Obama's Moment

All eyes will be on Senator Obama today when he makes in Philadelphia what was billed yesterday as a major address on religion and race, and it strikes us as an enormous opportunity for the senator. Certainly it's not surprising that people have questions after videos of the preachings of the senator's pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., hit the Internet and the airwaves. No doubt the issue has hurt Mr. Obama, and we don't want to put the gloss on the rants of the reverend.

Neither, however, would we want to see our political candidates — or, for that matter, newspaper editors — have to answer for all the things said by clergymen to whom they are close or simply admire. And few ought to comprehend the dangers better than the swatch of social conservatives in this country who came into the political debate via, say, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who also, like the Reverend Wright, suggested, among other things, that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were something America brought on herself.

The fact is that religion by its nature calls forth great passion. Religious institutions — churches, synagogues, mosques — are places where things are often said that strike the congregation in a way that they mightn't strike the wider public. Just the other day, there was a highly regarded Orthodox rabbi, the head of a yeshiva, right here in New York who made comments that seemed to call for the assassination of the prime minister of Israel.

The comments horrified many at the distinguished institution, Yeshiva University, that the rabbi, Herschel Schachter, helps lead. Many outside of Yeshiva University were horrified, as well. Yet we do not believe that the rabbi was actually calling for an assassination, and none can gainsay Rabbi Schachter's bona fides or distinction as a teacher, scholar, and inspiriter. If there were a politician who'd studied with him and became close to him and went on to run for public office, we, for one, would not expect more distancing by such a politician than Mr. Obama has already made in respect of Reverent Wright.

One broadcast about Reverend Wright quoted a member of his congregation — a woman in her, we would guess, 30s — saying that what the reverend was really talking about was being black in America. If there are today voters who are shocked that this topic from time to time makes men of Reverend Wright's age and experience fume and get overcome with anger, these voters would strike us as detached from reality.

Yes, we were among those who were appalled at some of the language used by Reverend Wright, but black Americans aren't the only Americans angry at the experience blacks have faced and, in millions of cases, still face in this country. What strikes us about Mr. Obama is not so much that he was a member of such a congregation, but that he has come out of that congregation with a vision that is so broadly appealing and is uplifting to so many whites as well as blacks, Jews as well as Christians.

Our differences with Mr. Obama are strictly on policy. For all the controversy about the Reverend Wright, our guess is that it won't cost him as badly as the senator's position on the Battle of Iraq. Or on education, where the senator made a mistake in skittering away from his statements that he would maintain an open mind in respect of school vouchers, which, after all, are a project to help poor and minority pupils escape failing public school systems.

Mr. Obama also made a potentially catastrophic blunder, as did Senator Clinton, in suggesting that at a time when America is on the edge of a recession, he might withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. But he could make those mistakes even if he didn't belong to a church with a cantankerous preacher given to making outlandish statements.

So it will be an important moment when Mr. Obama gets up today to talk about race and religion. In Boston in 2004, the senator made one of the most memorable speeches in a generation, even if it was to nominate a candidate who deserved to fail. He rose precisely, as he put it, "to affirm the greatness of our Nation." He did it by speaking words that were the opposite of Reverend Wright's. And Reverend Wright's demagoguery only throws into sharper relief the courage and unifying themes of Mr. Obama's public political campaign.