all, withdraw right away, and make a bad situation worse. What matters is that Obama develop a process for peace and see it through no matter what.

DHinMI writes convincingly that the groundwork is in place for a Democratic landslide similar to FDR's win in 1932. But if Obama continues the occupation or escalates it, he will not be remembered as another FDR, but as another Lyndon Johnson -- someone who started with the good will from an entire country and squandered it all away in a country called Vietnam. The temptation will be there for Obama to continue the occupation -- Petraeus and many of the other people who were part of the Bush administration will still be there. But this is a temptation that he cannot give into. Just like Jesus was tempted to use his power for his own glory, Obama will be tempted to win where Bush failed. Just like Jesus was tempted to throw himself down, Obama will be tempted to use his great gifts to call attention to himself, and totally forget who elected him or helped him to power. Just like Jesus was tempted to gain the world and lose his soul, Obama will be tempted to sell himself out in the name of winning the next election.

The trap that Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, and John McCain fell into was that they hardened their own hearts against all that was good and right and became prisoners of their own fears. In that regard, they were similar to Pharaoh. For Obama to avoid that trap, he must surround himself with people who will not necessarily tell him what he wants to hear, but who will tell him what the reality is. Even Jesus could not do things by his own power, as much as Satan tempted him to. He could only become the type of person that he did because the people gave him that kind of power.