STILL ON OBAMA, GOOSE PIMPLES…

The 'church' has blindly adopted the Republican Party as the party of the broad political grouping called the evangelicals and have consistently watched president after president of the republican party continue to enact policies that will cause Jesus to use weightier words than he did the Pharisee’s in his time. The truth is that the democrats who championed the civil rights and eventually ended slavery and is further pushing the rights of blacks and other minorities to achieve some equality, are stuck in that broad grouping - minorities, it is difficult to push one and not the other. My conclusion is that Christians should come out in their numbers and vote for Obama who has a true desire to bring about change. Thereafter they should constitute a pressure group in the party to review the party’s position on abortion and the whole discussion on the murder of innocent/helpless unborn babies.

I had these interesting exchanges with one of my most ardent readers during the week, which might interest others. I have combined Rev Mrs Uche Biosa’s two very brilliant and informed contributions into one, unabridged, while due to space constraints, I have abridged my two responses Happy reading.

Mrs Uche Biosa
I am one of those Obama supporters and i have more than goose bumps for his candidacy for several reasons. I have read with great interest the 'Church' position on his candidacy and the only thing they seem to have against him is his pro-choice stance. But really to me, the underlining reason is his colour.

I was devastated when John Hagee and Rod Parsley in my opinion carelessly 'endorsed' John McCain who is not a born-again Christian and his stance on abortion to me is mere public posturing for political gains. Take for example, Sara Palin and her Republican supporters have cancelled fornication as a sin, but abortion is because the party that owns 'GOD' has given that verdict, Shame!

The 'church' has blindly adopted the Republican Party as the party of the broad political grouping called the evangelicals and have consistently watched president after president of the republican party continue to enact policies that will cause Jesus to use weightier words than he did the Pharisee’s in his time.

The truth is that the democrats who championed the civil rights and eventually ended slavery and is further pushing the rights of blacks and other minorities to achieve some equality, are stuck in that broad grouping - minorities, it is difficult to push one and not the other.

My conclusion is that Christians should come out in their numbers and vote for Obama who has a true desire to bring about change. Thereafter they should constitute a pressure group in the party to review the party’s position on abortion and the whole discussion on the murder of innocent/helpless unborn babies.

Dick Cheney's daughter is a celebrated lesbian and he is a great favourite of the conservative right/the church. The question is, what do they really believe and what did they teach their children. These people get the ‘church’s' vote to win election and then spin the biggest lies to invade another nation in order to make tonnes of money for themselves. The only good that was achieved in Iraq was the removal of Saddam Hussein. Bush and his people bombed out a whole country and awarded contracts to themselves to rebuild the country at the expense of the people of Iraq who by the way had nothing against the USA. Immoral and shameful, if you ask me. They vote against social security that will give disadvantaged millions the slightest chance to get out of difficulty, the list is endless.

Mitt Romney is a Republican, who is a member of the church of mammon and was "pro-choice" before he became "pro-life". Or Huckabee an ordained Baptist priest who wanted Obama knocked off (killed), why? Is it because he is black - so not fit to be the president of America or what? Please tell me, and the church was as silent as a grave yard on that one. The anchor woman of a Foxnews (conservative Christian right news network) program put Obama on the same board she put Osama Bin Laden and wanted him dead.

The religious bigotry of the so called Christian/evangelical right SMELLS to high heavens and they truly do not speak for God but for themselves. Take a look at the Catholic Church that protects paedophile priests who introduce children to homosexualism and other vices at such tender ages.

I am totally against abortion, but that is not the only reason to disqualify a person for secular office, but I also understand that individuals have a responsibility to make the right choices, as the Bible clearly indicates that we must choose who we will serve. Every issue cannot be legislated by government or politicians. We will stand before God and give account of our works on this planet that is the bottom line…

Let me move my argument further a bit, so that I am not misunderstood. As I stated earlier, the democrats have found themselves in a tight corner having to fight for all sorts of interests and perhaps positions they may as individuals not accept as right. If you are fighting for minorities, then you have to take all of them, which I think is a very difficult situation to be in.

However, what I advocate is that if Christians have a strong enough vote to get Obama elected, then he/democrats will listen to us. If we continue to vote based on one or two issues, then we will not have the advantage of a critical mass which the 'evangelicals' seem to exert on the Republican Party. McCain knew that he was already sunk without the conservative right vote, so he went and did what is now history and suddenly the presidency is within his grasp. That precisely is my point. He does not believe in any of these things that he is now associated with by the church. As soon as he gets into office he will go ahead with his war mongering and his other agenda which I don't wish to go into here, rather than pay attention to the poverty that is ravaging America and the whole world.

