Not a campaign speech? Obama's UCC speech used in campaign literature
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
It should be clear now that the speech given by Barack Obama before the United Church of Christ General Synod in June was a campaign speech. An edited version of the speech was included in campaign literature titled "Answering the call" for the South Carolina primary. From the campaign brochure: It’s 1985, and I’m in Chicago, and I’m working with these churches and with lots of laypeople who are much older than I am. They saw that I knew the Scriptures and that many of the values I held... were values they shared. But I think they also sensed that a part of me remained removed and detached – that I was an observer in their midst.
It’s around this time that some pastors I was working with came up to me and asked if I was a member of a church. “If you’re organizing churches,” they said, “it might be helpful if you went to church once in a while.” And I thought, “Well, I guess that makes sense.”
So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. ...
It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. ...(K)neeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.-Barack Obama
June 23, 2007
