Reactions to Obama’s speech on race and Good Friday
Friday, March 21st, 2008
I’ve often thought how powerful it would be to have images from Good Friday and Easter - to see Jesus on the cross, his followers in despair, and then to see, perhaps, images from Mary when she saw the angel in the empty tomb. Not only would it be a powerful and moving visual narrative, but what a persuasive evangelistic tool, right?
In a recent New York Times article about Obama’s historic speech on race…
The Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of a mostly white evangelical church of about 12,000 in Central Florida, described Mr. Obama’s speech, in which the Democratic presidential candidate discussed his relationship with the former pastor of his home church in Chicago, as a kind of “Rorschach inkblot test” for the nation.
“It calls out of you what is already in you,” Dr. Hunter said, predicting that those desiring to address the topic would regard the speech as a spur, while those indifferent to issues of race might pay it little heed.
Regardless of what photos, video or first-hand accounts of Christ on the cross we may have, they will never do more than call out of us what’s already there. Perhaps that means that to you, a good man was martyred that first Good Friday, case closed. Or perhaps to you, Christians reverse engineered history and proof is simply evidence of a vast conspiracy.
My belief is the third option - Jesus, the incarnation of God, died a horrible and painful (undeserved) death through torture.
Pictures would be nice, but they’d only confirm what I already know to be true.
(Photo of Trainwreck courtesy chubbywabi at Flickr)