Why Barak Obama is a "Rock Star"

Senator Barak Obama is the hottest name in the Democratic Party. No one else generates the excitement of the junior senator from Illinois. This status has Democrats around the country wondering if he may run for president as soon as 2008 and if he could win. But why the excitement?

His national voice was first heard at the 2004 Democratic convention. In one of the few brilliant moves of that campaign on the Democratic side, Obama gave the keynote address and made himself an instant celebrity. At the time, he was an Illinois legislator trying to win the Senate seat. He had no great constituency from years of political activity. He was in his words a "skinny kid with big ears and a funny name." But his speech electrified Democrats because he spoke of their most central themes with a passion and conviction that had not been heard for a long time. Once he won the Senate seat the presidential speculation began. It has not stopped.

Obama gave another speech recently on AIDs in a conservative evangelical church. The speech got national notice because the minister of the church was criticized by other conservative evangelicals for daring to allow a pro-choice liberal Democrat a chance to speak at a conference on AIDs that the church was sponsoring. The minister wisely ignored them and Obama gave another example of why he is a rock star. I suggest you read the entire speech.

For me his words truly touch the nexus between Christian faith and public policy that lead me to be a liberal Democrat. Let me site two examples from the speech.

He gives an example of the connection I see between faith in God and strength through a reason...

"We should never forget that God granted us the power to reason so that we would do His work here on Earth - so that we would use science to cure disease, and heal the sick, and save lives. And one of the miracles to come out of the AIDS pandemic is that scientists have discovered medicine that can give people with HIV a new chance at life.

We are called to give them that chance."


The last sentence is an example of using the language of religion to include people of faith in a liberal policy viewpoint. He continues this language and uses it relate to an audience made up of those unlikely to ever share his political views, but may share some of his political goals.

"But the reason for us to step up our efforts can't simply be instrumental. There are more fundamental reasons to care. Reasons related to our own humanity. Reasons of the soul.

Like no other illness, AIDS tests our ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes - to empathize with the plight of our fellow man. While most would agree that the AIDS orphan or the transfusion victim or the wronged wife contracted the disease through no fault of their own, it has too often been easy for some to point to the unfaithful husband or the promiscuous youth or the gay man and say "This is your fault. You have sinned."

I don't think that's a satisfactory response. My faith reminds me that we all are sinners.

My faith also tells me that - as Pastor Rick has said - it is not a sin to be sick. My Bible tells me that when God sent his only Son to Earth, it was to heal the sick and comfort the weary; to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; to befriend the outcast and redeem those who strayed from righteousness.

Living His example is the hardest kind of faith - but it is surely the most rewarding. It is a way of life that can not only light our way as people of faith, but guide us to a new and better politics as Americans."


I have no special insight on the political prospects for Obama in 2008 or what kind of president he would make. I don't know much about what kind of person Obama is away from the public eye. All I know is that the power of his words as they capture the ideal of how the messages of liberalism and Christianity could change things. A "better politics" would make a better world as would a better faith in Christ's message of love for all of us.