BARACK OBAMA SPEAKS TO THE AME GENERAL CONFERENCE ! Posted on Mon, Jul 28 2008
Hear and see the speech!
Article reprinted from the St. Louis American
THURSDAY JULY 10, 2008 Last modified: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 7:49 PM CDT
AME national conference jubilant at Obama’s appearance
By Jessica Bassett Of the St. Louis American
“We are our brother’s keeper.” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama took a saintly lesson out of The Good Book on Saturday in his address to an overwhelmingly friendly crowd of nearly 30,000 leaders and churchgoers from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the largest and oldest African-American denomination in the country. “It’s a message that as a church we have tried to get across to our members for a long time and a message Jesus Christ tried to get across to the world,” said Pastor Charles Pennington of Bethel AME Church in St. Louis.
Cheers and chants greeted the U.S. senator from Illinois as he made his fourth appearance in St. Louis for the AME Church’s national conference. Before addressing the convention, Obama met privately with church bishops who prayed for his health, safety and guidance during his historical race to the White House. Although Obama spoke for less than 30 minutes, he touched on a variety of issues, from the economy to the Iraq War to how churches can play an active role in bringing about the change he has been calling for. “Each of us has certain God-given rights that no man can take away, and each of us has the obligation to help our brothers and sisters pursue their dreams as well,” Obama said. “Those ideals are not only at the heart of our [country’s] founding, but they are at the heart of our faith.” Saying “God creates us for works of service,” Obama spoke about his journey from a youth with no real religious affiliation to a committed Christian.
He told the crowd how his own conversion to God’s will and Christian faith guided him as a community organizer in Chicago and later as a politician. “It taught me that I could sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling the Lord’s will unless I am doing the Lord’s work,” said Obama, who has battled false, persistent rumors that he is a Muslim. The challenges of war, poverty, genocide and violence are moral problems rooted in societal differences and individual callousness that the government cannot fix alone, he said. He preached the importance of individual responsibility as the crowd responded with enthusiastic shouts of “Amen” and “Yes.” Acknowledging that he might be criticized for “blaming the victim,” he called for the need for parents to help their children with homework, to pass healthy self-images to daughters and to teach boys to respect women. “He was right,” said Anita Washington, an AME member from Mobile, Ala. “There are some things we have to do ourselves, like raising our children in a proper way.” Obama called on churches, charities and religious groups to help the nation leaders fix social problems, such as violent streets and crumbling schools. But he added that a necessary first step is to stop spending billions of dollars in Iraq and spend it instead on uplifting people in cities like St. Louis and Chicago. “When a child picks up a gun and shoots another child, there’s a hole in that child’s heart that no government can fill,” he said. “Only we can do these things as individuals and as a community.” Obama intends to give faith-based groups the federal funding and support to provide social service programs if he is elected president. He assured the crowd that his faith-based initiative is not a part of a political strategy, but something he has talked about for the past two years. “I say it because I believe in it,” Obama said. “I’ve always believed in it.”
For the past several weeks, Obama has targeted the evangelical and religious sector. While Obama may not win over the complete demographic, faith-based groups could give him the boost he needs to beat presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain come November. Both Obama and McCain were invited to speak at the national conference, but McCain did not respond, AME leaders said at Thursday’s press conference. Obama ended his speech saying it will require “work, discipline, effort and most importantly God’s grace” to change this nation. Before he departed the stage, he asked the crowd to pray. “Keep me in your prayers, AME,” Obama said. “Keep my family in your prayers, AME.” Look for more coverage of the AME Church’s 48th quadrennial session general conference in next week’s religion column. The conference runs through Friday, July 11. Michelle Obama talks to the American St. Louis American staff reporter Jessica Bassett has an exclusive interview with Michelle Obama scheduled for Thursday, July 10. Go to www.stlamerican.com for the story.
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