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How to Win a Culture War

Some very wise words from Jim Wallis that are at the heart of Reconciliation Talk's approach to things:

Want to know how to win a culture war?  Don’t fight one.  The soul of our nation has been marred from a perpetual state of culture war.  In an Orwellian twist, each camp relies on conflict with their supposed enemies for the perpetuation of their own existence.  The culture warrior’s clout, influence, fundraising, and organizing is based upon real or perceived attacks from the other side.  These “threats” and boogeymen are their oxygen, and without them, they die.

The biggest fear of those leading the culture wars is not an attack from the other side or the threat of losing ground on their issues — it is common ground.  Culture wars require a clash of incompatible ideologies; common ground acknowledges differences but finds practical shared goals.  Practical shared goals mean people and parties with different ideologies can both “win.”  When culture wars are fought, the only people who win are those who build their careers off them.

The rest is here.  How to Win a Culture War - Jim Wallis - God’s Politics Blog.

Wallis' article is focused on the abortion issue, and needs to be heard so that all can move forward on that issue, as well as achieve good health care for all in the US.  But its true of just about every conflict I can think of that has been mentioned here.

Truth from Obama on Africa

Now let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.

These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck. We all have many identities - of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st Century. Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division.

He's just a great orator. I described him as walking on water in a recent post. I cannot think of better words than that now. President Obama's speech in Ghana ranks alongside his other exceptional speeches. I am late on this but I can't not post it. I will choose just two articles:

Obama speaks of hopes for Africa  on BBC. with a  

Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa  in the NYT.

And the whole speech is on the extension, with the best bits highlighted.

Obama on Fatherhood

The man walks on water once again; vulnerability, humanity, grace and wisdom.
 
The White House - Press Office - Remarks by the President at Fatherhood Town Hall.

And when fathers are absent -- when they abandon their responsibilities to their children -- we know the damage that that does to our families. Some of you know the statistics: Children who grow up without fathers are more likely to drop out of school and wind up in prison. They’re more likely to have substance abuse problems, run away from home, and become teenage parents themselves.

And I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life. I had a heroic mom and wonderful grandparents who helped raise me and my sister, and it's because of them that I'm able to stand here today. But despite all their extraordinary love and attention, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel my father's absence. That's something that leaves a hole in a child’s heart that a government can't fill. ...


.... I've made mistakes as a parent, and I'm sure I will make plenty more. There have been days when the demands of work have taken me from my duties as a father and I’ve missed some moments in my daughters’ lives that I’ll never get back. So I’ve been far from perfect.

But in the end, it’s not about being perfect. It’s not always about succeeding; but it’s about always trying. And that's something everybody can do. It’s about showing up and sticking with it; and going back at it when you mess up; and letting your kids know -- not just with words, but with deeds -- that you love them and that you're always -- they're always your first priority.

A Peacemaker strides out!

In many ways the end of President Obama's speech says it all:

We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.

The Holy Koran tells us:  "O mankind!  We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us:  "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us:  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."  (Applause.)

The people of the world can live together in peace.  We know that is God's vision.  Now that must be our work here on Earth.

Thank you.  And may God's peace be upon you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.

Its hard to know what to highlight in a speech that models the role of a peacemaker. The whole thing can be found on video here The President’s Speech in Cairo: A New Beginning and and the transcript:  REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON A NEW BEGINNING .

Bold hopes and dreams, and wise words:

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity.  And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end.

I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.  Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight.  I know there's been a lot of publicity about this speech, but no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this point.  But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors.  There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground.  As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth."  (Applause.)  That is what I will try to do today -- to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

Very very challenging words. No empty words here. This is the business!

I love the way he speaks of the Muslim world and its historical culture with honour. And of his own nation with love and pride. And he then brings the issue home to a core issue, dealing with stereotypes:

I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.  That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't.  And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. (Applause.) But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America.  (Applause.)  Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.

There is just so much more. I will leave each of the seven areas where he spoke truth so well, so wisely, so lovingly. But I conclude with a final paragraph:

I know there are many -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- who question whether we can forge this new beginning.  Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress.  Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort -- that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur.  There's so much fear, so much mistrust that has built up over the years.  But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.  And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country -- you, more than anyone, have the ability to reimagine the world, to remake this world.

There are many reviews; I will choose one for the moment, from the Independent leader:
Mr Obama makes his case for a historic rapprochement

It is not often in modern times that a single speech is delivered with a view to changing history; still more rarely that it achieves this end. But the address delivered by the US President at the University of Cairo yesterday has a chance, just a chance, of doing that. If the United States and the Islamic countries eventually succeed in banishing their mutual suspicion and inaugurating a new age of understanding – a distant prospect, to be sure – Barack Obama's bold efforts to make a new beginning, based, as he put it, on mutual interest and mutual respect, will deserve much of the credit.

It notes how he used  his biography, his cultural sensitivity and his communications skills to his advantage.

The speech was as pitch-perfect as we have come to expect from Mr Obama. But in content, too, it was hard to fault. This was an hour-long discourse on subjects that have been minutely analysed and argued about by experts over the years. It was a diplomatic and intellectual tour de force; a cool, logical and coherent argument for the ditching of stereotypes and the harmonious coexistence of two different, but not automatically conflicting, views of the world.

He was hard hitting. And while words are not the same as deeds:  ".... words set a tone, and Mr Obama's every nuance was calculated to say that today's White House, politically and philosophically, is as far from George Bush's as it is possible to be."

With great respect to President Bush, there is simply no comparison.

Obama on Discovering Common Ground

I didn't read President Obama's speech on Sunday at Notre Dame University, but read it after Jim Wallis has raved about it twice.

Discovering Common Ground  and earlier in the week  Thoughts of Obama's Notre Dame speech

The mark of grace of the university in giving an honorary degree to Obama despite his more liberal views on Abortion, and the grace evidenced by the President in his address are remarkable, and so encouraging to ReconciliationTalk. Wallis writes: "I think it was likely the most significant speech Obama has made in his presidency so far in regard to many of the concerns and work of the faith community."  And goes on to quote EJ Dionne writing in the Washington Post:

There were many messages sent from South Bend. Obama’s opponents seek to reignite the culture wars. He doesn’t. They would reduce religious faith to a narrow set of issues. He refused to join them. They often see theological arguments as leading to certainty. He opted for humility.

So I just read the original speech:  Obama’s Commencement Address at Notre Dame   After the obligatory remarks, and after being heckled, he began:

"... we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity -- diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief. In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family. ..."

How can two presidents be so different?  Whoever said Obama doesn't have a Christian worldview. He has a deeply grounded Christian worldview that is at the same time rooted in a political philosophy that is profoundly realistic:

Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" -- is not easy.

Expressions of Regret

I posted earlier on the new season in diplomacy in the Middle East, with the Pope and Obama hard at work there, and made mention of the The "Global Apology Tour" .  Without wishing to be judgemental I find it hard to understand how some basic Christian vitues like forgiveness can be so easily dismissed from the Conservative's way of thinking.

Gareth Higgins on Sojourners God Politics blog agrees. In Fox ‘News’ on ‘Obama’s Apology Tour’   he writes briefly about a news article on Fox News on that very subject. In looking at the subject they very usefully catlogue the Presidents humility for his nation's wrongs.  You can find the Fox article here:

On World Stage, Obama Uses Podium to Express Regret - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com.

Take a look. I find it most heartening. After sharing the list, Higgins concludes: 

... letting the rest of the world know that the U.S. wants to be friendly again, and that it understands both that friendship is a two way street and that two wrongs don’t make a right, may just be the most we could ask for right now.

And in that regard, perhaps Fox News has done us a service, as I’m reminded that, a couple of thousand years ago, someone else uttered the following statement:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

So, thank you, Fox News, for reminding us of the vital role of humility in the process of earning credibility in the eyes of the world.  You’ve done a great service to diplomacy.

I second that!!

The "Global Apology Tour"

100 days down and many are assessing the impact of Barack Obama as US President.  For many of us outside the US the most refreshing news has been of many (not all) of his foreign policy speeches and especially his recent forays to Europe, Turkey and South America.   Which is why it is interesting but not suprising to read of the swathes of the USA that are lamenting what they are labelling his "Global Apology  Tour".

