Obamian Hope

Barack Obama talks a lot about hope. He claims that hope is audacious enough to believe, embrace, and realize the impossible. Such hope may be seen as hope against hope, but, from Obama's perspective, it is nonetheless, hope. I call this "Obamian" hope because of the person from whom it has emanated. It is my considered opinion that this is consistent with biblical hope. Although Obama does not make reference to the Bible in his verbal emissions on hope, both perspectives seem to converge to the extent that one may conclude that Obama is skilfully weaving biblical hope into the tapestry of American politics. This is phenomenal.

Obamian hope moves beyond the of the past and seeks to pro-actively conceptualize and create the future. It does not just wait for the future to come; it contributes to its shaping and coming. It pulls the future to itself and pushes itself towards the future. Biblical hope is similar. Like Obamian hope it speaks to the matter of the future being pulled into the present in the Kingdom of God. In a real sense, the Kingdom of God respects but moves beyond the past and, in the present, it realizes the future, in a preliminary sense. Biblical hope also, in a sense, propels the one in whom it is found toward the future consummation of this Kingdom. Like Obamian hope, biblical hope knows that the present is just a platform on which the future is being built and experienced. This is powerful.


In addition, Obamian hope rises above the fray of the mundane, the dehumanizing, the frivolous, and the conventional. It shifts from the periphery to the center of human history. It is a hope that escapes attempts at suppression and obliteration by "unhope" and the forces thereof. Biblical hope also moves people from the sidelines of so-called secular history and secular society and places them in the center of salvation history or God's history. Biblical hope, like Obamian hope, eschews dehumanization, conventionalism and mundaneness. It upholds the humanity of all persons, the significance of the embrace of newness, and the centrality of the extraordinary. Both "hopes" may be criticized for being metaphysical, abstract, and philosophical. However, they both are inspirational.

Finally, Obamian hope transcends racial, social, class, sex, religious, and national barriers and considerations. Obamian hope, as I see it, does not hide its "head" in the proverbial sand of human reality and existence; neither does it turn a blind eye to the structures and strictures that perpetuate racism, classism, sexism, denominationalism, and nationalism. It faces them squarely and influences them to travel down the path of self-destruction. Like Obamian hope, biblical hope rejects, neutralizes, and obliterates all such obstacles and hurdles. Moreover, biblical hope sees these negatives of human life and draws people of all races, classes, sexes, religions, and nationalities to itself and its Originator.

Fundamentally, the similarities between Obamian hope and biblical hope are extraordinary, striking, and intriguing. Like biblical hope Obamian hope inspires the Unites States of America and the world. Biblical hope finds its fullest expression in and by the person who is referred to by Christians as the Messiah. Obamian hope, as the phrase suggests, finds its fullest expression in and by Barack Obama, who is messiah-like. In a sense, Obama may just be the messiah of American politics who brings a kind of hope that is reflective of the hope that the Messiah brought to the world. Just as the hope that the Messiah introduced to the world was needed then, it is needed now. May these two "hopes" suffuse the human race.

Your E-Pastor

Earlmont Williams