{"id":302,"date":"2008-11-25T10:55:46","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T10:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html"},"modified":"2008-11-25T10:55:46","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T10:55:46","slug":"how-does-a-president-chose-a-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html","title":{"rendered":"How Does a President Chose a Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta name=\"ProgId\" content=\"Word.Document\"><meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><meta name=\"Originator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><link rel=\"File-List\" href=\"file:\/\/\/C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CComputer%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml\"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"State\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"country-region\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"City\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"place\"><\/o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument>  <w:View>Normal<\/w:View>  <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>  <w:PunctuationKerning\/>  <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>  <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>  <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>  <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>  <w:Compatibility>   <w:BreakWrappedTables\/>   <w:SnapToGridInCell\/>   <w:WrapTextWithPunct\/>   <w:UseAsianBreakRules\/>   <w:DontGrowAutofit\/>  <\/w:Compatibility>  <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel> <\/w:WordDocument><\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\"> <\/w:LatentStyles><\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid=\"clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D\" id=\"ieooui\"><\/object>\n\n<style>st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><\/p>\n<style><!-- \/* Style Definitions *\/ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\t{mso-style-parent:\"\";\tmargin:0in;\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\tfont-size:10.0pt;\tfont-family:Arial;\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink\t{color:blue;\ttext-decoration:underline;\ttext-underline:single;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed\t{color:purple;\ttext-decoration:underline;\ttext-underline:single;}p\t{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;\tmargin-right:0in;\tmso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;\tmargin-left:0in;\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\tfont-size:12.0pt;\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}span.EmailStyle16\t{mso-style-type:personal;\tmso-style-noshow:yes;\tmso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;\tmso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;\tfont-family:Arial;\tmso-ascii-font-family:Arial;\tmso-hansi-font-family:Arial;\tmso-bidi-font-family:Arial;\tcolor:navy;}@page Section1\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\tmso-paper-source:0;}div.Section1\t{page:Section1;}--><\/style>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 10]>\n\n<style> \/* Style Definitions *\/ table.MsoNormalTable\t{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";\tmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;\tmso-tstyle-colband-size:0;\tmso-style-noshow:yes;\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\tmso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;\tmso-para-margin:0in;\tmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\tfont-size:10.0pt;\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\tmso-ansi-language:#0400;\tmso-fareast-language:#0400;\tmso-bidi-language:#0400;}<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Courier New&quot;;\">My good friend Amy Sullivan is a very hard act to follow in any writing assignment, and she covered this topic very well for Time last week.&nbsp; But in an attempt to help provide a little perspective for our good friends on the other side of the Pond, here are my thoughts on the difficulties Obama will face as he and his family try to decide where to worship. <br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Courier New&quot;;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/belief\/2008\/nov\/24\/usa-religion\">http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/belief\/2008\/nov\/24\/usa-religion<\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: navy;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: navy;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Amid all the speculation aboutdecisions president-elect Obama will have to make when he takes office, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5iHQ5QAao9rUpe2wqgG4c6OXEzZlwD94H0QQ01\">question<\/a>of where will he and his family go to church has been getting a lot ofattention recently.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">To some, this question may notrise to the level of, say, how Obama plans to tackle the banking crisis. Afterall, neither Ronald Reagan nor George W Bush even went to church whilepresident. The <st1:city w:st=\"on\">Clintons<\/st1:city> chose a local Methodistchurch with a strong youth programme for <st1:city w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Chelsea<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>,and the first President Bush went to an Episcopalian church. Jimmy Carteractually taught Sunday school while president at a Baptist church in <st1:state w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Virginia<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Yet there are several reasonsthat Obama choice of church will be more scrutinised than that of any otherAmerican president. In a country where nearly half the voters attend churchweekly and another third attend at least once a month, Obama&#8217;s ability to talkabout his faith helped lead the Democrats out of the political wilderness ofbeing viewed by many voters as hostile to religion. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Furthermore, race and faith in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> havealways been intertwined, and the black church has historically served as thepolitical and social epicentre of the African-American community. And so in thesame way that Americans wondered what kind of influence the Pope would havewhen Kennedy became America&#8217;s first Catholic president, they now wait to seewhat role the local church will play in the life of America&#8217;s first blackpresident. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Finally, Obama&#8217;s last churchchoice nearly derailed his presidential aspirations when YouTube clips begancirculating of Obama&#8217;s pastor, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com\/articles\/news\/campaign-2008\/2008\/04\/30\/obama-expresses-outrage-over-former-pastor-jeremiah-wrights-comments\/comments\/4\">JeremiahWright<\/a>, preaching anti-American and racially-charged sermons. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Combine all of these factors, andObama&#8217;s allies will be looking for him to make an inspired choice that helpsreshape <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>&#8216;sfaith and racial dialogue &#8230; and his enemies will be looking for a choice theycan use to undermine his presidency. So putting aside the potential effect ofhis church choice on his immortal soul, the political stakes will clearly behigh.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">For example, many people assumeObama will worship at an African American church as he did in <st1:city w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. But Obama has often quoted MartinLuther King&#8217;s critique that <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>&#8216;smost segregated hour is 11am on Sunday. If the first black president chooses toworship in a predominantly black church, does that call into question whetherhe really thinks this is a problem or perhaps imply that it&#8217;s a problem onlywhite people are responsible for fixing? Conversely, if Obama chooses apredominantly white church, many black people in this country will feelabandoned.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">The same sort of dilemma appliesto his choice of denomination. Most past presidents have come into office witha clear denominational affiliation, which helped narrow their options. ButObama was a member of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tucc.org\/\">Trinity United Church ofChrist<\/a> (UCC) in <st1:city w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>,an anomaly in the UCC for being a predominantly African-American church in amostly white denomination. The UCC is also one of the most liberaldenominations in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>,and joining another UCC church would inevitably raise the issue of JeremiahWright again. But it is also the denomination he has belonged to for his entireadult life, and people would read all kinds of things into his decision toleave it.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">Another question is whether hewill choose a church with a social justice and prophetic tradition that reflectshis theology but risks another Jeremiah Wright moment. Or should he chose amore &#8220;relational&#8221; church focused on community and Christian growththat would provide a nurturing environment for his daughters but might beviewed by supporters as the easy way out? <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\" lang=\"EN\">It&#8217;s hard enough to find a newchurch without being president. So what is a president, a father, a husband,and an inspiration to an entire race and new generation of American voters todo? Despite (or perhaps because of) all the political implications of thisdecision, there will not be a &#8220;smart&#8221; political choice. All will be fraughtwith peril. But Obama proved throughout the campaign that often the bestpolitical choice is just to do what feels right and then honestly communicatewhy he did so to the American people.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My good friend Amy Sullivan is a very hard act to follow in any writing assignment, and she covered this topic very well for Time last week.&nbsp; But in an attempt to help provide a little perspective for our good friends on the other side of the Pond, here are my thoughts on the difficulties&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,36,1,13,18,14,51,9],"tags":[244,305,303,245,296,152,5,304,306],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-defining-progressive","category-election-08","category-evangelicals","category-international-relations","category-mainline-protestants","category-media","category-religion-in-the-public-square","tag-bush","tag-carter","tag-church","tag-clinton","tag-dc","tag-eleison-group","tag-obama","tag-presidents","tag-reagan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Does a President Chose a Church? - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Does a President Chose a Church? - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My good friend Amy Sullivan is a very hard act to follow in any writing assignment, and she covered this topic very well for Time last week.&nbsp; But in an attempt to help provide a little perspective for our good friends on the other side of the Pond, here are my thoughts on the difficulties&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-25T10:55:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eric Sapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Does a President Chose a Church? - Progressive Revival","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\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Does a President Chose a Church? - Progressive Revival","og_description":"My good friend Amy Sullivan is a very hard act to follow in any writing assignment, and she covered this topic very well for Time last week.&nbsp; But in an attempt to help provide a little perspective for our good friends on the other side of the Pond, here are my thoughts on the difficulties&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2008-11-25T10:55:46+00:00","author":"Eric Sapp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html","name":"How Does a President Chose a Church? - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-25T10:55:46+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-25T10:55:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/29ba652b85566beedbe83d5ce1a393c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/how-does-a-president-chose-a-c.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Does a President Chose a Church?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?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\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/29ba652b85566beedbe83d5ce1a393c1","name":"Eric Sapp","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b63\/b633169ad1640973736abe8b60e1b980x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b63\/b633169ad1640973736abe8b60e1b980x96.jpg","caption":"Eric Sapp"},"description":"Eric Sapp, a native of Durham, NC, was Senior Partner at Common Good Strategies (CGS) prior to founding The Eleison Group. CGS received significant national attention following the \u00e2\u20ac\u212206 cycle for its groundbreaking faith outreach and messaging work for the DSCC, Senators Casey and Brown, Governors Strickland, Granholm, and Sebelius, Rep. Shuler, and the Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon State Democratic Parties. CGS clients significantly out-performed Democrats nationally (normally by double-digits) with Protestants, evangelicals, Catholics, and weekly church attenders. Dr. John Green, Sr. Fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said about CGS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153if Democrats learn a lesson from \u00e2\u20ac\u212206 and are able to duplicate these efforts more widely\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6we could potentially see historic shifts in voting blocks that would dramatically change the relationship between faith and politics in this country.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eric has been a regular speaker on faith and politics on television and radio shows, most often providing a Democratic perspective on conservative programs. Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s background also includes stints with Representative David Price (D-NC), where he handled faith and politics, budget, tax, and homeland security issues. Before that, he worked for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Eric has a Master of Divinity and Master of Public Policy from Duke. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Julie.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/esapp"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}