Joe Klein in his Time blog post  Exceptional Myopia - Swampland - TIME.com reviews the criticism the president received from James Kirchick in the LA Times: Squanderer in chief .  Kirchick starts:

At a stop on his grand global apology tour this spring, President Obama was asked by a reporter in France if he believed in "American exceptionalism." This is the notion that our history as the world's oldest democracy, our immigrant founding and our devotion to liberty endow the United States with a unique, providential role in world affairs.

Rather than endorse the proposition -- as every president in recent memory has done one way or another -- Obama offered a strange response: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

This is impossible. If all countries are "exceptional," then none are, and to claim otherwise robs the word, and the idea of American exceptionalism, of any meaning. Besides, American exceptionalism is demonstrable -- Cuban journalists, Chinese political dissidents, Eastern Europeans once again living in the shadow of a belligerent Russia and, yes, even some Brits and Greeks look toward the U.S. and nowhere else to defend freedom.

Viewed within the context of the first 100 days of his presidency, Obama's nonsensical statement is part of a disturbing pattern. Since swearing the oath of office, our president has traveled the world criticizing his predecessor, confessing America's supposed sins and otherwise flagellating the nation he leads on the altar of international "public opinion." continue here

Klein doesn't agree; he argues that:

... in recent years, much of the rest of the world came to see American exceptionalism as a belief that we can make our own rules, make exceptions, as it were. We could unilaterally decide to make war in Iraq, withdraw from the global warming negotiations, allow India and Israel to abide by one set of rules when it came to nuclear proliferation and Iran to another. What Obama was actually saying was this: While America regards itself as extraordinary, we will no longer act on the international stage as if we are the ultimate repository of wisdom and righteousness.

Opinions are sharply divided; to see some of the predominantly negative views just google "global apology tour".

I have recently commented on one aspect of Obama's engagement with the Middle East - his deep bow to the Saudi King. I believe he has made a radical step. Only time will show the fruit, but I am hopeful. The critics are dubious; he didn't bring home results. But that rather misses the point, that I am sure they drum into their kids when they are teaching them the hard way to apologise for wrongs done. You don't apologise because you were caught, You don't apologise to get something. You apologise because you did wrong.

And in this case is it any wonder there were no results? After years of pushing their view around, a new US President comes with a simple apology. You are grateful but you don't jump and give him all he would have got if he had waved the stick.  You take time to adjust to the new relationship, one that is more of equals.  And before much time goes by you will probably give him a mouthful as well. of things you can now say but which you never felt free to say. Change will come, but apology is not about an "A" causes "B" sort of technology.

100 days is gone; maybe the fruit will come after 1000 days. By my reckoning that will be just in time for the next election season!  I pray he continues to walk in the humility required for the long haul.

And if American exceptionalism sufers a mortal blow then some of us are not going to be upset. 

 Recent posts related to this subject:  A simple bow by the most powerful man in the world  and "a simple gesture of respect" : Humility in International Relations.  on Obama's Middle East encounters, and The politics of apology on Gordon Brown's apology.

"a simple gesture of respect" : Humility in International Relations.

I made a few comments yesterday about President Obama's bow to Saudi King Abdullah when they met at the G20 last week.

A simple bow by the most powerful man in the world

The story has grown over these past 24 hours.

Time correspondent Scott MacLeod wrote in his Middle East Blog post yesterday: Why Obama's Saudi Bow was Not a Kow-Tow:

.... it's common sense to accord the Kingdom's elderly monarch a simple gesture of respect. For Obama, who unapologetically seeks to build bridges between Islam and the West, perhaps it's second nature, too.

I think that just about sums up what it amounted to - a simple gesture of respect.

Yet that is not how it seems to conservatives in the US:

On Fox News:  Obama's Apparent Bow to Saudi King Outrages Conservatives   speaks of the bitter taste left in many conservatives. At writing there were 263 comments, most very angry.

