Time's Nancy Gibbs Cheers Obama for Overcoming 'Unwise, Unfair, Unholy' Claims of Religious Right

In the Life Magazine book of commemorative photographs titled The American Journal of Barack Obama, a set of essays in the back recount Obama’s life and triumphs. Time Senior Writer Nancy Gibbs, who recently compared Obama in Time to a prince born in a manger, championed Obama’s breaking the chains of religious conservatism in American life. His ascent marked "a growing consensus that something had gone wrong, that the phenomenon of politicians nailing campaign posters on the gates of heaven and laying exclusive claims to God’s designs was unwise, unfair, even unholy."

She even transformed Obama into a secular savior, leading "the kind of mass revivals that used to sweep across the prairie and set souls on fire... Obama was busy building a new church, looking for the seekers, those who had lost their faith in politics or never had any in the first place, and he invited them home."

In her article, titled "A Pilgrim's Progress," Gibbs briefly mentioned Reverend Wright’s "incendiary preaching" and Father Pfleger’s "political vamping" as a controversy that had to be overcome, much like the "Internet weeds" about his lack of patriotism or secret Muslim allegiance. But Wright just led a "raucous, restless family of faith," and like a Democratic strategist, Gibbs saw how Obama’s promise could close a "God gap" in the electorate:

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright would baptize Obama, perform his marriage to Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, baptize their daughters and draw him into the raucous, restless family of faith that Obama had never known before.

That all constituted a personal journey; but in the years that followed there was a public quest as well. Obama could see as clearly as anyone the role faith played on the American political stage, where all roles and gestures were exaggerated and extreme. The Repubicans were cast as the Party of God, Democrats as a bunch of sneering secular coastal elites. Republicans exploited faith voters. Democrats ignored them. Pollsters professed that the best predictor of voting behavior was not what you earned or where you lived but how often you went to church.

In all this, Obama saw an opportunity, and an obligation. The opportunity lay in a generational change, as old evangelical icons passed away and a new band of leaders wanted to talk about the poor and the planet as much as about gays and abortion. It lay in a growing consensus that something had gone wrong, that the phenomenon of politicians nailing campaign posters on the gates of heaven and laying exclusive claims to God’s designs was unwise, unfair, even unholy. It lay in the conviction that religious voters are a diverse and divided cohort, and many of them were more concerned with the instructions Jesus gave than the ones James Dobson broadcast.

Gibbs insisted Obama’s 2004 convention speech worshiping an awesome God in the blue states and having gay friends in the red states meant "It was time to push aside childish notions, reject false choices." Naturally for Gibbs, "The speech got an ecstatic reaction, propelling him overnight into the political pantheon." Then came the talk of Obama’s new secular church of faith in politics:

As soon as he launched his campaign for the White House, he recruited a full-time faith outreach team and lost no opportunity to discuss the central role faith played in his life and vision. Watching Obama soar out of Iowa, you had the feeling something epic had occurred, like the kind of mass revivals that used to sweep across the prairie and set souls on fire. Let others usher the party elders into mainline pews and preach about all their experience in a world that is being forfeited; Obama was busy building a new church, looking for the seekers, those who had lost their faith in politics or never had any in the first place, and he invited them home.

Gibbs concluded that Obama is leading America out of the wilderness of religious "certainty" and into a more inclusive and respectful sphere:

At a time when America grows ever more diverse, when ore than two-thirds believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life," Obama rejected "certainty theology" in favor of something more inquiring, more inclusive. Exotic though his biography may be, he is a pilgrim in a land founded by pilgrims and is resolved to restore some missing piece to the public square. If he manages to find a way for people of many faiths, or none at all, to address the moral dimensions of public life in a way that feels respectful and restrained, he will indeed have written a new chapter in a long American story.

The Life Magazine book described Gibbs as a Senior Writer for Time and "co-author of the acclaimed book The Preacher and The Presidents: Billy Graham In the White House."