Obama on the Role of Faith in American Political Life

Arguably, the most important contemporary remarks regarding the place of faith in American political life were made to the Call to Renewal convention in June 2006, by Barack Obama. Mr Obama declared “secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King— indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history — were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.” Yet Mr. Obama also argued that those motivated by faith must seek universal values (to persuade even non-believers) when seeking to implement their faith based objectives in the political arena.

Mr. Obama has posted this address on his website: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/

I recommend that you visit YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4nPeC8SIM, to hear this keynote address.

In my estimation this speech is worth the attention of study groups on both the religious and secular side of the separation of church and state debate.