Obama Ipsum

From Willow Creek to the 'emerging church,' from the Southern Baptist Convention to the National Association of Evangelicals, folks are realizing that the four walls of the church are too small for a big God.God is still speaking. We're not going to agree on everything, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough." There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced. I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources.

But I also get the sense that there's a hunger that's deeper than that - a hunger that goes beyond any single cause or issue. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners." We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments - provided they govern with respect for all their people.

I didn't fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. It's not because John McCain doesn't care. This is the hope of all humanity. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S.

Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. "We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation.

Thank you, and God bless America.