24thState.com, the writing of a self-described average man from Missouri, is horrified:  Obama Bows To The King Of Saudi Arabia.  He writes:

Notice he does a full bow, with his right leg going back to support his weight as his knee bends.  Bending your knee is a supremely different bow then bending from the waist.  It's a practiced bow you give to a man you consider your superior.  It's not a sign of respect. It's a sign of subservience.

and that is not OK.

On WorldNet Daily we read: Obama Bows to Saudi King. They quote Jamie Glazov, the author of a book "United in Hate," which claims to "analyze the Left's contemporary romance with militant Islam". He said: "Obama's act actually was to be expected:"

 Leftists have prostrated themselves before despots throughout history – during the whole Cold War and now vis-à-vis jihadists in the terror war. 'United in Hate' crystallizes with precision how and why this dark process occurs."  He cited the Obamas' less formal interaction with the queen earlier.

"Obviously, the queen does not wield totalitarian power and does not mete out sadistic punishment – with which a believer yearns to identify. The Saudi king, meanwhile, is a tyrannical entity to which Obama can subjugate his individuality – and through which he can vicariously experience a feeling of power and purpose.

With respect, what garbage. As is most of the comment which to be honest still sees Obama as a closet Muslim. 

And the Weekly Standard focuses on the NYT which ignored the bow:  The NYTimes Bows Before Obama, seeing conspiracy as ever.

I am reminded of a key moment in the history of China when in 1793 British Ambassador George Macartney refused to Kowtow to the Emperor of China. The Macartney Embassy was in Beijing to persuade the Chinese to ease restrictions on trade between Great Britain and China, one result of which would be to allow Britain to sell opium to China.  It was correct form for anyone coming before the emperor to kowtow  ( 叩头: Kòu tóu ), "an act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to touch the head to the ground."  Macartney refused to so honour the emperor and the embassy failed. The issue then as now was that it seemed to them that for Macartney, to kowtow would be to acknowledge that his boss, George III, was subject to the Chinese Emperor.

Previous official visitors from Europe had kowtowed, and a few did in later years, but the last decade of the eighteenth century saw Europe and especially Britain on the rise to world domination, and very conscious of their own status in a way that had not previously been the case.  Yet in my analysis that simple refusal  is the hinge point in the relationship between China and the West. The failure to honour, or perhaps it should be said, the dishonouring of the emperor, set in process a decline in relationships between Britain and China that still has to be properly reversed.

Dishonour is a powerful thing. I once asked a Chinese person what reconciliation would look like in China. In other words what would give it meaning. His answer: honour. In my experience that has proved true. To honour is to reverse the trend of dishonour that China has felt from the west.  And I do not believe it is only true of China. Its hard to know what was going through President Obama's mind, maybe it was just an intuitive gesture from a man who is attuned to different cultural values, but my response is "watch this space". It opened the door to his words about US relations with the Islamic world being heard later in the week.      

The bow, the kowtow, indeed any other stylysed form of greeting; its all the same. All are expressions of greetings protocol that are typical of formal traditional cultures where. To go through the ritual is to go through a gate, to enter a circle of acceptance, to gain freedom to speak, to negotiate, etc. We do  not understand that sort of culture. In the west formal protocol of greeting is all but gone, and no more so than in America. A shake of the hand, Hi!, a few words are all that is done - to seniors or younger, men or women, whatever their status. That is the protocol that so many bloggers seem to be defending in this story.

The message seems to be that participating in a greeting that involves humbling oneself is OK if you belong in that culture. Though to be honest even that is a grudging acceptance, with a very strong undertone of "our way is better and more civilised". Read  Barack takes a bow, the Washington Times piece which has caused so much of the stir.    

But it is definitely not the way Americans and so much of the West want to do diplomacy. I want to suggest that if there is any true greatness in our nations and their cultures, it will be reflected by a willingness to let go of that self-conscious hanging on to our reputation however many people we offend along the way. To be humble is not self deprecation; it is to admit who you are, and recognise the other person for who they are and even more, who God made them to be. That is what I see so often in Barack Obama. That is true greatness. And with that spirit it is possible to do a 90degree bow or a full flat kowtow  and really mean it, even as a Christian President in front of a Muslim king or a Chinese Emperor. In the world of diplomacy today such a gesture is about honour, not obeisance or fealty.