For me personally, McCain/Palin are not the people that can turn around the battered US economy, I truly believe that Obama can. God has endowed him with the intellect and the exposure which will stand him in good stead. He also has the vision and the discipline to lay out a plan of action and follow it through - take a look at his campaign and his officers, very well chosen, competent people. I don't know these people from Adam, so initially I listened and wanted to be objective about the 2 candidates and what they can do. McCain himself confessed that the economy is not his strongest point and right now, the economy should be the most important issue in the US election, unfortunately it is not really. Perhaps if Americans go through a period of 'famine' they will really understand what the issues are, but right now they still think that their country is strong. You cannot be a strong nation without a strong economy - they should go ask the former Soviet Union.

..In conclusion, if we vote for him, we will influence policy. After all, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Winning election in the US, where people's votes count, is about having enough interest groups support and people vote for you. If the 'church' does vote for him, how can they expect to influence his stance on policy. Let the church fan out to the two parties and push their agenda and not allow the republican elite bourgeois class to monopolize the church vote. So that which ever party is in power, we will have enough influence on public governance. That will ensure that parties produce only 'qualified' candidates who will work for the people and listen to the people, not only during elections.

My Response
Thanks for your powerful points, not in favour of Obama, but against his opponents. You did not deny Obama's position on abortion, which statistics…show kills in the millions! You have not addressed his pro-gay position either, vis-a-vis its approval as public policy at the federal level!.. The points that individuals are one thing or the other (bigots, lesbians, paedophiles, fornication-endorsers etc) is noted, but what is the man seeking to hold the most powerful office in the world today committed to doing with the power?.

…Many mistakes have been made, labels manufactured or unearthed and frantic attempts made to glue them on the opponent. Obama as Hussein and a friend of terrorists and haters of America etc: but so are democrats playing the game. Even you seem to have bought into the name-and-damn game: Catholics not Christian enough and as paedophiles; Republicans as racists. No, we can't join them in order to beat them: at least, not on the basis of conjectures such as racism, hypocrisy, posturing to get the votes etc. This should not be just about what you said or did in the past: it should be about what you are committing yourself to do in power!..

..I still find myself unable to get into the conjecture game about what McCain might do or not do when he gets into office! I'll rather take his words for it and hold him accountable later. And I have no difficulty extending the same trust to Obama. Which is why I shall be surprised if Obama can be influenced to move away from positions he took during the campaign; positions which could be said gave him the votes!

The point about Obama's competence is another area where I can't join issues with you correctly since it's a matter of what you believe. But I wonder how one can be as sure as you are on his ability to turn the economy around, only on the basis of having run a reasonably efficient campaign; and nothing else, never having served in any executive capacity. But you believe and all I can say is 'so be it.'

You see, the economy does seem like the "real issue" in current American reality, but you cannot build something on nothing! No matter how competent, how efficient or how economically sound, an administration may be, it will achieve nothing in the Sodom & Gomorrah ambience that an Obama at peace with abortion and gay marriages is set on creating! That I believe!

OBAMA, GOOSE BUMPS AND NIGERIA (2)

He threw in some statistics” …The number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq since 2002 currently stands at 4,092. Yet a slightly smaller number of unborn babies, approximately 3,900, die every day in this country because of abortion. Currently we kill 1.4 million babies a year. Since abortion was legalized we’ve snuffed out more babies than the entire populations of Iraq, Israel and Jordan. That’s more than 40 million people. It’s a holocaust we deny ever happened”


We were saying that there is more to the popularity, in Nigeria, of Barack Obama, candidate of the Democratic Party in the fast approaching presidential election in the United States. We admitted that his rock star image, his youth, his meteoric rise from obscurity to the national stage, and his African heritage have all captured the imagination of many, if not most Nigerians. We noted that he has considerable animal attraction for many of the fair sex who swoon and serenade at the sight of his picture or the sound of his voice.

