As the world watched you stride center stage for your victory speech on the evening of November 4, it was ecstatically clear that we had entered a new age of possibility. I could not help but think back to that night in Boston at the 2004 Democratic National Convention when you were catapulted into national prominence as a rising star on the political scene. I had stood at the same podium just hours earlier, called to share some prophetic justice principles to serve as a plumb line to test the moral integrity of the policies of our nation. When I heard your speech later that evening, I experienced you as standing in the prophetic stream of biblical prophets, and of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. You spoke as a drum major for justice, a critic of oppressive systems, a passionate advocate for peace, and a champion for the cause of the poor and vulnerable. I thought, "At last a principled pragmatician with courage and hope that our nation can be true in its promise of becoming a more perfect union."
During the years since Boston, we have followed your leadership in the Senate, marveled at your brilliant campaigning, and been thrilled by your spectacular triumph on the evening of the election. The campaign is over and the victory has been won and even those who did not vote for you seem to be joining with us in hope and great expectations. Now we await your inauguration as the forty-fourth president of the United States. What will happen to the prophetic spirit as you assume duties in the most powerful office in the world?
To be more specific, I share with you the thinking of some of my colleagues that your victory is a part of heaven's fortieth-year commemoration of the martyrdom of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. To show them that their blood was not shed in vain, special manifestations had to be arranged on the earth for all to see. Bobby Kennedy had predicted that in forty years there might be an African American president. And right on time you are the one. Dr. King was killed while planning the Poor People's Campaign and assisting exploited sanitation workers. This was a part of his effort to call our nation to a radical revolution of values. In general terms he was urging us to move from a "thing-oriented society" to a "people-oriented society." In his speeches he identified three giant problems that needed to be conquered: racism, materialism, and militarism.
In regard to racism, what will your administration do to face and address the persisting inequities that reflect the history of racist policies and practices in our country? Your DNA, as well as my own, cries out for overcoming the intra-psychic tension and the debilitating antipathies occasioned by the delusions of race. Beyond studies of how all ethnic groups are diminished by the continuing impact of racism, what will you propose to help deliver us from this original sin of our beloved U.S.A.? The question is not what you plan to do for minorities, but what should all of us as a nation do in terms of ridding ourselves of this affliction we can no longer afford in light of the toxicity it spreads in all areas of national life?
In regard to materialism, it is safe to say that in the contest between God and money, it seems that money is winning by a landslide. Money is the determinative factor in most of the areas affecting our quality of life. Money was a prime asset in our electoral success. The lust for profits was a major causative agent in producing the current fiscal crisis. We know that poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. The erosion of our middle class is a symptom of a nation
in decline. We also know that the lack of money imperils the life's opportunities for millions
of our fellow citizens. You have already advanced plans for achieving a fairer tax policy and restoring appropriate regulatory guidelines in regards to corporations and financial institutions. As teacher-in-chief, what spiritual and communal values will you promote to liberate us from our idolatrous addiction to things? How will you help us to see the enlightened self-interest in achieving a reduced gap between the rich, middle class, and chronically poor? Will you lead us into serious in-depth discussion of the peril and promise of free-market values? Will it be possible to update and refine our understanding of how our capitalist system can reduce dehumanizing and impoverishing collateral damage as we press our way toward increased productivity? Will you be able to help us see that basic subsistence necessities are a part of fundamental citizenship rights in a truly democratic society? Who will be your partners in the promotion of renewed commitment to the higher consciousness regarding things that money cannot buy?
In regard to militarism, lead us, if you will, to a better understanding of why ours is such a violent society. Does it have to do with the violence against the inhabitants we found when we first came to this land? Did the early European settlers bring to these shores seeds of belligerence? Was it because slavery was such an inhumane arrangement that it necessitated heightened physical and emotional protective armaments? Is it because widespread inequities generate both defensive and aggressive behavior? Or is it simply the case that extraordinary blessedness invites envy and eventual assault? Whatever the cause, there is too much violence and our future well-being and global leadership will require us to cultivate a less combative spirit. How might your office provide encouragement and offer assistance in regard to this urgently needed initiative?
We know that we must maintain an effective defense against adversaries, foreign and domestic, but are we ready to acknowledge the role we play in creating global conflict and warfare influenced by the profit-making demands of the military industrial complex. Can these powerful manufacturing engines be converted to enterprises other than making and exporting armaments for the wars of the world? Don't we need that technological expertise to help us in our pursuit of new energy efficiencies, the repair of our infrastructure, and our mobilization to reverse environmental degradation? Can we accept the challenge of redefining greatness from military might alone to the power of high and enabling ideals and the capacity to help the world see the extraordinary benefit of shared prosperity toward global peace and justice? So even if we will not be able to end all wars, might we at least be delivered from the warring spirit that may determine when and how the world will end?
President Obama, I share the words of this letter with you in a spirit of hopefulness. I do not expect that you will be able to turn the ship of state around on a dime and in just a few years. But I am confident that you have been chosen for this pivotal point in our nation's history and your commitments are deep, determined, and Spirit-inspired. I hope my comments may have identified some of the standards by which you will measure your own faithfulness and fruitfulness. In the years ahead, I pray that the policies of your administration will reflect that you never lost sight of the prophetic spirit.
James Forbes Jr. is the president and founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation. He was the first African American senior minister of The Riverside Church of New York (1989-2007) and is a former professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary of New York City.
