{"id":482,"date":"2009-04-01T08:22:24","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T08:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/04\/message-to-obama-dont-lead.html"},"modified":"2009-04-01T08:22:24","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T08:22:24","slug":"message-to-obama-dont-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/04\/message-to-obama-dont-lead.html","title":{"rendered":"Message to Obama: Don’t Lead!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much has been made about how the G20 is not going to follow President Obama’s lead in the meeting taking place today in Great Britain.  And I say – good.  Obama shouldn’t be forcing others to follow America’s lead, he should step down from the role of bullying coach occupied by George Bush for the last 8 years and become an important player on the world team.  This is not only going to help us in the economic realm but also serves our wider diplomatic efforts.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The president has already exemplified this new approach today in his address to the G20.  He said he was “as interested in listening as leading.”  This is good, but while it is important to listen to the other world leaders around the table at the meeting, will he also listen to the protesters who are representing the billions of people from developing countries who are not at this table.  Some of the protesters are just there for the anarchist party, but many have real concerns for the poorest of the world and want to make sure that their voices are heard. <\/span><\/p>\n

President Obama has a delicate duty.  He has to represent the needs of Americans but also has to realize that he has a global responsibility.  At this point America has a bruised reputation.  Our irresponsible capitalism precipitated the current economic crisis and our reckless foreign policy has lost time and exacerbated the power of al Qaeda.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of being the player that cheats and fights his way to most valuable player, maybe we can work towards getting the best sportsmanship award.   All of this will lead ultimately to more financial and diplomatic security for th United States.  <\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a bump sticker war out there that pits “God Bless America” vs “God Bless the Whole World.”  These are not mutually exclusive. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much has been made about how the G20 is not going to follow President Obama’s lead in the meeting taking place today in Great Britain.  And I say – good.  Obama shouldn’t be forcing others to follow America’s lead, he should step down from the role of bullying coach occupied by George Bush for the last 8…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\nMessage to Obama: Don't Lead! - 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\/2009\/04\/message-to-obama-dont-lead.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Message to Obama: Don't Lead! 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}