The Faith of Barack Obama
Following Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, on Twitter, I was excited to receive his tweet that the first 200 bloggers to respond would receive an advance copy of Stephen Mansfield's The Faith of Barack Obama. As soon as I could get to my laptop, I replied and received the book a couple of weeks later.
First of all, I was shocked that Thomas Nelson would publish this book. In my experience, they have always leaned more toward a white evangelical Republican aesthetic. Publishing this book, although it is mostly information in content, makes a statement about the shift in mindset and action amongst its key leadership. It will be interesting to see the direction of this vetted and successful publisher in the future.
Now here is my honest opinion of the book:
I enjoyed it! It was a smooth, conversational and informative read. It confirmed once again that the pursuit to become like Christ is a process rather than an event – even for our nation's political generations. I attended an event in 2004 that was hosted by Gabe Lyons, Founder of Relevate, in which he communicated many of the challenges facing the "brand" of Christianity. It was revealed that Christianity was perceived by many to be extremist, hypocritical, judgmental, too political and irrelevant. Honestly, the Religious Right over the last eight years has not done a great job at addressing these challenges, other than being more hypocritical. The book addresses these issues but does not condemn nor condone them. As I said, the book is more factual and informational, than opinionated.
Ironically, this was the same year that Obama delivered his speech that sought to inform the world that there were Christians and liberals who were Democrats. As the book captured, this was a defining moment for born again believers who had voted primarily Democrat throughout the years. We finally felt that we had an advocate of balance in the space called politics.
Obama's belief that faith should be relevant to both politics and the marketplace confirms the message I have been encouraging our leaders of faith to embrace for about a decade. It is imperative that we maintain our faith and convictions in the marketplace, yet demonstrate them in the relevance and timing of the marketplace.
These are definitely exciting times for our nation. It will be interesting to see if America makes the right and noble decision by electing Barack Obama as President of The United States.
I am thought I am.
-Rodney Sampson