I applaud Barack Obama's "simple gesture of respect."   And I look forward to the result.

A simple bow by the most powerful man in the world

Its not just what he said at the G20 and in Europe; its about 3 seconds of what he did that has really stirred the hornets nest for the US conservatives.

It was overlooked at the time, unlike the words he said, but apparently some of his critics have been were searching YouTube for something more to pick on. And they found it!

He bowed to the Saudi King.

You can see the bow here with comment on the Time Middle East Blog.   Why Obama's Saudi Bow was Not a Kow-Tow.  Of course the White House is denying it,but its clearly a bow.  And while it may breach US protocol, its got to have been the best thing he has done yet.   

The Washington Times was disgusted at what it calls his  "servile gesture":  Barack takes a bow

In a shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate, President Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah at the Group of 20 summit in London last week.

Mr. Obama later said in Strasbourg, France, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect." Symbolism is important in world affairs. By bending over to show greater respect to Islam, the U.S. president belittled the power and independence of the United States.

The comment in France was not directly related to the bow, but I would suggest gives clear indication he knew what he was up to. As they said, symbolism is important in world affairs. The bow was symbolic, but of what?  Fealty as the article suggests?  That is the popular understanding of any form of obeisance. Mere respect?  Not necessary according to the article:

No Americans of any station are required to bow to royalty. It is one of the pillars of American exceptionalism that our country rejected traditional caste divisions. Article I Section 9 of the Constitution forbids titles of nobility and stipulates that no officeholder or government employee may "accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state" without the consent of Congress. Judith Martin wrote in her Miss Manners column in 2001 that bowing "is not an ordinary bit of foreign etiquette one might adopt out of courtesy when traveling. ... Americans do not properly bow to any royalty. We show respect for other countries' leaders the same way we do to our own."

Maybe that is what the problem is about. The attitude that we are going to do it our way. And as a Brit I recognise the same in my own nations manner around the world. We expect greetings, everything in fact, to be done our way. But greetings protocol is important. A greeting is the gateway into a relationship. You can indicate in those few seconds how you are going to treat that relationship. Trust can be built or lost in simple gesture.  I would suggest that President Obama was very simply saying, I am going to treat you with honour, just as I exprect you will treat me with honour. And I bet they heard what he said all the more attentively for that gesture.

Of course what he said is a problem as well:

Mr. Obama is proving that one can be elected president without knowing how to behave presidentially. His servile gesture was fully fitting with the tone of his humility tour of Europe. In his eagerness to be loved personally, the president has lost sight of the fact that the leader of the free world also must be respected.

Whatever came of the respect that is afforded to integrity, to humility?

Michelle Obama Finds Her Role on the World Stage -- as a peacemaker

Slightly cheesy?  Perhaps for some. Genuine?  Totally!  Life-changing?  For those hearing (and hugging) her, radically!  World-changing? A small step, but a vital one!   A genuine bit of peacemaking in action.

Michelle Obama Finds Her Role on the World Stage - TIME.

.... This was a rhetorical feint of sorts, since Michelle's whole point was that she was meeting with important people too, a group of about 200 proud teenagers from a mind-boggling variety of backgrounds. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School has about 1,000 students, all of them girls ages 11 to 17, two-thirds of whom speak English as a second language. Fifty-five languages are spoken at the school. Ninety percent of the students are ethnic minorities, and no single ethnic group makes up more than 21% of the student body. As a group, they treated Obama as if she were an American Queen, a personification of what they can only dream of becoming in a country where no minority has risen nearly as high as the Obamas. ...

.... as she concluded, she switched to the first-person plural, suddenly speaking for more than just herself. "We are counting on every single one of you to be the best that you can be," she told the young women, many wearing Muslim headscarves, all sitting in rapt attention. "We know you can do it. We love you."

It takes all sorts to be a peacemaker. But the heart of it is humility, vunerability, maybe you could call it a beautiful spirit. And beautiful people dressed in beautiful clothes make a way for and highlight  a beautiful spirit.