This text came to mind in thinking about the impact that Presidential candidate Barack Obama is having on contemporary American politics. The rhetorical and emotive chords he has struck in the hearts and minds of citizens who are voting for him across the demographic spectrum is, without question, unlike anything we've seen in more than a generation. A quick look at Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s Journals shows us that even with John F. Kennedy running for President nearly 50 years ago, there was not this level of fervor at this stage of the campaign.

To be sure, one hears echoes of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Obama's rhetoric (and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, as we've learned!)

And of additional interest to this broader religion and politics question is that rather than ending his speeches with the classic American political mantra of "God bless you and God bless America," Obama ends his arena appearances with "goodnight and I love you." He has secularized the closing moment, making him less a religious figure and more a popular culture sensation. Think Springsteen or Bono in an arena, raising money for Farm Aid or to stop genocide in Darfur. Obama has, more than any other figure in American politics today (this is much big than President Clinton playing the saxophone on Arsenio Hall!) tapped into the easy melding of celebrity, meaning, and activism in an extraordinary way.

So is there a "religious" component to this? I don't think so. The front-row fainting seems to be more Beatles than Pentecostal Tent Meeting. While it's true that the Evangelicals could fill a stadium with hungry listeners and faithful followers, just like Obama now does, it speaks more to his personal charisma and the deeply rooted desire that millions in our country have voiced for a new way in politics and civic engagement.

While it is true that Americans continually poll as being more broadly faithful than Europeans, I think that Obama's attraction is in his community-based message, his emphasis on the word "we," and the downright optimism of slogan, "Yes, We Can!"

As suggested by his book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama has discovered that this simplest of human emotions was eager to be set loose on the land. And like the well-trained community organizer he is, combining brilliant grass-roots tactics with a cutting-edge web-based team, Obama has gone to the early wellsprings of American political life--the broad-based involvement is clearly secular and civic in nature. It's as if our new era of politics in this country uses the national stage to build local activism, joined together by the world-wide-web.

If there is any hint of religious fervor in his message, it's found more in the Deism of Jefferson than any particular faith community today. Remember: when Martin Luther King stood at the Lincoln Memorial and used the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident," he was quoting Thomas Jefferson. And 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.