Last night, in his concession speech, Sen. John McCain said that President-elect Barack Obama commands his respect because “he managed [to win] by inspring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American President.”  That is certainly true.  If you read my past blentries on politics, you’ll find that I made it clear that I did not support Obama for President.

However, I do recognize that (still) Sen. Obama broke what once seemed like a huge barrier yesterday, and I join in celebrating that.  For those of us under 40 it’s hard to imagine how hard it has been historically for minorities, especially black people, in this country.  It’s even hard to communicate about this without seeming like I’m from a different time and place.  African Americans feel this more than most others, but even a lot of them don’t relate to what their forebears went through.  But, one example will be enough to remind us how far we’ve come in a short time.  Yesterday, President-elect Obama won the majority of votes in two states (Virginia and Florida) and possibly another–North Carolina is still too close to call–in which it was once illegal for a black boy to attend school with white students.  Most people reading this were probably born after that, but Barack Obama wasn’t, and he’s only 47 years old.

Last Sunday, I heard my pastor give one of his best sermons ever.  He has recently awakened to the idea (later than most “conservative” pastors) that the church has a right and a duty to be involved in politics, with very few limitations.  However, his position seems to differ slightly from many of his fellow preachers, and his sermon last Sunday reflected that difference.  His message was that if Christians are going to hold public officials to a high standard of morality and character, then they must hold themselves to that same high standard.

“Obama’s church” is the Trinity United Church of Christ.  Trinity United Church of Christ is “a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.” (from their website) Their theology is progressive but generally what most Christians would consider Biblical.  Not everyone would agree with everything they do and say, but at least they’re doing something in the name of Jesus to help rid the world of injustice and oppression, which is more than I can say for most churches I’ve been associated with in any way.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. is the senior pastor at TUCC, and he has gotten Barack Obama in trouble politically by making inflammatory statements over the last several months.  There’s no need to rehash those here.  I wrote about them back in March.  Last week, though, the last straw was a guest speaker, Catholic priest Rev.