{"id":2591,"date":"2008-11-12T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-12T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html"},"modified":"2008-11-12T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-12T00:05:00","slug":"i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html","title":{"rendered":"“I think I have an onogoing conversation with God”"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s Barack Obama, just after he had clinched the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Senate race 2004. He spoke those words in his most revealing and extensive interview<\/a> to date on the subject of faith. The interviewer was Cathleen Falsani.<\/p>\n

Steven Waldman over at Beliefnet dug it up and has posted the transcript of the conversation. And it’s worth a read. <\/p>\n

One choice nugget: <\/p>\n

FALSANI: What do you believe?<\/i><\/p>\n

OBAMA: I am a Christian.<\/p>\n

So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences.<\/p>\n

I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10.<\/p>\n

My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim.<\/p>\n

And I’d say, probably, intellectually I’ve drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith.<\/p>\n

(A patron stops and says, “Congratulations,” shakes his hand. “Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you.”)<\/i><\/p>\n

So, I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there’s an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.<\/p>\n

And so, part of my project in life was probably to spend the first 40 years of my life figuring out what I did believe – I’m 42 now – and it’s not that I had it all completely worked out, but I’m spending a lot of time now trying to apply what I believe and trying to live up to those values.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest for a fuller portrait of the man who is about to become president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s Barack Obama, just after he had clinched the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Senate race 2004. He spoke those words in his most revealing and extensive interview to date on the subject of faith. The interviewer was Cathleen Falsani. Steven Waldman over at Beliefnet dug it up and has posted the transcript of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"I think I have an onogoing conversation with God" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""I think I have an onogoing conversation with God" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That’s Barack Obama, just after he had clinched the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Senate race 2004. He spoke those words in his most revealing and extensive interview to date on the subject of faith. The interviewer was Cathleen Falsani. Steven Waldman over at Beliefnet dug it up and has posted the transcript of the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-12T00:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"I think I have an onogoing conversation with God\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"I think I have an onogoing conversation with God\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"That’s Barack Obama, just after he had clinched the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Senate race 2004. He spoke those words in his most revealing and extensive interview to date on the subject of faith. The interviewer was Cathleen Falsani. Steven Waldman over at Beliefnet dug it up and has posted the transcript of the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2008-11-12T00:05:00+00:00","author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html","name":"\"I think I have an onogoing conversation with God\" - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-12T00:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-12T00:05:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/i-think-i-have-an-onogoing-conversation-with-god.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“I think I have an onogoing conversation with God”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10","name":"deacon greg kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","caption":"deacon greg kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}