There is
nothing like an African sunset.
If ever you questioned the possibility of the divine,
that moment when the sun and the horizon meet as night captures the African
sky and the world briefly glows audacious red, it is at that precious moment
that you realize possibility exists.
Not too long ago I was sitting beneath the African sky
with my dear British friends now American citizens, partners in a project to
build a technical training school in the underdeveloped region of Nyamarwa in
Central Uganda. The
Okusoboka Fund. It was at that moment just before the moon and the sun were to
kiss, that precious moment when night meets day when I met audacity face
on.
For my friends and for myself, that nightly junction of day
and night is a daily symbol of unity. My partners and I come from different
worlds, not just different continents. My friends are devout Christians and
it is through their faith that they accomplish much of their charity in
Uganda.
I am a Jew and their first partner not of their faith. But
our differences seem small in the face of our mutual passions. We share a
love of the African people and have been bitten by that tsetse fly that
compels us to return to The Dark Continent where the three of us admit we
feel more at home than in our native lands.
I speak of this in the context of a reflection I had
after reading a story in yesterday’s papers, the headline which read:
“Evangelicals Warn McCain Against Putting Romney on Ticket.”
The headline reminded me of one particular African
evening sitting out on our hotel’s veranda with my friends just at that
moment when the audacious night defeats the hope-filled day.
As often
happens at the end of the day, our African friends will stop by the hotel
and as the temperature moderates we will share drinks and hor's d'eouvres
beneath the wide open African sky, and engage in spirited discussion. Later
we will dine with our guests beneath the stars, our noses tickled by the
rich scent of the flowering Jacarandas.
But the night that I recall, unusually, it was just the
three of us sitting beneath the smiling moon. Maybe because it was just us
the topic turned away from the problems of Africa to those problems facing
America back home.
And then out of the mouth of my Christian babe: “I think
the Christian Right made a terrible mistake when it politicized social
issues. Like so many others I voted for George W. Bush not as an American,
but as a Christian. And here we are, a country engaged in a useless war, and
a nation so polarized by our social wars that we have forgotten the meaning
of country. I will never do that again.”
My friend’s sentence was declarative. And though I know
her as a person not afraid to speak her mind, I was astonished by her
honesty nevertheless. For her, it must have been an agonizing process to get
to such a place, she the evangelical Christian that she is.
I quite agree with my good friend. I would agree if I
were a Christian, Muslim, Mormon, or Unitarian. Just as the religious
beliefs of the radical Muslims hold the world hostage, just as the equally
militant views of some Palestinians prevent all Palestinians from realizing
their dreams of having their own state, the American Christian Right holds
America hostage.
It seems unconscionable to me having a religious faction
threaten a presidential candidate. And it would be pathetic if John McCain
capitulated under the threat.
McCain has had to walk a fine-line with the Christian
Right. They cost him his party’s nomination in the past, and since becoming
the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee this go-around, the Christian
Right haven’t exactly welcomed John McCain with open arms.
Now they have dangled their votes before him. Last week
Christian powerhouse James Dobson issued a statement that he was leaning
towards endorsing McCain. This week, the Right threatens McCain with their
vote.
It is unseemly.
John McCain faces a dilemma; particularly if Mitt Romney
is the person he would feel most comfortable asking to be his vice
president. It is true that putting Governor Romney on the ticket likely
would cost Senator McCain 7 percent
to 10 percent of the evangelical vote - enough to spell defeat for Mr.
McCain in a close race with Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic
nominee.
On the other hand, not standing up to the religious right
would signal a weakness in McCain that could cost him the election
regardless.
Does McCain have the courage to stand up to the Right? Or
does his hunger to be president outweigh conviction?
John McCain used to be called The Maverick. That was when
he had chutzpah. He wasn’t afraid to go up against the best of them, even
Senate stalwart now indicted Ted Stevens. The maverick seems a distant
memory these days, a time-worn description of a man hardly recognizable
anymore. McCain the Maverick has been replaced by another man who offers us
the audacity to hope.
But here’s what John McCain could do to steal some of
Obama’s thunder.
There are alot of women, and men, too, who aren’t
buying into the Barack Obama promise. They are looking for something more
tangible than hope. By the same token, they are afraid of McCain. Is he just
another puppet of the Christian right?
What stands between them and John McCain is not the Iraq
War, which will get settled in its time. Or the economy, which will cycle
back to health. Health care? There will have to be major changes in that
arena and it will take compromise by both parties to reach consensus.
No, what stands between John McCain and independents is
the politics of legislating social ideology. It is Roe vs. Wade. It is using
our Courts for religious gain.
Barack Obama gave a bold speech on race and it saved his
candidacy.
John McCain needs to give a daring speech to America in
which he promises to end the politics of religious legislation; and in
which he pledges to make appointments to the Court based on ability not
ideology; in which he promises that issues such as stem cell research will
not be a part of a religious agenda, but a discussion of science in terms of
the betterment of human health.
If McCain were to make such a speech, he might lose some
of the evangelical vote. On the other hand, he might gain all those
fence-sitting independents and those women who supported Hillary Clinton who
can’t support Barack Obama on the empty promise of hope.
If …
In the meantime I will dream of that moment when the sun
and the horizon meet as night captures the African sky and the world briefly
glows audacious red, that precious moment when possibility exists.
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