Theocracy rising

Merely because it entertains me, I would like to direct readers to this article by one Timothy Shriver, who lauds Senator Obama's rise as our first—brace for it—"Pastor-in-chief":

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, he'll not only become Commander in Chief. He'll also become the first ever Pastor in Chief.

We've never had a Pastor in Chief, but that's because we've never had a faith moment like this before. Spiritual hunger is everywhere. …[T]he Pastor in Chief cannot lead his country on inspiration alone. Faith seeks action just as principle seeks policy. In the months ahead, the Pastor in Chief has the amazing opportunity and the overwhelming challenge of channeling the spiritual surge toward action.

Count me out of any such Church. Never mind that language like "faith moment", "channeling", and "spiritual surge" raises my hackles; I'm reluctant if only because I remember how quickly and cynically Senator Obama abandoned his previous church.

Weren't these same people up in arms at the very appearance of the word "God" on President Bush's lips? Modest as I am, I'll point out that I saw this coming a while back.

In any case, Mr. Shriver is wrong. When I was a child, my mom used to tell me that President Carter acted more like a pastor than a national leader.

Obama would do well to join his roles as Commander and Pastor by making the call to service a centerpiece of his agenda from the beginning.

For the record, McCain made a call to service part of his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. Scanning the newspapers and commentary the next day, I saw that no one noticed. As far as the news media was concerned, McCain never asked us for a sacrifice, never appealed to our higher natures, and never, never! had any ideas that were worth reporting. I remember one day the NPR anchor asked a reporter if, in a speech where he attacked Obama's ideas, McCain actually offered any proposals of his own. The anchor sounded flabbergasted when the reported answered affirmatively—but I don't recall them ever saying what McCain's proposals actually were.