Paul Wilczynski's Observations

Street Prophets talks to Barack Obama

Street Prophets interviews Senator Barack Obama about his speech at the Call To Renewal convention.

Q: What were you trying to accomplish with your speech?

A: I have gotten frustrated at times in observing the public debate, seeing the degree to which the conservative right has been able to dominate the conversation about religion and politics, and to determine what it means to be a good Christian. Part of the reason they've been able to do that because progressives have not engaged the faith community as effectively as we could.

What would you like to see come out of the speech?

To some degree the speech has already accomplished what I intended, which is a conversation, a robust and fruitful one, hopefully. One of the points I was trying to make in the speech is it's not enough for progressives simply to say "leave your religion at the door" or "keep it private" - because that's not what conservatives do. I was hoping to start a conversation about how could we go deeper into a discussion about what religious values might mean in our public policy, and how can we do that in a way that respected diversity and tolerance. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:37 AM