Michelle Obama was interviewed by Lauren Collins for the Style Issue of New Yorker magazine last week.  Ms. Obama had a disarming answer to the question of how the controversial views of the Obamas' pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. reflect on Mr. Obama:

“You know, your pastor is like your grandfather, right?” she said. “There are plenty of things he says that I don’t agree with, that Barack doesn’t agree with.” When it comes to absolute doctrinal adherence, she said, “I don’t know that there would be a church in this country that I would be involved in. So, you know, you make choices, and you sort of—you can’t disown yourself from your family because they’ve got things wrong. You try to be a part of expanding the conversation.”

I don't this is an answer doctrinaire religious folk will like.  But it has the virtue of not sounding like boilerplate political hedging; instead, it demonstrates a reflective faith and an clear-eyed candor that our national conversation about faith is generally missing.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 and is filed under Election 2008, Morality, Obama, Politics. Comments are closed; the conversation is kept as it was.