Obama (finally!) discussed his positive experience with Islam in Indonesia. He described it as a tolerant faith which lived comfortably with other religions, in a society where women had freedom and dignity. He concluded by saying that it was clear to him that Islam, like other religious traditions, had much to offer the modern world.

Obama went on to say that he disagreed with the Clash of Civilizations framework, and the Compassion Forum was an example of how people from all faiths could relate to each other, around the common table of shared values like compassion that could be turned into concrete action.

He said he thought the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was a good idea, but that he didn’t like the way George Bush had carried it out – basically as a stage for one particular faith group to have its way.

Obama repeated the line he first stated in his great speech at Sojourners a couple of years ago – that America is a Christian nation, a Jewish nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, a Muslim nation, an atheist nation, etc. And out of all these types of religious experience, we have to somehow become one country.

Obama ended the speech on a grace-note – that his faith teaches him to act out of hope, not fear.

Hope is exactly the emotion I bet that Muslim kid on the other side of the world was feeling as he listened to this.

Here was my hope, as I sat in the second row of Messiah College, taking this in:

If we want to, once and for all, put the lie of the Clash of Civilizations framework to rest. If we want to honor the fact of religious diversity in America and the world. If we believe that all religions hold compassion in common and we want to channel that energy into concrete change, promoting cooperation along the way.

Then why not have an Office of Interfaith Initiatives in an Obama White House?