Don’t surround yourself with yourself

By Carter Bundy

This week is an unusual one, because the religious calendar and political events seem to have converged in an unusual way. For the last week, the controversy over Barack Obama’s pastor has led many Americans to question what it means to be a member of a particular church.

The furor over Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermons was so great as to cause one of the three finalists for most powerful person on the planet to essentially put his campaign on hold while he penned his thoughts that arose from the controversy.

Obama’s speech, to his great credit, didn’t focus on the narrow question of the relationship between pastor and flock. Rather, he dealt with bigger questions: How do – and how should – we interact with those who are different from ourselves?

Two disclaimers: First, my union has endorsed Hillary, and I strongly believe she’s the best person to undo the damage from the Bush years. Second, I grew up Christian and believe strongly in Jesus’ message, but am somewhat agnostic as to what happens after we die, and by no means am I any kind of Biblical scholar.

Empathy is everything

What was incredible about Barack’s speech was his ability to capture the frustrations and anger of groups as disparate as older politically-active African American civil-rights battle veterans and apolitical blue-collar Anglos. As different as scared white seniors and despondent black youth.

He was brilliant, accurate and most importantly, empathetic. He rightly condemned the more vicious comments of Reverent Wright, who unfairly painted white America with a broad brush. He rightly pointed out that his pastor simply had it wrong by saying that America is what’s wrong with the world.

But he also was able to see the world through the eyes of a generation of African Americans who knew American apartheid first hand. He was perceptive enough to acknowledge that American foreign policy has indeed at times backfired on us, fueling an image of America that we know is different from what most of us believe.

Then, amazingly, the son of a Kenyan who grew up in Hawaii summarized white resentment as thoughtfully as any American leader, white or black, has in decades.

By sheer serendipity, this week I finally got around to listening to a sermon a friend from Danville, Virginia sent a while ago. I’m pretty sure his pastor (Jim Reed) was speaking to a largely white audience when he told them that when they get to heaven, they’d better be prepared to be a minority, with everyone around them speaking different languages.

I’m agnostic about the afterlife part, but I think that the pastor’s point already applies here on Earth. He said that it’s not enough to be “tolerant” of others. Tolerance is lame. Tolerance watered-down. Tolerance is weak. We need to actively embrace diversity, not just “tolerate” others, because that’s what God does.

About 20 minutes into the sermon, I kept thinking of the lyrics from a Yes song: “Don’t surround yourself with yourself.” Try to learn about the experiences of others. Put yourself in their shoes.

None of us will ever know what it’s like to be in someone else’s position, but making an active attempt to think and feel through others’ situations is the best we can do.

Barack has had the great fortune of being surrounded by people of different backgrounds and experiences both by birth and by choice. As a result, he shows outstanding capacity for empathy. His rare public exhibition of racial and generational empathy was something special.

Face value

The Danville sermon emphasized that we should learn to take each other as individuals at face value and not pre-judge based on race, language, ethnicity, class or even other personal associations – including religious affiliation.

One of the charges now being leveled against Barack is that he doesn’t love America enough to be president, because he associated himself with Rev. Wright.

I disagree. I believe Barack loves America. It appears at least two times over the course of 20 years (probably more, although there’s nothing to indicate that this was a regular or even substantial part of the guy’s 52-weeks-a-year sermons) his reverend lashed out at America.

I’m completely appalled at Rev. Wright’s tone and some of his verbiage (“God Damn America” in particular), but substantively, we do have a long, shameful history of slavery and apartheid. And yes, our foreign policy has at times been at odds with our American rhetoric and aspirations.

Still, just based on tone and broad stereotypes of America, if Rev. Wright were running for president, I couldn’t support him. But Barack isn’t Rev. Wright. Barack didn’t stereotype. Barack didn’t use the same angry tone about America. He deserves to be considered as his own man.

Barack doesn’t surround himself with himself. Is that Christian? The Danville pastor’s sermon would seem to say so. It’s not really my place to say. But I do know Barack did a masterful job of showing respect and understanding of those different from himself. That can’t be bad. Happy Easter.

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.