Racing In The Street

I just finish posting my screed about the deficiencies of organized religion in general and my Episcopalian faith specifically, when I come across a speech by U.S. Senator Barack Obama on the need for progressives to "tackle head-on the mutual suspicion that sometimes exists between religious America and secular America."

Obama hits me where I live. He insists that we will be unable to solve the problems of poverty and racism if we ignore the powerful role that religion, even of the organized kind, can play in this struggle:


"After all, the problems of poverty and racism, the uninsured and the unemployed, are not simply technical problems in search of the perfect ten point plan. They are rooted in both societal indifference and individual callousness - in the imperfections of man. Solving these problems will require changes in government policy, but it will also require changes in hearts and a change in minds. I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manufacturers' lobby - but I also believe that when a gang-banger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels somebody disrespected him, we've got a moral problem. There's a hole in that young man's heart - a hole that the government alone cannot fix."