What You Don't Know about Obama's Mama
In a culture of "helicopter parenting," in which mothers are tempted to manage every moment of their children's lives to ensure future success, it's peculiar that no one seemed interested in Barack Obama's mother when his political career began to skyrocket. Maybe the anomaly of his absentee, Kenyan father was so enticing that no one gave much thought to the oddly named Stanley Ann Dunham. No one, that is, except Janny Scott.
In 2008, Scott left her job as a New York Times reporter to research the life of then Senator Obama's late mother. She interviewed hundreds of Dunham's family members, colleagues, and friends. She traveled all over the world, tracing her subject's journeys. Scott's meticulous research shows; hers is an absorbing book that details Dunham's rich, disordered life.
Having read Scott's book, the fact that Dunham has been summarized—perhaps most often by the president himself—as "a white woman from Kansas" seems comically hollow. It was with much more care that Scott chose the title A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother for her biography. Scott said that if she had used the adjective unconventional in the title, "some people would have thought it was a pejorative. Others would have thought it was high praise."
"Singular," she wrote, "is neutral. But there's no mistaking its meaning: This person was remarkable, one of a kind."
A family friend of the Dunhams described the milieu in which Dunham grew up as a "Leave it to Beaver … kind of society." Indeed, Dunham gave birth to the son who would be known as "Barry" when Leave it to Beaver was still on the air. (She stopped using her unusual first name after high school.)
Ann Dunham, however, was the anti-June Cleaver. In 1960, for instance, when racial intermarriage was against the law in about half of the United States, she married an African man. During a period in our history when divorce was not commonplace, Dunham divorced. Twice. Whereas Wally and the Beav's mother was an ever-present fixture dressed in dresses and pearls in her spotless home, Dunham lacked a "Ward" of her own to pay the bills. She had a more disheveled appearance, supporting her children with help from her parents, working as a consultant, and piecing together an academic and anthropological career across the globe.
Of his mother, President Obama told Scott, "she was not a well-organized person. And that disorganization, you know, spilled over."
Dunham worked in Hawaii, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Nairobi over the course of her adult life, sometimes living continents away from her children. When President Obama was 10, for instance, he spent the school year in Hawaii with his grandparents while his mother worked in Indonesia. She would later join him, but again leave him in her parents' care in Hawaii during his four years of high school. Meanwhile, she conducted research for her dissertation and worked in international development in Southeast Asia.
The Seminary Gender Gap
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Bill
Hopefully the book will verify that not only did they attend a Unitarian Church, that was referred to as the Red Church on the hill(Communist), but Ann's high school was known then to be infiltrated with communist teachers and she as well as her parents were avowed Marxist Atheists. Wondering if all of the above is in fact, true?
Bill
Hopefully the book will verify that not only did they attend a Unitarian Church, that was referred to as the Red Church on the hill(Communist), but Ann's high school was known then to be infiltrated with communist teachers and she as well as her parents were avowed Marxist Atheists. Wondering if all of the above is in fact, true?
Doreen Ashley
To Donna S: The President does not "sneer" at Christianity nor does he "not find it a significant religion". How could this be so when on more than one occasion he has publically identified himself as a committed Christian? One may disagree with his self-identification as a matter of discernment or question his understanding of what Christianity really is. But to accuse President Obama of "sneering" at the Christian faith is to bear false witness, thereby revealing more about the precarious state of one's own Christianity than of Obama's.
Ellen
How interesting that the Obama fans above did not bring out the book's clarification of this: "During his presidential campaign and subsequent battle over a health care law, Mr. Obama quieted crowds with the story of his mothers fight with her insurer over whether her cancer was a pre-existing condition that disqualified her from coverage. In offering the story as an argument for ending pre-existing condition exclusions by health insurers, the president left the clear impression that his mothers fight was over health benefits for medical expenses. But in A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obamas Mother, author Janny Scott quotes from correspondence from the presidents mother to assert that the 1995 dispute concerned a Cigna [i]disability[/i] insurance policy and [b]that her actual health insurer had apparently reimbursed most of her medical expenses without argument."[/b] --New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/us/politics/14mother.html?_r=2
Trisha
May God bless the president for his kindess and care for those who are disadvantaged.
Jewels
I agree with John. I know nothing about Barack Obama's mother, so why would I judge her based on some book that purports to know her? Because of his political beliefs? Please read 1 Corinthians 13.
Doreen Ashley
I think the President's choices regarding his own family are the final and best commentary on the family options both his father and mother selected.
Doreen Ashley
I'm also disturbed by the many people who seem to think they're qualified to make deeply personal judgments about a woman they never knew--who, in fact, seem to pride themselves on their ability to judge others from a distance. The nature of some of these comments also highlights how contemporary American Christian culture glorifies the nuclear family, a relatively new concept that would have been foreign to anyone in Jesus' time. Ann Dunham didn't abandon her son. She left him in the care of his grandparents. That's a big difference. It wasn't so long ago that it was common practice for several generations to live together and share childcare responsibilities. But, as usual, American Christians confuse the anomaly of 1950s-era American culture with the Gospel of Christ.
Roz
Sally, your comments are opinions at best-- too little fact. Only God knows the heart of mankind. It's interesting to read the biased comments and opinions who don't know his mother or her son. I wonder if any of you who criticize could be in the place where he is. Unconventional as she was, her did a remarkable job and it takes a village to raise a child. She could have done what Casey Anthony did, but she didn't.
Susan F.
Interesting and well written article, but I suggest readers beware of categorizing Ms. Dunham as remarkable, courageous, or as a good example of unconventional motherhood. What courage is required to abdicate one's place as a mother? None, really. One just goes, leaving responsibility to others while following one's own will-o-the-wisp desires. Rather, it would have taken courage to remain with her children and shape her life around them, finding ways to accomplish her life's work (whatever that might have been) without abandoning the most important and challenging career a woman could ever pursue...motherhood. And yes, motherhood requires sacrifice on the part of the mother. This begs the question: Just what more important work could Ann Dunham have had than to be a mother to her children? More important, I see a woman created in the image of the very God she seemed to mock (from testimony of acquaintances interviewed by the author). I read the review and see a woman who seems to have searched for something she never found...peace and fulfillment. I see a woman who chose her own way, seeking for herself "treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy" (Matt.:19ff). I find it sad the President (based on this article) seems to have never really experienced the kindness and generosity of "the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known" as either child or adult. I am saddened by the apparent truth that Ms. Dunham never experienced the joy of motherhood even with all its inconveniences, those moments that can only be experienced by a mother and that create priceless memories. I wonder if she really even knew her children...their likes, dislikes, special abilities, talents. I find the President's statement that his mother gave him a sense of "unconditional love that was big enough that...it sustained me, entirely" interesting. From the outside looking in, it seems to me the way his mother chose to live her life is the very antithesis of unconditional love. One does not by choice abandon those whom one loves unconditionally. I personally find nothing admirable in her "seeking to empower some of the world's most resource-poor people" instead of nurturing her children with the love and support of a mother present in their lives. Please don't raise the premise that some of us are not meant to be mothers; according to Scripture, God opens and closes the womb, and all we mothers are imperfect human beings. Each of us is "a spiritual person" for each of us is created in the image of holy God (Gen. 1:26, 27). (Please note this does NOT include animals or any other species!) In that she was not remarkable or unusual, for it is a true statement about every person who has been or ever will be born. