| |
Barack Obama has introduced historic changes in the ethics and religion of the presidential office. This is the case in part because he is the first Afro-American to occupy the White House. My book attempts to avoid the extremes of left and right, to see the Obama phenomena with greater objectivity and perspective through a historical approach.
|
| |
|
My latest book is written for persons who wish to evaluate what an ambitious new leader has done and may do in the larger and longer setting of the history of his office. At the beginning of each chapter I comment on the similarities and differences between the forty-fourth President and one of his predecessors! My approach is narrative and chronological, not dogmatic. I am interested in the long term moral values and religious symbols that motivate both voters and public officials. Of course, I am not so naive as to suppose that truth is always on one side of the election divide. Clearly, the U. S. Constitution guarantees both freedom of worship and the non-establishment of religion. But faith convictions remain a powerful ideological force in American politics. |
|
| |
|
Nielsen writes about the relation of the man in the White House to his predecessors, the forty-three men who have come before him in the highest office in the land. How does Barack Obama see himself not only in relation to the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the wartime presidents, Lincoln, Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt but to Carter and Reagan as well as to Bill Clinton and the Bushs. The narrative's approach is a historical one: Presidents live in an ideological succession; their terms of office are determined by the United States Constitution. What has made for a successful career, what has contributed to failure? The presidency is surrounded by symbolism and emotion. Nielsen presupposes that religion has perennially been in the background, American's hopes and dreams, their values and failures are seen in terms of our elected leader. This is all moreso the case with the presidency of Barack Obama, the first Afro-American to occupy the White House.
The forty-fourth President introduced himself to the American public in two best selling books, Dreams of my Father and the Audacity of Hope. The story of his conversion to Christianity, away from the agnosticism of his mother whom he loved dearly and still honors is a moving one--his entrance into the Afro-American Church. Religion keeps turning up in settings in which church and state are legally separated by the highest law in the land. The German theologian philosopher who fled his native land before world war two, Paul Tillich, suggests an explanation which defines faith as ultimate concern: all presidents have had such concern in greater or lesser measure. Popularly religion is present in war and peace as we sing God bless America and place a hand over our heart as we recite the pledge of allegiance. There is a plurality of creeds and institutions, but the majority of Americans agree about ultimate concern, especially in times of trouble as the present. Kennedy, to Carter and Reagan, the Bushs and the Clintons. Mrs. Clinton who ran against him for the presidency is now his Secretary of State.
There remain the facts, the historical facts of presidents' success or failure. What has gone before tells us much about what is going on now and what will happen in the future, but not everything. Nations that ignore their past history live in a narrow time period. To forget it is to put ourselves in peril. The book seeks to place Obama's presidency critically amid the perils and hopes of his own past and future. The social scientist, Max Lerner, pointed out that most recent presidents have left office as fallen titans, Nixon in Watergate, Bill Clinton in Monicagate, George W. Bush leaving a legacy of war in the Middle East and financial depression. One must hope and pray that Obama will do better.
