Is It Really ‘Christian’ and Should It Be Our ‘Standard’?

The October 22, 2008 ‘Christian Standard’ (and I now doubt that it is either of those) carried “Interview with Nikki Grimes.” Nikki writes children’s books and poetry. Sounds fairly innocent, doesn’t it?

I’m thinking “See Jane Run” or perhaps “One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.” Nikki, we are told attends Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, California. She is just a nice lady helping kids read, right?

Perhaps not. She is the author of:

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope
written by Nikki Grimes
illustrated by Bryan Collier
Simon & Schuster, 2008
ISBN 978-1416971443

From the Book:

One Sunday when Barack was sitting in church,
Barack heard God say, "Slow down,
Look around you.
Now look to me.
There is hope enough here
to last a lifetime."
Barack smiled,
tears rolling down his cheeks.
Suddenly he knew for certain
Hope would last long enough
for him to make a difference.

[found at: http://www.nikkigrimes.com/books/bkbarack.html]

“One Fish, Two Fish” is much better than this garbage. I’ve heard some of what Barack heard down at his church, and it wasn’t about slowing down. (I think Nikki is confused with what they preach at the church on T.V.’s Mayberry.)

Among others, Patricia C. Hays of Columbus, Ohio (in her letter to the editor of October 28, 2008) wondered what something like this was doing in the ‘Christian Standard.’ Patricia visited Nikki’s website, and found this little gem:

I know one thing. Come November, Barack Obama has got my vote! And no matter what happens in the election, he is a man who has made history: the first man of color to win a major party nomination for President of the United States. That's why his story is an important one for young readers to know. That's why I wrote Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope.

I have no interest in Mr. Obama’s color. But it has become clear that Obama is an adherent of liberation theology - which has nothing to do with ‘liberation’ or ‘theology’ in any good sense, and much more to do with a Marx-inspired socialism.

With Patricia Hays, many of us are wondering what this is doing in the so-called Christian Standard. And if something Obama-endorsing like this is there, why is there nothing pointing to other candidates?

Let me offer some suggestions as to why it is there.

It appears that what used to be the Christian Standard has decided that hip and trendy trumps Christian. Obama and a poet who sings his praises are trendy. John McCain, Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, and all the other candidates for president this year are not hip or trendy. For one thing, they are not ‘of color.’ Well, of course they have a color of some kind, but it is not a hip or trendy color for presidential candidates.

Barack H. Obama is a good spokesman for his religion, liberation theology. He takes Christian terminology and invests it with new meaning, while not always making that meaning completely clear to some audiences. That allows him to sound ‘Christian’ when in fact he is something else.

Yet, down at the ‘Christian Standard’ they can’t seem to figure this out. I don’t know Patricia C. Hays of Columbus, Ohio, but I will assume she is an ordinary, nice Christian lady who reads the ‘Christian Standard.’ If she can figure this out, but the editors at the ‘Christian Standard’ cannot, then there is good chance that those editors didn’t try.

Or perhaps they just don’t care anymore about being a truly Christian Standard.