We also noted that some men also develop goose bumps about the prospects of an American president of African descent, not least of them, the internationally acknowledged African-American preacher, singer, author and entrepreneur, Thomas Dexter Jakes, better known as Bishop T. D. Jakes. To understand the bishop’s point of view, let me serve you a bit of his widely quoted statement:



“Last night, I, like most Americans of all stripes, watched with visible goose bumps as history was made. I sat with my 13-year-old son and looked from the screen to his eyes as Sen. Barack Obama became the first African American in history to lead a U.S. major-party ticket when he claimed the nomination for the Democratic Party for president of the United States.
“I congratulate Sen. Obama on this historic accomplishment. I thank him for accepting the torch that was lit by our forefathers and proudly carrying it through the darkness of our struggles, trials and tribulations, bringing light and hope to a new generation, and for facing all those who said "No" and "You can't win," or "It will never happen," and firmly, proudly, defiantly saying, "Yes I can! However, what I really hope people take away from that night is that this is not just a victory for African Americans, it is a victory for democracy that proves that our country provides possibilities for all people. It is also a sign that a metamorphosis is in progress. Today we saw that Americans respect experience, but are interested in change. I hope that we can somehow merge the best ideas of our differences and emerge with a president who epitomizes our highest and best ideals. While it remains unclear where we are going, last night proves that we as a people have moved beyond business as usual…”



So, for this man of God, this was about his heritage as a black man, the crashing of a seeming glass ceiling beyond which the man of colour is not expected to rise. It is about the American commonwealth redefining itself as a nation where the equal opportunity ideal is at last being extended to the highest office in the land. It is for, him, a thing to be misty-eyed about. This indeed is a position most Nigerians can and do identify with.



We said here last week, however, that beyond identification with colour and heritage and, the historicity of the Obama phenomenon is the appeal of his liberal platform to many. We homed in on the area of cultural liberalism, which according to Wikipediia focuses on “the rights of individuals pertaining to conscience and lifestyle, including such issues as sexual freedom, religious freedom, cognitive freedom, and protection from government intrusion into private life. …Cultural liberalism generally opposes government regulation of literature, art, academics, gambling, sex, prostitution, abortion, birth control, terminal illness, alcohol, and cannabis and other controlled substances. Most liberals oppose some or all government intervention in these areas…”



We then tried to show how this agrees with the world view of the Nigerian elite, the ones who mould opinions through their control or access to the media of mass communication.
A cursory look at how bills that seem to impinge on the unfettered exercise of human rights and fundamental liberties particularly in the areas sex, religion and other religion at the National Assembly indicate this. The anti-nudity bill is the most recent example. Given the vociferous opposition to it by the very vocal segment of society as reflected at the public hearing, that bill is as good as dead. And the reason for the opposition? There are more serious issues confronting our nation than the length of a a lady’s skirt or blouse or the depth of her neckline! The Obasanjo anti-gay marriages bill is another example. It’s dead. Dead, because the current administration is unlikely to re-present it. Were it to try, the avalanche of derisive remarks that will welcome it will most probably stop the Assembly from paying it any attention. Again the retort would be: we have more pressing issues. We have said all of these to say that our liberal tendencies tally with the Obama platform particularly in the cultural arena. He is, in the American socio-political lexicon, pro-choice. Which simply means: he supports abortion. He is also anti-homophobia, which is euphemism for support for gay rights.



But let’s take a closer look at the abortion issue, for example. Obama is not your borderliner on the issue of abortion. J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine in his “Fire in my Bones” column wrote: “Everyone on Capitol Hill knows Obama is a radical when it comes to abortion policy. He opposed a ban on partial-birth abortion (a clinical term for stabbing a baby in the neck when his arms, legs and torso are already outside the mother); then he criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold that ban. While an Illinois lawmaker, Obama opposed a bill that would have prevented the killing of an infant born alive during an abortion.To top that off, Obama said in April that if his young daughters got pregnant out of wedlock, he didn’t want them to be “punished with a baby.” In other words, he wants the abortion industry to thrive.”



Of course, there are many Americans who, like many of us, would say those two issues are unimportant. There are those who’ll say that Iraq and Afghanistan and the sub-prime mortgage crisis are much more important, and should carry greater weight in the choice of a presidential candidate. And that will be true, on the surface.



Grady’s take on this in his write-up which inspired the headline of this serial is very illuminating: “ I have dialogued with young Christian voters who say they are supporting Obama because they believe he will bring justice to poor people who’ve never achieved the American dream. Who are we fooling with this empty talk about justice? Hello? The God of justice abhors the slaughter of unborn babies!”

