A little glimpse into Obama's point of view

I don’t know what’s more beautiful right now: Barack Obama’s face or this bird’s eye view of a white sandy beach in Panama City. I think I might favor the latter, but if I was in lighter spirits… maybe the former.

Because of my usual inattentiveness in the political scene, I’ve recently obligated myself to do a little homework for the upcoming election. I chose to take a focus on Mr. Obama this morning.

Obama is taking his campaign to very popular levels, and the American public seems to like what it sees. My primary concern is with the aesthetic surface which seems to blind our insight into the deeper issues which carry serious ethical consequences. While reading a couple of articles on Obama’s strategies linked from the CNN site this morning, some frightening key words struck me while reading thes predominantly optimistic portrayals of Obama’s political and economic goals. Within a democratic context, I often feel a slight shudder as I come across words like “unity” “equality” “federal” “fairness” “practicality” etc. And there is nothing wrong with these little words given in other settings, environments, and contexts. However, when you hear them from a democrat, it tends to carry naïve shades of socialism. My fear is too much ethical regulation placed in the hands of a few short-sighted politicians. Obama has a strong affection for the lower class, underprivileged minorities, and, refreshingly, the elderly. His affections are in the right place, but he reminds me too much of Jane Austen’s character, Harriet; he does not always see past these immediate affectionate pulls or at least the bigger landscape they could point him to. The problem might lie in his claim to have an economic plan aimed at “what works” rather than “ideology” (a common polarization within our society). I think Obama might be thinking too much like a politician and less like an ethicist on this matter. With more federal regulations, tax breaks for lower income workers, and more federally moderated trade, it’s not only a slap in the face to our founding fathers, it’s a slap in the face to human freedom. Now I’m not one to equate liberty with license, but when CEO’s and other upper class individuals are treated like pawns to boost a more favored class of people, human individuals are no longer treated like human individuals and more like manipulated objects for a few economic strategists. Obama does hit some soft spots with me, but he doesn’t seem to be saying anything new or foreign… a little too much centralized control if you ask me.

And so the race begins...

Obama wins the democratic nomination.

Beginning the Summer with Scott Hahn

Scott Hahn has grabbed my heart with this one just like he did with Rome Sweet Home. A Father Who Keeps His Promises is a book for every American Catholic lay person to read. Perhaps the most important reason is that contemporary Catholics are starved from covenantal theology and most couldn't tell you the first thing about what a covenant is in the first place. But if Scott softened you up with the above book, he'll certainly help you connect that ripened sentiment with solid theology in this one.

Hahn's not afraid to dig back into some healthy Reformed Protestant resources as he surveys the whole redemptive narrative in the Old and New Testament. He also has a way of marrying these Reformed references with pure Catholic doctrine, and he has a knack for stretching the hasty Protestant stopping points to the proper Catholic ends, primarily hitting on the synthesis of the physical and the spiritual and the need for a physically revealed heavenly Church.

It's a great way to ground my summer as I begin to take some flights into abstract philosophy.