The religious left may be losing its mind. Perhaps it’s just a momentary lapse of judgment in light of the Obama victory. After all, there is much to celebrate about this election. Not least of which is that it indicates Americans’ willingness to take a chance based on hope, rather than stay the course because of fear. Whether our choice proves to be politically astute or not, that kind of hope-driven thinking lies at the center of all great societies and we should be proud to have moved in that direction.
Barack Obama’s election tells us more about America and who we are as a nation than we can fully appreciate less than 48 hours after his election – that’s what it means to be the kind of historic event which people, including me, are calling it. I believe that both his election and his presidency are filled with enormous potential. But perhaps we should hold off on grand claims regarding how God feels about Obama’s election.
No rational person can claim that Barack Obama is the Messiah, literally God’s anointed. The fact that many religious leaders on the left, including my fellow panelist at the Newsweek Washington Post OnFaith project, Susan K. Smith, can even suggest that is pretty disturbing. How can she, or anyone else, assert that “God brought this nation to this day”?

Unless Rev. Smith and those like her, means that God brings us to every day and that they would make the same claims about a McCain victory, they are in very dangerous territory. It’s precisely the kind of talk that scared a lot of us when it came out of Sarah Palin’s mouth. If the only distinction between the religious left and the religious right is the political conclusions which they reach, and not the degree of humility with which they reach them, then a pox on both their houses!
What distinguished the intelligent use of religion in public life is not who is correct about what God wants. Each side has plenty of evidence for it’s conclusions about everything from abortion to health care to the war in Iraq. The issue should be the degree of respect that each side shows the other, how much room they make for those with opposing views. Without that, both the religious left and the religious right are simply interested in making the other into a carbon copy of themselves.
The claim that religious wisdom can inform our thinking about public life is made reasonable by our assurance that no one religious view should dictate public policy. I am rabbi for God’s sake (no pun intended), but I would rather live in a thoroughly secular world than one in which people make prophetic claims about American politics – especially when they seem to think that they are the prophets.
If we are serious about healing the divides in this country, as President-Elect Obama has pledged over and again, let’s follow his example. Let’s celebrate this moment with smaller claims about its significance, especially from God’s perspective, and larger acts which embody the values of modesty and unity which we claim to celebrate.