Saturday, November 29, 2008

BLISSFUL THINKING?

Eight years ago, Democratic nominee Al, and his spouse, Tipper Gore tried to create a loving moment at the Democratic convention. The nation was not prepared for the five second spectacle it was about to witness.
In a staged attempt to show the nation an example of a loving couple, what the nation actually got was a kiss of such nauseating magnitude, a show so staged and ludicrous that it transcended true affection into a fake carnal "can't wait to get back into the motel room" make out scene.
Now known as "The Kiss," it marked a new era in political acting, transcending even his former bosses audacity to hold the hand of his spouse, a woman who was publicly humiliated by ex-President Clinton's continued, and persistent philandering.

The Obama's seem to be quite the opposite to the casual observer. They seem to share a common affection for each other, and a genuine shared likability factor, a quality much more uncommon than love for long married couples. There is a genuineness that exudes when seeing these two together.

In fact, the only times you can really see the measure of the man behind the scenes of our next President is when he is sitting next to his wife. In public, Obama parses his words, and each phrase is carefully measured, so much so that the Obama hesitations when speaking off the cuff, are becoming legendary to comedians everywhere. It may be the one tick impressionists can capitalize on.

But when the Obama's are together in an interview (most recently interviewed by Barbara Walters over the weekend on ABC), it is Mrs. Obama that seems overly careful about her words, and Barack seems more than willing to crack a joke, or show his real personality. Her presence seems to give him a self confidence, an ease, which may be altogether unwise for a president, but it is there.

On the fluff subject offered up by Walters concerning a dog, Barack called Walters dog (a Havanese), a "yappie" dog, and "girlie." He discussed his parental style, and claimed not to be "too soft" on his children. He smiled, he laughed, and they seemed to be very much in love without the sickeningly sweet political need to hold hands or smooch on camera. They came off as very real and very much in love with each other.

So, why should we care? Because the nation as a whole has lost its moral compass, and the last two generations have been marked with the continuing decay of the American domestic family. This down slide has manifested itself in many ways, most importantly with higher crime rates among our youth, and a ever increasingly higher rate of poverty among the one parent families. Not to mention the moral effect on discipline and family values adversely effected by a one parent household. The single parent is so preoccupied with providing for the family unit financially, it inevitably results in a lack of parental supervision, and a decreased sense of belonging to the family unit among the children.

As important as this is to the nation as a whole, these pronounced circumstances have devastated the black community. For African-Americans, the image of a powerful black couple in love is particularly meaningful. In the 2005 census, 51 percent of American women reported they were living without a spouse. Among African-Americans, this number rose to 70 percent. With such a high percentage of black people unmarried, everyone is looking for images of black love. The Obamas personify that. It makes people say, "Wow, we want to be like them."

Will the Obama family start to bring about a new wave of family values with their example of the black nuclear family? I hope so. It is a daunting task, but one that I am certain has crossed the minds of each of the Obamas. We have lost the family unit to a certain extent, and one might argue, so has the White House itself. Not since the Kennedy's have we had a President and First Lady seemingly in love with each other, and even then, their relationship was marked with the repeated grumblings of his alleged cheating.

The Obama's may signify a new appreciation for the nuclear family unit, and loving partnerships unknown to Pennsylvania Avenue in quite some time. In testimony to this, I end with a quote from Barack; certainly a risky thing to say for a Presidential candidate to be sure, but here it is...."Michelle is one of the smartest people I know. She is my chief counsel and adviser. I would never make big decisions without asking her opinion."

The Obama's; seemingly a genuine partnership based on love, and mutual religious convictions. The question is, will anybody notice, or even care?

5 comments:

Mark said...

She rocks his world. Love is incredible and although many have let it go; something still to believe in. The legacy of his leadership is still to come yet his devotion to his wife and children has for me and hopefully others helping us be better now no matter what political party or color.

Papa Giorgio said...

.

Oh God! Could you imagine such a sonnet by Mark for the love story and road to faith between Laura and George? Give me a left-leaning-break! Their belief in god includes a black god who is against whiteness. I finished reading two books (cover-to-cover) that Obama's church of over twenty years sells in their book store: Black Theology & Black Power; and, A Black Theology of Liberation. I suggest you two love birds (and others here) order any one of these books and read them. It is just like Mein Kampf... except with more theology. I think if anyone here actually read any of these two books and then mention in the same breath that if Bush and his wife went to such a church that a blog about their love entwined with a religious KKK (which is Christian Identity) theology would be given the positive ray of light it was shown here. I guess being a theological racist is fine if you are a Democrat?

