“‘You have some good ideas,’ they would tell me. ‘Maybe if you joined the church you could help us start a community program. Why don’t you come by on Sunday?” I would shrug and play the question off, unable to confess that I could no longer distinguish between faith and mere folly. Between faith and simple endurance. That while I believed in the sincerity I heard in their voices, I remained a reluctant skeptic. Doubtful of my own motives. Wary of expedient conversion. Having too many quarrels with God to accept a salvation so easily won.” -Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father”

Given that I was raised an upper-middle class white boy in the posh suburbs and he grew up under much different circumstances, there haven’t been many things in Obama’s books* that I can relate to on a purely “me” level, but in both works the way that he approaches his religious beliefs and concerns: The desire to believe met with an instinct of skepticism. Obviously, Obama’s church is not my church, but nonetheless this part spoke to me.

* – I finished Dreams From My Father, finished The Case Against Barack Obama, and by tomorrow I will be finished with The Audacity of Hope. I should have spread these out as I am going into overload. I think I’m going to pass on Barack Obama: Illuminati Puppet for the moment…