The Obama Children's Choir Video and the Danger of Displacement of Religion With Politics

There’s been a lot of buzz on the cable news stations and the internet about a video of choir of children being led in the singing of an original song praising Obama and built on his campaign themes. Although some commentators have found the video to be cute or at least innocuous, most of the bloggers and accompanying comments have characterized it as creepy or even sinister. Once it became controversial, the Obama campaign apparently removed it from its campaign web site and YouTube. But the video has been reposted by others (after all, nothing ever truly disappears once it is up on the internet). You can judge for yourself below (assuming it hasn’t yet disappeared), if you are one of the few not yet to have seen it:

(If the video has disappeared, you can try looking here to find another copy of it.)

Some of my colleagues around the country with an historical sensitivity saw parallels to cult of personality behavior surrounding political leaders past and present of an authoritarian bent. Sharing the same perspective, commentary on the internet has often juxtaposed the Obama children’s choir video with excerpts from the film, Cabaret, in which a group of Hitler Youth sing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” or with a vignette of a children’s choir singing songs of adoration to Korean dictator Kim Jong Il as the “Dear Leader.” Now to the extent that anyone is suggesting that Obama is an aspiring dictator, much less that his political views are as reprehensible as these other examples, such a comparison is grossly unfair. (Nor do I think the accusations of brainwashing of children are telling here, as if the children of conservatives do not tend to adopt the perspectives of their parents as well.)

More legitimately and fairly, most of the critique suggests that the Obama campaign’s mistake in this episode lies in its tone deafness to such disturbing historical parallels, as well as reinforcement of the impression that the Obama campaign is focused primarily on personality and fails to discourage the messianic flavor of some aspects of its campaign (for more on that see here). Both impressions should have been apparent to any objective observer of the performance. Nor can the promoters of the Obama children’s choir video be excused as ignorantly exuberant. The video apparently was created by Obama’s wealthy supporters among the Hollywood entertainment industry (here). Of all people, those working in the film industry should have known better. (While the video was not produced directly by the Obama campaign, it was created by leading supporters and was, until yesterday, prominently displayed on the Obama campaign web site.)

My immediate reaction to the Obama children’s choir was a little different. When I first saw the video, it brought to my mind a religious gathering, with children singing at worship in an evangelical church or Bible camp. (Although we are Catholic and my daughter attends Catholic school, she often goes to evangelical day and week camps, where she has loved the worship, Bible study, and prayer time and comes home spiritually energized.) The parallels are almost exact: A group of children wearing identical t-shirts with a designer icon; bright and shiny young faces; an inspirational song about spreading the word, lifting up our hearts, and changing the world; choreographed hand motions, and even the ubiquitous, if often annoying, overly-enthusiastic choir director making exaggerated gestures. Of course, the crucial difference is that the devotional songs lifted up by children at an evangelical church or Bible camp are directed to our Lord and Savior – not to a political figure or political campaign.

In contrast with or addition to the other critiques being sounded, I suggest the real lesson to be drawn from this episode is a reminder to all of us, of whatever political leanings, not to allow politics to be elevated into the place of religion in our lives. Watching this video closely, including observing the presence and reaction of the parents in the audience, the viewer wonders whether this performance is the equivalent of a religious ceremony for these families (and it reportedly was filmed and recorded by Hollywood producers on a Sunday morning). Attendance at and involvement in a church or synagogue appears to have been displaced by political devotionals. Placing a political cause in such a central place is a dangerous temptation for many of us. (Now I'm not suggesting that any of us on the Mirror of Justice would be tempted to sing adoration to a political leader, but rather I know how easy it is to displace religious duties and relationships with political or professional ones).

For those of us who take a greater than ordinary interest in public, legal, and political affairs, we are constantly at the risk of losing a sense of priority, of devoting too much attention to temporal matters and placing faith in human institutions or movements or laws, while forgetting the higher things. Yes, I do think this danger is greater for those on the liberal side of the political spectrum, precisely because their political views are so heavily centered on government as a provider and on the employment of politics to achieve social justice. But politically-active conservatives are hardly immune, as we too can begin to believe that politics matters more than anything else, that patriotism trumps all else, and that the world really can be changed by a political movement rather than by a revolution of hearts.

In my published writing and previously on this blog, I have quoted a powerful reminder of priorities by Richard John Neuhaus, but it bears repeating:

Whether the political dimension is major or minor in our vocations, we will all do our work much better if we understand that we are not doing the most important thing in the world. It may be the most important thing for us to do because it is what we believe we are called to do, but not because it is the most important thing in the world. (Richard John Neuhaus, America Against Itself: Moral Vision and the Public Order 23 (1992).)

Greg Sisk