(I like what Harry says about ambiguity; but I'm not with him re the resurrection of Jesus. Rowland.)

The Religion Works

Essays by Harry T. Cook

August 28, 2008

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To read "A Nuance-less Campaign?," scroll down. If there is anything America doesn't need in this or any election cycle is a campaign devoid of nuance, careful consideration and thoughtful answers. Barack Obama is being pilloried in the right-wing media for giving nuanced and considered answers to policy questions. He should be commended for doing so, and people - starting with the Attention Deficit Disorder media types - need to listen to his answers with care and consideration. If John McCain discovers complexity between now and November 4, let's listen to him, too.

Harry T. Cook

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A Nuance-Less Campaign?

Harry T. Cook

Much of the criticism of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate, which has come via the conservative pundits, concerns his nuanced answers to simple questions. During the August 16 event at Rick Warren's California Church, the preacher asked each candidate in turn at what point does human life "get human rights." John McCain's answer: At conception. It was like raw meat thrown to caged lions. The beginning of Obama's much derided answer was: I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity ... is above my pay grade. It was, of course, the answer that any scientist being paid at any grade would give, because the answer is unknown in turn because the question seeking a pat answer is far too complicated for such a superficial and one-dimensional inquiry. Theologians mostly answer it out of belief based on no knowledge whatsoever. That was McCain's answer: A parroting right out of the Right to Life Guide to Demagoguery and Argumentum Ad Hominem. It is alleged by commentators from The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan and Karl Rove on up that the American people want straight, uncomplicated answers to the questions that brood over this election season. The problem is that some of the questions are way more complex than demagogues would have you believe as in: "At what point does a human life get human rights?"

If I had been in Obama's place, I would've had to ask Warren to enumerate what he thought human rights were and how they achieved legitimacy and according to whom or what. I would've asked him what human rights a woman pregnant as the result of forced intercourse or rape has? I would've asked him more generally about women's reproductive rights and the freedom they have over their own bodies. That's just the beginning of the complexity of the human rights for human life question. Here is a transcript of Candidate Obama's full answer, after the much-quoted "above my pay grade" clause: Abortion . . . is something obviously the country wrestles with. One thing that I'm absolutely convinced of is there is a moral and ethical content to this issue. So I think that anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue . . . is not paying attention. . . . I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade and come to that conclusion not because I'm pro abortion, but because ultimately I don't think women make these decisions casually. They wrestle with these things in profound ways, in consultation with their pastors or spouses or their doctors and their family members. And so . . . the goal right now should be . . . to . . .reduce the number of abortions because the fact is that although we've had a president who is opposed to abortions, over the last eight years [the rate of] abortions [has] not gone down.

Yes, it is a more complicated answer than John McCain's at conception or what Noonan wrote that she wished Obama would have said: Let the baby live. Just let the baby live. Sure, Obama could have said that and stolen the show from McCain, but then Noonan & Co. would have picked on some other alleged nuance. Another commentator - Margery Eagan of The Boston Herald - recently wrote of Obama that I wish he'd save nuance for senior seminars and give America straight answers. That's what McCain does lately and it's working. Is it working? How? Is it working for McCain because his short, snappy answers to questions, however fraught with complexity, relieve voters from having to think, thereby freeing them to enjoy the next episode of America's Funniest Home Videos? That kind of situation is what gives rise to such cynical comments as People get the government they deserve.

In my years as a parish minister I have run up against the same phenomenon: The desire for simple, definitive answers. Just try telling a congregation seeking affirmation that Jesus rose from the dead that the various stories of Jesus' resurrection say more about the needs of those who composed them than about the reanimation of dead tissue.

During my graduate school years, I attended a guest lecture given by Paul Tillich at the University of Chicago Divinity School and will never forget this exchange between Tillich and a person who must have been a walk-in from the Moody Bible Institute. After a lengthy presentation punctuated by many a draw on many a cigarette, Tillich asked if there were questions. The Moody guy rose and said, So, then, Dr. Tillich, you would say Yes or No to the question, 'Does God exist'? Tillich, obviously pleased with the question, leaned back in his chair on the dais, gazed for some seconds into the middle distance, then brought down the chair with a bang and said, Nein. But that was not all. Tillich went on for the next 45 minutes to unpack his monosyllabic Nein. He became so involved in an explanation having to do with an Uncreated Creator and the Ground and Source of Being that he lapsed into German, leaving Moody Man visibly exhausted and no doubt affirmed in his belief that Tillich and his ilk were liberal heathen sent by Satan to confuse the devout.

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© Copyright 2008, Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.