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On Sunday I flew my brother Josh into Philly from Boston for the week. It has been a while since we’ve had some good hang time, so I took the week off of work and we’re just gonna hang out all week.

It just so happened that Don Miller was campaigning for Obama in Virginia on Monday night, and since Josh is an Obama guy, and I’m a Don Miller guy, it seemed like a good opportunity.

That was yesterday, and here’s what went down:

2:30pm - Josh and I fill up the Jetta with gas and head out. Without traffic this trip should take about 2.5 hours. I’m enjoying a Coke Zero.

4:30pm - We hit a bit of rush hour traffic in the D.C. area. I am not enjoying the Coke Zero anymore because I have to pee something fierce. Josh has never been to D.C. so he enjoys the glimpses of the Capitol building and the Washington Monument as we drive through.

5:30pm - Normally our bodies are 70% water. My body is now 70% urine. Traffic is CRAWLING in Virginia as we drive past the Pentagon.

6:00pm - So much for 2.5 hours. 3.5 hours later we finally arrive at Virginia Theological Seminary where this campaign stop is being held. These are not huge events. It’s just Donald Miller sharing some thoughts and answering questions. For some (maybe all) of these events he is joined by Joshua Dubois, the National Director of Religious Affairs for Barack Obama (here’s an article on him if you’re interested). I text Don to see if he is here yet, but he replies and says he is about to leave the hotel.

7:00pm - There’s maybe 25 people gathered in this small auditorium to hear Don. A dozen or so more will trickle in over the next hour. I feel a hand on my shoulder…it’s Don, offering a warm “good to see you, Bryan” and an even warmer cinnamon roll from Cinnabon. I introduce him to Josh and then he takes a seat up front so he can be introduced. (And sadly, I made up the part about the cinnamon roll)

7:15pm - Don talks for 10-15 minutes on why he is voting for Obama, and specifically why he believes Obama is the best candidate for people of faith. He highlights abortion…John McCain has no plan to reduce abortions other than criminalizing it, which will mostly likely not happen…Conservative Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has said that Roe V Wade is “settled as the law of the land”…even if Roe was overturned, it would give power back to states, and abortion is legal in some states independent of Roe, meaning women could travel to get them anyway, or have them illegally…Obama has adopted the 95-10 initiative that has a stated goal of reducing abortions by 95% over the next 10 years. (some have said there’s a better chance of it reducing abortions by 10% over 95 years, but for what it’s worth it is, at least, a plan)…i think those were most of his points on that issue.

7:30pm - Don opens it up to questions. Typical Q&A fare happens. Good questions and good responses. Right at the end the organizer gets up to close things but a man who didn’t get a chance to ask a question pipes up that he has one last question. When the organizer starts to tell the man that we really need to close things up, he tells her “No. I don’t think so. You sit down!” We all looked around like, who is this dirtbag? But the organizers stayed calm and even let him ask his question and get it answered. Good for them.

8:00pm - Josh and I meet a Japanese guy who is drawn to Josh’s Red Sox jacket. We talk about Matsuzaka, Okajima, and this guy’s website - Sushi 4 Obama. This guy was cracking us up, very funny.

8:30pm - Don invites Josh and I out with a group of other folks for a beer. We drive 15 minutes down to Old Town, which apparently is a part of Alexandria right down on the water. Reminds me of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, very cool.

9:30pm - I didn’t get a chance to talk to Don much, but it was cool because there were 3 people there who work for the International Justice Mission, the cause that I blogged about the other day. The one dude’s name was Andrew, and the other dude’s name was something that I can’t remember. Brandon, perhaps? I’m terrible with names. But we got to talk about my book and my sites and IJM and all sorts of stuff like that. It was very cool.

11:00pm - We left the bar and had a 2.5 hour drive back. The first 30 minutes we spent listening to the end of the Red Sox game, which was amazing. Mike Sociable and his suicide squeeze blew up in his face like an overblown balloon. Then Jay Bay and Jed Lowrie got it done. Awesome.

1:30am - We rolled into the driveway, tired, but not too tired to watch the replay of the end of the Sox game. More Awesomeness. And off to bed.

All in all it was a great night. Good company, good discussion, and minimal traffic make for a great road trip. I’m glad we got to go. If you get a chance to hear Don Miller speak, it’s always a good idea. Even if you don’t agree with him on everything, he’ll always make you think.

Tags: Alexandria, Barack Obama, Donald Miller

My friends Jordan Green and John Pattison have interviewed Donald Miller for the Burnside Writers Collective Blog. They did a good job with the interview, and I thought Don did a good job with his answers. Whether you agree or disagree with Don’s decision to vote for (and campaign for) Barack, I think it’s worth a read. Here’s a highlight:

Barack is the only candidate willing to talk about his faith in Jesus. Other candidates are reluctant, but Obama is not. He is the only one who has consistently talked about the cross, about redemption, and about repentance. Many white evangelicals have a misconception about Barack…they believe that because he is a Democrat, he cannot be a Christian. But times have changed, culture has changed, and political parties change. So one of the reasons I support Barack is because he is my Christian brother, and other Christians are rejecting him.

Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Miller, Vote

Christian author Tony Jones - an Obama supporter - was asked by Obama’s campaign to be a part of some conference calls with Obama staffers. He shares what went down on one of those calls here.

One of the things Tony throws out there is that abortions declined under Clinton, but rose during Bush’s campaign. Is that true? Are abortions rising under Bush? Apparently not. This May 2005 article shows that there was a small decline in 2000 and 2001 under Bush. (0.8% each year), despite what an earlier published report had said.

In fact, if you go to the Guttmacher Institute’s website, you can get a much clearer picture of what is happening with abortions in this country. Now, I realize that some have called the GI’s numbers into question because they support women’s sexual and reproductive rights, so take that into consideration. (Critics of the GI claim their agenda is to show decreases in abortion in countries where it is legal and to inflate the number of abortion-related deaths (to mothers) in countries where it is illegal. That being said, the GI statistics for abortions in the U.S. are generally considered valid and are the best we have.)

Here are the # of abortions per 1000 women aged 15-44, by year:

It appears that abortion is on the decline, which I believe is a good thing. PERIOD.

Here’s another interesting article I wanted to pass along. Camille Paglia (a self-proclaimed atheist libertarian) recently wrote an article for Salon.com in which she reiterates her pro-choice stance on abortion. What you’ll find interesting is that she does not deny that abortion is murder. Here’s part of the article (with my emphasis added):

Let’s take the issue of abortion rights, of which I am a firm supporter. As an atheist and libertarian, I believe that government must stay completely out of the sphere of personal choice. Every individual has an absolute right to control his or her body. (Hence I favor the legalization of drugs, though I do not take them.) Nevertheless, I have criticized the way that abortion became the obsessive idée fixe of the post-1960s women’s movement — leading to feminists’ McCarthyite tactics in pitting Anita Hill with her flimsy charges against conservative Clarence Thomas (admittedly not the most qualified candidate possible) during his nomination hearings for the Supreme Court. Similarly, Bill Clinton’s support for abortion rights gave him a free pass among leading feminists for his serial exploitation of women — an abusive pattern that would scream misogyny to any neutral observer.

But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, “Sexual Personae,”) has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature’s fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive. Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. The state in my view has no authority whatever to intervene in the biological processes of any woman’s body, which nature has implanted there before birth and hence before that woman’s entrance into society and citizenship.

On the other hand, I support the death penalty for atrocious crimes (such as rape-murder or the murder of children). I have never understood the standard Democratic combo of support for abortion and yet opposition to the death penalty. Surely it is the guilty rather than the innocent who deserve execution?

Now, I realize that she does not speak for all pro-choice proponents when she admits that she believes abortion is murder, so don’t put more weight on this woman’s claims than they are worth. I only linked to it because it was the first time I had ever read anything like it.

Finally, back to Tony Jones, who in a follow-up post on Obama and abortion said the following (again, my emphasis added):

I don’t expect any of you who are ideological about the issue of abortion to be swayed by my reasoning, or by Barack Obama’s for that matter. You can go ahead and vote for McCain/Palin and assume that they’ll actually change things. You can keep telling yourself, “We just need one…more…justice to overturn Roe v. Wade.” You can keep throwing good money after bad and support candidates who pander to you on ideological grounds. That’s your prerogative.

But for my part, I’m more interested in convincing moderate and progressive evangelicals to vote for BO. So, to those of you on the fence, let me say a few things: progressive Christians don’t love abortion, they despise it. It’s a terrible blight on our society. But criminalizing an activity does not eliminate it from society, be it crystal meth, rape, or graffiti. So when people say to you, “The point isn’t to reduce abortions, the point is to eliminate them,” you can say to them, “I think you need to go feed your unicorn and see if the leprechaun is still guarding your pot of gold.”

So, in summary

…the best data we have at this point suggests that abortions have declined ever-so-slightly under President Bush - let’s keep that going no matter who is President

…there’s at least one pro-choice liberal out there who sees abortion as murder and is ok with it - but a caution to any pro-lifers who would now want to quote this woman in their arguments, her views on abortion as murder might align with yours, but that might be the only one that does. save for this one notion, you’d probably call her a “looney liberal” and dismiss her as a whacko.

…in Tony Jones’ opinion, criminalizing abortion won’t solve the problem. Abortions will still happen frequently (and will likely be more dangerous to the mothers).

I won’t pose any questions to y’all…but if you have thoughts on any of this, feel free to weigh in.

Tags: Abortion, Barack Obama, Tony Jones, Vote

I received a copy of Stephen Mansfield’s “The Faith of Barack Obama” last month because I asked for one. Thomas Nelson provided free copies to a bunch of bloggers who promised to review it, whether the review be a positive or negative one. I like reading, I like free books, and I wanted to know more about Obama, so it was a win-win-win.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the book. It was well-written, it provided lots of great insight into Obama, and at 144 pages it felt like just the right length.

