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THE QUESTION
Obama and Religious Fervor
Do you believe that Barack Obama elicits religious fervor among his followers as some have suggested? Is this good or bad, and why do you think so?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on February 23, 2008 7:03 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Strong on Inspiration, Soft on Faith
Yes, Obama inspires revival-style fervor. Can we call it religious, though? I don’t think so. Will he challenge us to push each other beyond silence, sameness, and apathy, or enable us to tread water happily under the banner of hope?
Posted by Donna Freitas, on February 25, 2008 10:29 AM
Obama's Hope is Secular
Therein lies the power of Obama's message. His attempt to reorient American politics is decidedly secular, a return to those springs of origin, or, to paraphrase Rabbi Akiva, the cleansing waters of hope.
Posted by Andy Bachman, on February 23, 2008 9:09 AM
Obama Casting a Good and Needed Spell
Magically speaking, then, Obama is casting a good spell. Whether he wins or loses, he’s filling the psychic and emotional atmosphere with words like ‘healing’ and ‘hope’. The effect is like a clean breeze blowing through a morass of stinking, noxious fumes.
Posted by Starhawk, on February 23, 2008 8:16 AM
Fervor Can Move Us or Manipulate Us
Billy Graham elicits fervor. So did Adolf Hitler. The issue is whether the fervor leads the candidate and the nation in the right direction.
Posted by John Shelby Spong, on February 23, 2008 7:42 AM
Obama's Three Levels of Oratory
Among the surviving presidential candidates, Obama is the only orator. He will be our next president.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on February 23, 2008 6:11 AM
Obama and the Catholic Vote
The slow move away from Clinton gives us another theory: perhaps Catholics are just slower to switch their loyalties than other Americans. After all, they stick with the church through thick and thin.
Posted by Thomas J. Reese, S.J., on February 22, 2008 8:05 AM
Obama Taps Into Spiritual Hunger
Yet people want more than a parsing of policy. They want to be inspired.
Posted by Thomas G. Bohlin, on February 21, 2008 10:03 AM
The Thing with Feathers
Hope is the profoundly religious cord that Obama has struck in the minds and hearts of Americans. Religion is the search for ultimate meaning and purpose in life.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on February 20, 2008 8:18 AM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Faithless in US: Obama is walking the fine line between a kool-aid mongering cultist and bona fide political alternative.
His posture is purely pragmatic th...
betsy: Obama elicits something in people...but it may not be religious fervor. I think it is spiritual aspiration...aspiration or hope for human b...
