Christian leaders like Barack Obama meet with enemies

posted 06:53 AM 06/18
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Barack Obama is finally the official presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States, and the opposition to his candidacy has opened allegation round one with this: the falsehood that Obama is a Muslim.

It's nothing new. Only now the proof, they claim, can be found in Obama's suspiciously Muslim desire to explore diplomatic conversation with nations such as Iran.

As a professional in Christian service I believe these diplomatic intentions make Obama more Christian than Muslim. According to the latest polls, dialogue with Iran is what a majority of Americans feel is long overdue.

We have two presidential candidates both claiming to be the Christian leader of choice. Who can best face the challenges presented by the leadership of countries such as Iran? It's an important consideration for most Americans in what will be one of the most crucial presidential elections in our history.

Our current relationship with Iran presents the ideal situation to ask your Christian presidential candidate one question: "What would Jesus do?"

Christians don't always agree. There's the Jesus who says, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Whew. Take Jesus literally and you can understand why some Christians beat the drums of war. However, the interpretation changes radically when you consider the audience, setting, text surrounding the passage and that Jesus could be speaking as we all do, metaphorically. Now the text means that commitments to following Christ's way of love and life can bring as much division as peace. Choose your interpretation.

Then there's the Jesus who says, "Love your enemies." Whew again. I'd love to see Christians have a national debate on this text. Christians, myself included, are great at making excuses about how this principle applies. We all wonder whether it applies to nations.

One of my mentors says that when you rationalize exceptions for whom the principle does not apply to, then that's whom it applies to. I concur.

Martin Luther King Jr. certainly embraced the concept on both a personal and global scale and we now have a national holiday in his honor. I suspect Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi, a mentor to King, best understood what Christ was trying to say when he created his principles of nonviolence. Gandhi's intentions were never "to defeat or humiliate his opponent, but to win their friendship and understanding."

It's exactly what I think Jesus is trying to teach us. How can we win the understanding of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if we are not in conversation to build bridges and find common ground? Dialogue can reveal greater clarity on how he thinks, moving us closer to the possibility of winning a mutual understanding. It's possible and Christians believe that God's love can do the impossible.

You can call Obama naive, unwise or inexperienced for wanting discourse with our enemies, but there's one thing you must call him: Christian. Talking to enemies is what Christians do. It's what Christian leaders do. It's what Christian leaders like Barack Obama do.

Tim McKinley is on staff at First United Methodist of Olympia and has served in advisory roles to both conference and national ministries with youths and their families. A member of The Olympian's Board of Contributors, McKinley can be reached at tmacmckinley@gmail.com.

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