campaign 2008

Obama has been sighted in some strange places recently, such as Rick Warren's very evangelical church. Barak Obama is himself a believer, if indeed religious conservatives would wonder how that could possibly be. He is decrying the "slash and burn" politics of Washington, all the ad hominum attacks, the mudslinging, the division that this country has experienced.

Well, I decry this, too. Does our struggle have to be to the death? Does the victory of one side of the cultural divide by definition mean loss on the other? So here's what it comes down to: Is that which unites us in America greater than what divides us? Barak Obama hopes so. I am not so sure I share his hope, though.

Inspired by Evolution, secularists have long hoped for a total removal of the Divine from our world. Inspired by the Bible, evangelicals have hoped to preserve a culture that once openly acknowledged God. Evolution is the secularists "god"; any attack on Evolution is considered an attack on their core values. They will not allow, as long as they have the power to do so, any questioning of naturalism as the basis for input in the public square. Conversely, the evangelicals will defend the Bible, and will not be moved.
So is there a middle ground? Maybe. Perhaps we could come to a consensus that Intelligent Design does suggest the likelihood of Divine involvement, and put that much safely in the public square, yet without endorsing any religion or philosophy that might be based upon such Divine work. I don't know if this would be acceptable to either side of the culture war, which is why I think it could work.