I often start sermons in United Church of Christ churches by reminding our faithful that we are the people who do not believe you have to “check your brains at the door” when you enter church. You see we in the United Church of Christ are the Pilgrims. Some of the deepest theological reflections ever written on the human condition lived before God, ever preached, ever published in this country were composed by our UCC ancestors in the Pilgrim tradition. Cotton Mather, John Robinson, Jonathan Edwards and Horace Bushnell, to name just a few, are our intellectual and spiritual ancestors. And believe you me they did not sugarcoat the human condition so they wouldn’t get anybody upset. This is who we are, Mr. Kristol. In the UCC there is no opposition between heart and head, between thinking and belief.

The reason you are having a hard time recognizing Senator Obama’s faith as the deep life commitment it has become for him is because the public face of faith for too long has been irrational Bible-thumping. We in the UCC are different, Mr. Kristol, it’s true. We read the Bible and then we think about it.

What tremendous sin did Senator Obama commit that you should demean his Christian faith? He listened to people who are being crushed by our faltering economy and he thought about their lives in a deep and complex way.

Are working class Americans such fragile flowers that they cannot bear to hear the truth about their lives spoken aloud? Must we all be sucked into the conspiracy of silence that we dare not name the appalling conditions suffered by our working class and now middle class families and the galling nature of their frustrations? Is it still morning in America or are we actually in deep trouble?

In the wonderful film, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson, playing Colonial Nathan R. Jessep barks, as only he can, “The truth, you want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

In my family we have been and still are auto workers, licensed practical nurses and garment workers. There are members of my own family so frustrated and embittered by this government's wasteful spending in Iraq and mismanagement at home that they can barely stand to speak about it without words less printable than the word "bitter". Trust me. Working class Americans can handle the truth. In fact, they know the truth better than you do, by a wide margin. In my family and in my church we expect our faith to be up to the challenge of complex reflection on our lives and our struggles.

Think about it.