Faithfully listening to Obama<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since returning this fall, Craig Dunham has asked his Biblical Ethics students at Westminster Christian Academy to focus on ways that conservative\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faithfully listening to Obama\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since returning this fall, Craig Dunham has asked his Biblical Ethics students at Westminster Christian Academy to focus on ways that conservative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-14T09:47:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/\",\"name\":\"Faithfully listening to Obama\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-14T09:47:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-09-14T09:47:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Since returning this fall, Craig Dunham has asked his Biblical Ethics students at Westminster Christian Academy to focus on ways that conservative\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faithfully listening to Obama\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1693,"date":"2009-09-14T05:47:41","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T09:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2009-09-14T05:47:41","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T09:47:41","slug":"faithfully-listening-to-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/09\/faithfully-listening-to-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"Faithfully listening to Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This quote from the book \u201cUncommon Decency\u201d<\/a> led to timely discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we hold onto strongly felt convictions while still nurturing a spirit that is authentically kind and gentle? \u2026 The answer is that it is not impossible \u2014 but it isn\u2019t easy,\u201d argued Fuller Seminary President Richard J. Mouw. \u201cConvicted civility is something we have to work at. We have to work at it because both sides of the equation are very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

These class discussions are sure to continue after Dunham wrote a commentary<\/a> urging other evangelicals to watch President Barack Obama\u2019s back-to-school address with a mixture of respect and skepticism. Now, his students are getting an eyeful while reading fierce online criticisms of their teacher\u2019s views.<\/p>\n

While his own Christian school near St. Louis didn\u2019t show the speech \u2014 which would have required cutting into curriculum several weeks into the semester \u2014 Dunham was stunned to hear that some parents were ready to keep their children at home in order to avoid seeing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeriously? \u2026 These are the conversations I would think a parent would be PRAYING to take place,\u201d wrote Dunham. \u201cAt some point, Christians have got to stop putting the mental in fundamentalist and start interacting with the world. Teaching our kids to stick their heads in the sand and ignore anyone they may not totally agree with is, in a word, unChristian. Folks, we can\u2019t counter the culture unless we encounter the culture, so let\u2019s take off the blinders.\u201d<\/p>\n

After parsing the president\u2019s text, Dunham said he is convinced he needs to use the video in his classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, from a Biblical Ethics perspective, I don\u2019t know how not to talk about this,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can\u2019t talk about these subjects in a Christian school, where can we talk about them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of Obama\u2019s speech to public-school students focused on familiar themes, especially with its drumbeat call for discipline in an age of video games, rap and reality TV. The president used several candid illustrations based on his life as the child of a single mother, including times when she taught him extra lessons at home \u2014 at 4:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t do that \u2014 if you quit on school \u2014 you\u2019re not just quitting on yourself, you\u2019re quitting on your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Dunham took some lumps online, he was not alone in praising the address.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the speech I expected the president to give to our children \u2014 excellent,\u201d wrote the Rev. John Piper<\/a> of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, a popular evangelical author. \u201cIf you settle for the news headlines that say the president tells the
\nkids to wash their hands and take care of the environment, you will miss the wisdom and courage in this speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

An influential Southern Baptist leader also praised the speech, while criticizing Department of Education lesson plans \u2014 since withdrawn \u2014 that urged students to describe how they could \u201chelp the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many criticisms of this event, argued Albert Mohler, Jr.<\/a>, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, are \u201creckless, baseless and plainly irrational. \u2026 At this level, the controversy is a national embarrassment. Conservatives must avoid jumping on every conspiracy theory and labeling every action by the Obama administration as sinister or socialist.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the very least, this firestorm \u201csmacks of disrespect for the president and, by extension, disrespect for the presidency itself.\u201d Even worse, said Mohler, this controversy \u201cthreatens to sow seeds of permanent distrust and suspicion in the hearts of the young. In an age of rampant cynicism, this is inexcusable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, said Dunham, some religious conservatives are losing their ability to hope \u201cthat God can work in any situation,\u201d especially during an administration led by a president with whom they have sharp moral and cultural disagreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a kind of fatalism on the loose that has many people saying, \u2018We\u2019re doomed\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cThat kind of perspective may be a conservative perspective, in a political sense of the word, but it\u2019s certainly not a conservative Christian perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"