Opinion: Barack Obama gets a pointed message on humility
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DENVER -- Barack Obama began his campaign day in Eau Claire, Wis., surprising most of the congregation at the town’s First Lutheran Church by attending service there. But Pastor John Kerr had been tipped that his listeners might include the almost-official Democratic presidential nominee, and he was ready with an on-point message.
Obama brought his own Bible and settled into an aisle seat in the fourth row. Kerr’s then offered as his first reading Romans 12:1-8 -- which preaches humility.
Indeed, according to pool reporter John Broder of the New York Times, Kerr summarized its thrust as counseling against cockiness because one is a good singer or public speaker. And the passage urges one ‘not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
In his 13-minute sermon, Kerr refrained from any mention of Obama or politics. But Kerr, a former Minnesota resident, afterward told reporters he hadn’t had ‘this much excitement since Jesse Ventura was elected’ that state’s governor in 1998.
After the services, Obama campaigned at the nearby Rod and Gun Park, where he decried the current state of the economy and stressed his commitment to improve it (a message many have been urging him to focus on).
But before seguing into candidate mode, he offered reporters definite thoughts about what does and does not constitute a barbeque -- as the gathering at the park was advertised.
“If you’re not barbequing, it’s not a barbeque,” he said. “It’s a cookout. It’s a picnic. It’s a bratfest. It’s not a barbeque.”
-- Don Frederick
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