He threw in some statistics” …The number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq since 2002 currently stands at 4,092. Yet a slightly smaller number of unborn babies, approximately 3,900, die every day in this country because of abortion. Currently we kill 1.4 million babies a year. Since abortion was legalized we’ve snuffed out more babies than the entire populations of Iraq, Israel and Jordan. That’s more than 40 million people. It’s a holocaust we deny ever happened”

Stephen Strang, publisher of Charisma also dwelt on this issue in his statement endorsing the candidacy of John McCain of the Republican Party. Giving Obama’s stance on the gay issue as the third of three reasons why he and the magazine group, Strang Communications, cannot support Obama, he said:

“The third reason we cannot support Obama is his sympathy toward those who are attempting to legitimize homosexuality. Since the beginning of recorded history, marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman, an institution designed by God for the primary purpose of bringing children into the world and raising them in a family. But radicals in our country now want to change the definition to include unions between two people of the same sex. Many of them are also pushing for the passage of legislation that would give homosexuals special legal rights and that would protect them from "hate speech," loosely defined as language that criticizes them in any way, even if it is based on biblical beliefs. We must not elect a leader who will support this legislation or aid the homosexual agenda in any way—because if same-sex marriage is ever legalized or protected on a national level, there will be no turning back.”

I cannot add much to all of that. But let me say in closing that I believe that Obama is not good for America, on the basis of his extreme liberalist tendencies in the socio-cultural area. By the same token, the extreme liberalism of the Nigerian elite is not good for Nigeria. When all those so-called more serious matters have been dealt with, the issues being currently touted as unimportant would have become intractable. We must avoid that. It is for this reason that I repeat what I have said here before: the Church must enter the arena of moulding opinion and influencing governmental policies. (Concluded)

OBAMA, GOOSE BUMPS AND NIGERIA

Incidentally, Obama does not elicit goose bumps from only doting and swooning females. No less a man, one hulk of a man than the preacher of preachers and the United States leading African-American pastor, T.D Jakes admitted to such susceptibility recently. He was quoted as telling a CNN interviewer recently that he “watched with visible goose bumps” as Obama claimed the Democratic Party’s nomination, shortly after, rival Hillary Clinton conceded defeat and wound down her campaign.

If Dr Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, Director-General of the Nigeria Stock Exchange did not create Africans for Obama, someone else would. And it won’t necessarily be because there is money to be made. It would be because they love Obama and would want to contribute their quota to having him elected as President of the United States of America.

Let me make two or three quick points in passing. One, unless we are careful, we will end up demonising everybody in public service for even the most basic of mistakes. Even, if one agrees that the Africans for Obama dinner was one fundraiser too many for the Stock Exchange boss, the speed with which she was accused, tried and convicted by the media smacks of indecent haste. Thank God, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has come to the conclusion that no known laws have been violated and she has therefore been told to go and sin no more. That notwithstanding, the EFCC has taken on the role of seizing the money (about N74million) made from the dinner and returning it to those who contributed it. That is wrong. Has any of the contributors complained to EFCC? Even if they did, is it not a civil matter for which they should be advised to take out a writ? This is institutionalising the widespread practice of policemen and soldiers serving people as rent and debt collectors! Perhaps Okereke-Onyiuke should consider challenging the EFCC’s decision in court.

The second point that needs to be made is that the indiscretions of this “green-card” holding lady sitting atop one of Nigeria’s apex financial institutions should by now have convinced her employers that she’s lost touch with corporate ethical best practices. She should therefore be, as someone would have put it, “kurucified” or in this case sent to Harvard or wherever it is that her erstwhile comrade-in-arms in the ”third-term for Obasanjo” project, Festus Odimegwu, was sent by the board of Nigerian Breweries Plc.

Thirdly, it is one of those ironies of life that projects of more enduring values do not get the funding support of the many rich friends of Ndi who could garner N74million afterhours for a foggy idea with a high-sounding title.

As I was saying before the digression however, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and Company are not alone in the Obama song-and-dance. Obama is the closest thing to football in Nigeria today. That may be a bit exaggerated but, man, Nigerians, particularly the women folk love this guy! While some swallow hard at the mention of his name, others develop goose-bumps at the sound of his voice; yet others swoon at the sight of his picture. Obama-mania is growing in leaps and bounds. His youth, his oratory, his rock-star image and his African heritage have all combined to enthrone passion for the man to such levels that the all-time poster boy of US politics, John Fitzgerald Kennedy must be envious.