Here’s some of the notes I took as I read the book, with little editing:

+ I like how Mansfield opened the book with Obama’s quote, “We worship an awesome God in the Blue States.” (page xiv) I think I’ve met some Christians who don’t think it’s possible for Blue Staters (aka democrats) to worship God, but it was great to hear that come out of Obama’s mouth.

+ Mansfield writes, “Religiously, the majority of America’s young are postmodern, which means they do faith like jazz: informal, eclectic, and often without theme.” I mean, if you’re going to invoke “jazz Christianity” you have to at least mention Don Miller, don’t you?

+ Mansfield notes that Obama would be the first president not raised in a Christian home if he wins this election. (p. 3). Thought that was fascinating. Does it scare me? Honestly, not really. Being raised in a Christian home doesn’t make anyone a Christian. And while I believe the values that Jesus taught help us to live better, these values are not exclusive to Christianity. (Faith in Christ is, but that is something different than being raised by Christian parents.)

+ Obama believes that the doubts one has in regards to his faith is a form of testimony. “In fact, it’s not faith if you’re absolutely certain,” he said. (p 54) I kinda liked that.

+ Mansfield notes that as Obama’s political career began he was “not very religious” and he was told it would be a barrier between himself and the people (p 23). Do what you will with that statement. I found it a bit troubling, myself, but only a bit.

+ On page 55 Mansfield quotes Obama as saying, “I am rooted in Christian tradition,” nevertheless he asserts, “I believe that there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief in a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.” Some might read that statement and immediately think “heresy!” Others might think there’s a lot of truth in it. I’ll leave that to you to discern for yourself.

+ I really enjoyed learning about Obama’s life as a child. Growing up being reared by his mom, living in Hawaii, and his eventual move back to the contiguous 48. It was information that helped me to understand him better, and helped me to appreciate the path he’s taken to be so successful.

+ Obama’s thoughts on the Bible: “When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not a static text but the Living Word and that I must be continually open to new revelations - whether they come from a lesbian friend or a doctor opposed to abortion.” (make sure you read that carefully before you cast judgment either way) (p 58)

+ Mansfield spent a lot of time talking about Jeremiah Wright and Trinity Church, and how their take on Christianity was permeated by a “defining, if understandable, spirit of anger…” toward white America, the history of black suffering, and the U.S. government. He notes that even if Obama “refused to drink from this bitter stream, he was mentored by those who did.” I think he makes a valid point here. Do I think Obama hates his government? No, not at all. Do I think some of what Reverend Wright taught was true and beneficial? Absolutely. It’s just easy to wonder what types of negative seeds were planted, if any, while Barack sat under Wright’s teaching. (and to be fair, I have no idea whose teaching, if any, John McCain has ever sat under.)

So, here’s a little Q&A to wrap up this review:

Was I glad I read the book? Absolutely. It gave me insight into Obama’s personal life that I might not have otherwise had. As Mansfield himself says in the book, whether or not Obama wins the presidency in 08, he is going to be an influential figure in our country for years to come, so it’s good to know about where he came from and what shapes his worldview.

Did it feel weird reading a book about another guy’s spirituality? Yeah, it sort of did. It’s hard to read a book like this and not be judgmental. I mean, I don’t normally walk around evaluating other people’s quotes and thoughts on God. So that part of this felt strange. I tried to just take it all in and process it as a whole instead of picking apart every quote.

Will this book affect who I vote for in November? Yeah, I think it will. Because I’ve been given more information about Obama…information that has to factor in, if even only a little bit.

Do I know who I’m voting for now? No, Can’t say that I do. Lots of debates left between the candidates. Lots of info I still need to learn about the issues and the candidates stances. Even a few other candidates I need to learn more about.

Do I think Barack Obama is a Christian? I don’t know. He says he is, so why wouldn’t I believe him? I realize that he is not affiliated with the traditional “Christian” party, but that really doesn’t have anything to do with his faith in Christ. He also might have differing views than I do on some issues, but again, I don’t know what he truly believes, other than what he says. (and honestly, I’m not too concerned with whether or not a candidate is a Christian or not. That’s a heart/faith issue. If I want to know how it affects his politics, I’ll just evaluate his politics without trying to evaluate the state of his soul. But that’s just me.)

Do I think it’s important that our President is a Christian? Honestly, not really. Do I want a man running the country with good values, morals, and ethics? Absolutely. But these things are not exclusive to Christianity. And as we all know, many Christians fail in these areas from time to time, myself included. All other things being equal, yes I’d rather have a man/woman in office who shared the same beliefs I do, but all other things are not equal. I can expound upon that more if I need to, but for now I’ll leave it at that.

Do I recommend the book? Absolutely. It’s an objectively written, well-crafted book. If you’re looking for more info on Barack Obama, specifically with regards to his spirituality, then go ahead and pick it up.

Tags: Barack Obama, Stephen Mansfield