I thought Michelle Obama’s speech yesterday was sensational. The words, the imagery, the warmth, the emotion – and the conviction. It was compelling.But I am not dumb. I know what’s going on. The implicit barbs, dozens of them, aimed at Romney and his friends. The explicit, even desperate, attempt to have the American people fall in love with her husband all over again. I see it. I acknowledge it. That is politics.
Nor am I in agreement with everything Michelle Obama said. I have posted here on my problems with choosing between the ‘right’ and the ‘left’ in politics. It fascinates me that while the NZ scene is all about fighting over who occupies the center, the American scene has become starkly polarised. Is anybody in the center anymore? Will they ever be able to do anything bipartison ever again? I am stunned by the way Fox TV doesn’t even attempt to be balanced in its reporting. Even their presenters are soap-box apologists for the Republican Party. This has driven the mainstream media to be even less balanced themselves (I suspect they were far more balanced than is claimed before Fox arrived on the scene). Who ever could have imagined that the ‘fourth estate’ in the world’s most influential democracy could ever end up like this? Is there any even-handed journalism going on anywhere anymore – or is it just a war of words and images everywhere?
Anyhow… back to what I disagreed with. One area screams at me, one might even say that it is a silent scream. It always amazes me how a political viewpoint so aligned with justice can so readily and easily deny justice to the unborn child. Go figure.
But this post is about one quotation. It stood out above all the others for me. I reckon it will be with me for forever.
Now that is the way to live the American Dream, cherished so rightly by so many.
Listen to it for yourself – from the 18.10 mark in the video below:
I was in the USA days after the last election in 2008. I do not travel there often, but remarkably I will be there on Election Day later this year. It is going to be intriguing…
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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