Incidentally, Obama does not elicit goose bumps from only doting and swooning females. No less a man, one hulk of a man than the preacher of preachers and the United States leading African-American pastor, T.D Jakes admitted to such susceptibility recently. He was quoted as telling a CNN interviewer recently that he “watched with visible goose bumps” as Obama claimed the Democratic Party’s nomination, shortly after, rival Hillary Clinton conceded defeat and wound down her campaign.

Jakes, a best-selling author of many books, singer, and entrepreneur’s goose pimples however had other roots. In his words: “This is not just a victory for African-Americans, it is a victory for democracy that proves that our country provides possibilities for all people.” He is not alone in situating the Obama appeal beyond animal attraction. My Centre Pastor, Rev Ajibola Oluyede, for instance, saw the rise of Obama as the product of “the audacity of hope”, which happens to be the title of Obama’s autobiographical book. In his opinion, and he illustrated many sermons with it, Obama is the modern day manifestation of the powerful symbiotic relationship between faith and hope as powerfully taught in the Epistles.

You can hardly fault that. You cannot ignore the grass-to-grace substance of Barrack Obama’s life. His meteoric rise from one-term state senator to one-term federal senator to presidential candidate is the stuff fairy tales are made off. Recall the fact that he was given next-to-no chance when he started the nomination race against the combined political clout of Hillary and her former president husband, Bill Clinton. Consider that no black leader, including the once popular Rev Jesse Jackson of the Run Jesse, Run fame ever went beyond the first few months of any nomination race. Think about how his pastor, Jeremiah Wright became an albatross he had to , reluctantly, remove from his neck; his well publicised Kenyan and Moslem roots; his wife’s gaffe on her new-found pride in America and so many such campaign stumbling blocks. From all of these, it is easy to find something Davidic about this man.

But, apart from all of these there is one strong thing that connects Obama to Nigeria and Nigerians: his liberal political tendency. Liberalism is alive and well in Nigeria, largely. Many truly embrace the liberal school of public governance which is where Obama stands. To appreciate this, it is germane to define liberalism, particularly in the context of this piece.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word liberal was not used in the English Language as a public governance concept until 1801 when it was defined as: "tending in favor of freedom and democracy." Does that remind you of the average Nigerian? My focus here however is more in the area of liberalism described as cultural liberalism.
Wikipedia defined cultural liberalism as focusing on “the rights of individuals pertaining to conscience and lifestyle, including such issues as sexual freedom, religious freedom, cognitive freedom, and protection from government intrusion into private life. …Cultural liberalism generally opposes government regulation of literature, art, academics, gambling, sex, prostitution, abortion, birth control, terminal illness, alcohol, and cannabis and other controlled substances. Most liberals oppose some or all government intervention in these areas…”
When this is applied to the Nigerian environment, you begin to see a certain meeting of minds between the vocal population of Nigerians , the one’s who have access to and or control the media of mass communication.

Permit me to show a couple of examples of how this unarticulated though clearly discernible leaning play out in the direction of public policy in Nigeria.

Very recently, a delegation of the National Inter=religious Council (NIREC) .paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola. Among other things, he drew their attention to the surge in homosexuality in the nation, From the next day and for at least one week thereafter, Fashola was the butt of many jokes in cartoons. He was lampooned for leaving more serious matters to dwell on an insignificant subject.

The same goes for the people’s reaction to the so-called Anti-nudity bill. Respected women rose up through many NGOs to attend the public hearing on the subject. There arguments: it is a distraction.

One Mrs Kenny Babalola-Adepoju, said to have served with ex-Governor Bola Tinubu’s government as Special Adviser on Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, and a leading light of the Action Congress (AC) in Lagos State describes those behind the bill as having “nothing to do”. She continued in a newspaper interview very recently: “May be, they have nothing to do. There are lots of more important and serious bills panting for enactment. We are all human beings. We are all created with, at least, a minimum level of intelligence that will tell you what to do to belong in the society, save there is a problem somewhere. Most of us are grown up and we know that it is not good to go out naked. Mostly, its when you go to parties that you see such things as exposure of erotic zones of the body. Anti-nudity bill? What kind of bill is that? Does it portray us as serious with the job we should be doing? I even learnt that they took a large entourage to America to discuss the bill. Imagine taking such bill to America, a land of freedom and liberty. I’m sure, one of the people they met could have even worn ordinary bikini to the meeting. I want to see who will cast the first stone in this case of anti-nudity…” That is liberalism in practice. (Continues next week)