... more to come.

.

Papa Giorgio said...

James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1970).

It is dangerous because the true prophet of the gospel of God must become both "anti-Christian" and "unpatriotic." (55)

Because whiteness by its very nature is against blackness, the black prophet is a prophet of national doom. He proclaims the end of the "American Way..." (56)

But this does not mean that religion is irrelevant altogether; it only means that religion unrelated to black liberation is irrelevant. (58-59)

... it is that whites are incapable of making any valid judgment about human existence. The goal of black theology is the destruc¬tion of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien gods. The God of black liberation will not be confused with a blood' thirsty white idol. Black theology must show that the black God has nothing to do with the God worshiped in white churches whose primary purpose is to sanctify the racism of whites and to daub the wounds of blacks. Putting new wine in new wineskins means that the black theology view of God has nothing in common with those who prayed for an American victory in Vietnam or who pray for a "cool" summer in the ghetto.... There is no place in black theology for a colorless God in a society where human beings suffer precisely because of their color. The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism.... Because God has made the goal of blacks God's own goal, black theology believes that it is not only appropriate but necessary to begin the doctrine of God with an insistence on God's blackness. (62-63)

White religionists are not capable of perceiving the blackness of God, because their satanic whiteness is a denial of the very essence of divinity. That is why whites are finding and will continue to find the black experience a disturbing reality. (64)

In contrast to this racist view of God, black theology proclaims God's blackness. Those who want to know who God is and what God is doing must know who black persons are and what they are doing. (65)

God comes to us in God's blackness, which is wholly unlike white¬ness. To receive God's revelation is to become black with God by joining God in the work of liberation.... Becoming one of God's disciples means rejecting whiteness and accepting themselves as they are in all their physical blackness. (66)


Black theology cannot accept a view of God which does not represent God as being for oppressed blacks and thus against white oppressors. Living in a world of white oppressors, blacks have no time for a neutral God. The brutalities are too great and the pain too severe, and this means we must know where God is and what God is doing in the revolution.... What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power, which is the power of blacks to destroy their oppressors, here and now, by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject God's love. (70)

God is black because God loves us; and God loves us because we are black. Righteousness is that side of God which expresses itself through black liberation. God makes black what humans have made white.... Love is a refusal to accept whiteness. (73-74)

If creation "involves a bringing into existence of something that did not exist before," then to say God is creator means that my being finds its source in God. I am black because God is black! God as creator is the ground of my blackness (being), the point of reference for meaning and purpose in the universe.... Rather it is incumbent upon me by the freedom granted by the creator to deny whiteness and affirm blackness as the essence of God. That is why it is necessary to speak of the black revolution rather than reformation. The idea of reformation suggests that there is still something "good" in the system itself, which needs only to be cleaned up a bit. This is a false perception of reality. The system is based on whiteness, and what is necessary is a replacement of whiteness with blackness. (75-76)

Being white excludes them from the black community and thus whatever concern they have for blacks will invariably work against black freedom.... Certainly if whites expect to be able to say anything relevant to the self-determination of the black community, it will be necessary for them to destroy their whiteness by becoming members of an oppressed community. Whites will be free only when they become new persons—when their white being has passed away and they are created anew in black being. When this happens, they are no longer white but free, and thus capable of making decisions about the destiny of the black community. (97)

“Born Again” redefined:
They [white people] would destroy themselves and be born again as beautiful black persons. (103)

“Sin” redefined:
This means that whites, despite their self-proclaimed religiousness, are rendered incapable of making valid judgments on the character of sin.... In a word, sin is whiteness... (106, 108)

“Salvation” redefined:
Salvation, then, primarily has to do with earthly reality and the injustice inflicted on those who are helpless and poor. To see the salvation of God is to see this people rise up against its oppressors, demanding that justice become a reality now, not tomorrow. (128)

Kim said...

Good Lord, all I wanted was for young black fathers to stop going out for a pack of smokes....

Papa Giorgio said...

.

As always, very funny. The one thing that the black community is missing are black role models that are all about family (as you pointed out). And, if the net affect is the strengthening of the black family without all the religious views of Obama following... then great. But there are other positive black role models out there both on the left and right that would be healthier for the positive worldview that is needed to embolden said "nuclear family."

A president who is black and believes the white man is a burden to all societies and Christianity that isn't in the Nicaraguan/Marxist liberation stripe is all false, is, well, crazy.

.