Commentary: A word with the president
A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Joy Jittaun Moore*
Jan. 14, 2009
Barack Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States
of America has prompted more than the usual concerns for democratic
leadership in our contemporary times.
The reality, that he will be the first African American to serve in
this capacity, raises expectations on a variety of fronts. Admittedly,
I am one who did not think often of addressing a president. However,
being an African-American, from Chicago no less, who is also
experiencing for the first time a president who is “my age,” prompts a
gratitude for the opportunity to consider what I might say to the
president of the United States of America.
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The Rev. Joy Jittaun Moore
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President Obama, I would like to say that the system into which you
presently find your vocation is defined more by power than by
nationality, race or political affiliation. You know this. It may be
well for the rest of us to recognize how systems work as well as
acknowledge the challenge—even to the U.S. government—of the ideals
that distinguish the American project. Should you operate from these
ideals, in spite of the system, the hope that you called forth may very
well thrive.
History has a way of remembering not the best-laid plans but the
surprising occurrences. History has been made. And, to be sure, that is over. The next memories are not so much made, as they will result from the events that follow.
To seize your moment is neither to yield to the temptation to make
history nor to see your role as a “black” president. Rather it is to
live each day, to consider each decision, to speak each word with the
gravity of your role as world leader.
The door through which you have walked needs not a prophet, but a
priest; not a lobbyist, but a leader; not a dreamer, but a doer. That
is, those upon whose shoulders you now stand have sounded the alarm
that cried for the opportunity to do a job. You now have that
opportunity … to do the job. There can be no better description of the potential for leadership than its demonstration.
Remember who you are. One of my colleagues wisely accessed the breadth
of wisdom in a simple consideration you uniquely have at your disposal.
If, as you deliberate what is suitable for justice, you would but keep
in mind what would serve your grandmother from Kansas and your
grandmother from Kenya, the potential to do no harm is enhanced.
And, as you remember the women in your life, it will be my prayer for
you personally, that as the world comes to call you a good president,
Michelle will be able to continue to call you a good partner, and Malia
and Sasha will be able to continue to call you a good parent. No job
should undermine the gift a human being has in family—even president of
the United States. To remember this part of your person will keep you
in touch with the poorest moms, the most tormented fathers and the
truest ideals of children’s naïveté. Find ways to take self-care in
order that you might care for others.
I am a practicing United Methodist Christian, so I will pray for you,
as I do all the leaders and citizens of the world. I do not expect you
to make America and the Christian church a single entity. Pardoning my
metaphor above, you are not a priest, but you are a president. That you
are a Christian should be evident not in a verbal claim, but a
constantly demonstrated hope borne not of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s
Dream, but the Creator’s intention.
For the people of God, this strategy of hope is narrated in the
biblical story that begins, “In the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth.” Such hope is born in a present that rightly remembers
the past.
“As your sister in Christ, I will pray for you.”
You called forth this hope, moving us from claiming, “I have a
dream” to the mantra, “Yes, we can.” Such hope is not born in politics,
or nation or race. It is the very DNA of creation. Nevertheless, to
identify the source of this hope is the task of the church.
The task of a nation is to act honorably as evidence of the reality
that such is not merely wishful thinking or philosophical idealism.
Rather it is the very potential of the world to practice justice.
As your sister in Christ, I will pray for you. As a citizen of the
United States, I will look to you to demonstrate in leadership the best
of American ideals. As a woman of color, I will remain grateful, that
you—a man who already has exhibited great intellect and intuition—have
said yes to this role now, given the enormity of the problems facing
the American public and even the global public.
I will be among those citizens who call you to the hope you campaigned
on. Not against you, but with you, to hold you up to the ideals you
held up for us. And who knows but that you have been called to this place for such a time as this.
*Moore is an ordained elder of the West Michigan Annual Conference of
The United Methodist Church. She is associate dean of the Center for
Lifelong Learning in the Duke University Divinity School in Durham, N.C.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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