This take on faith dominates in English Anglicanism and its American Episcopalian branch. Personally, I don’t much like it. As a Catholic, I believe that the truth is contained in the Bible and is lived through communion in the Catholic Church — and all this talk of humility is navel-gazing in a world crying out for the Good News: that Jesus has died for its sins and offers a shot at heaven for those willing to trust in him.
I also think that politically empowering this brand of Christianity has not always been best for the United States, either. Barack Obama’s rejection of American exceptionalism is reasonable and sometimes has helped avoid reckless intervention. But it has also reduced the United States’ self-confidence and weakened the ability of the West to provide moral leadership.
The cost is counted in the caliphates that flourish in Nigeria and the Middle East — places where an appeal to humility is a nice idea but never going to catch on. While the Judeo-Christian West is busy being modest, its Islamist enemies brim with self-assurance.
But I wouldn’t deny that Obama is a Christian, belongs to a valid and probably growing strain of Christianity, and that he is in fact one of the most interesting religious thinkers to inhabit the White House for a very long time.
