James Baldwin: identifying with their Savior

Not to make James Baldwin about me, but, well, I copied this James Baldwin quotation into my journal in 1975. I haven't held onto all of my journals. So many were filled with emotional tedium, important at the time to get out, but not worth saving.  

Never lost is my love of James Baldwin. By love I don't mean to trivialize. Baldwin's grace and skill--he's such a good writer--are bright and shining and have helped to make me human. I copied this into my journal, no doubt because my friends weren't in the temple.

Hypocrisies among the Big Three religions of the West are gruesomely obvious. Fear is base and rampant and as Baldwin says, "in the temple." The lies are institutional and fought well every day.

As a final note, however, "the temple" isn't always the institutions, which can do good. And hanging out only with publicans and sinners has its own limitations. I don't hold Baldwin, me or you to these two paragraphs, but focus on their portion of truth this morning.


But what Christians seem not to do is identify themselves with the man they call their Savior, who, after all, was a very disreputable person when he was alive and who was put to death by Rome, helped along by the Jews in power under Rome. And everybody forgets that.

And so in my case, in order to become a moral human being, whatever that may be, I have to hang out with publicans and sinners, whores and junkies, and stay out of the temple where they told us nothing but lies anyway.

James Baldwin, Rap on Race, 1971.

Obama: Not Jesus Christ

Please, liberals, stop telling me you knew all along Obama was a politician -- your sudden awareness based on armchair foreign policy. Your reasons? Because he hasn’t been strong enough on Gaza. Because the bailout’s unfair. Because the troops have not been withdrawn fully and with apology. (No, he hasn’t; yes, it is; wouldn’t that be wonderful: And these situations were not created by Obama.)

Listen, friends. President Obama is a politician. There was no white puff of smoke in the Vatican chimney on November 4, 2008, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t elected Pope. He was, after all, a candidate for office, the Democratic candidate, to be specific; the candidate of the Democratic party which is -- whoa, mama -- a political party.

And though it is a bit of a miracle to have a black president, Obama is not a miracle worker. He is not a saint. Get this: Barak Obama is not Jesus Christ.

I am breaking this bit of news here and now, at My 3,000 Loving Arms blogspot. President Barack Obama is not Jesus Christ. Or Buddha. Or the Prophet. The Prophesied Messiah. Or Shiva & co.

He is not even a baby boomer, and therefore does not experience the knee jerk reactions of so many of my fellow baby boomers who have the self-centered attitude he will be all peace and love as we were (my sometimes shameful generation that booed at incoming Vietnam Vets, preached green and then drove big cars).

So don’t feel good about yourself, Mr. and Ms. Progressive, because you knew it all along, that Obama was just a politician. He is a politician. He can and will disappoint. And he is the best thing for this country, at least right now.

The minute a decision is made in the Oval Office you don't approve of, have the sophistication and grounding to know it is one of many decisions. It is bad enough for our country and culture to be exposed to comment after comment from ill-prepared and shallow newscasters.  We, as citizens and pundits of our domains don't need to add to the noise.

"St. Sarah Sarai Carrying the Infant Christ Child" is a *best of*

My poem "St. Sarah Sarah Sarai Carrying the Infant Christ Child" {originally published in Mississippi Review} is a *best of* {wheeee!} at www.bestnewpoemsline. I wrote the first draft at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It felt like a payoff for a near-lifetime of looking at art with a willing heart. Beliefs to be discussed another time or here at

http://www.mississippireview.com/2008/Vol14No4-Oct08/1404-100108-Sarai.html