[lit-ideas] Obama, Warren, Faith and Change

The following is a piece that I just wrote for Best of the Blogs.

> This morning's *Japan Times* reprints a *Washington Post 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011902374.html>
> *article<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011902374.html>
>  by
> Sally Quin titled "Pastor Rick's Evolution." In her lead paragraph she
> writes,
>
> Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his
> inauguration has been characterized as — at best — a giant blunder. But it
> might turn out to be just another canny move from this supremely confident
> politician.
>
> I found myself liking this article and not just because of its evidence
> that Obama may have more influence on Warren than vice-versa. Reflecting on
> my response, I realized that it spoke to a lifelong conviction that judging
> people for what they are, or rather what we perceive them to be, assuming
> that we know what they are and that they will never change, is fundamentally
> wrong.
>
> I have spent my life reacting to people's attempts to put me in this or
> that box and infer some "therefore" about my life's possibilities by showing
> them otherwise. I am, after all, so American, the descendant and heir of
> people who left behind who they were to recreate themselves. I am not naive.
> I recognize full well how so many of us get stuck in our self-definitions or
> face obstacles in prejudice. I know that we we are physical beings with
> strengths and limitations in our bodies and more of the latter as we age. I
> know that we have histories and have made choices that may have created
> situations that are, indeed, irretrievable. Still,whenever I hear someone
> say, to me or to someone else,  "You are X, therefore Y," my immediate
> response is, "Says who?"
>
> And why shouldn't I believe that Rick Warren, a man of his time and
> tradition, could nonetheless be open to change? The major and minor crises
> of faith are part of my own experience. Had my life's trajectory been just a
> little different, I might have wound up as a member of Pastor Rick's
> congregation, or a rival with a church of my own.
>
> Can he change? Can we change? Yes, we can.
>
John

-- 
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/

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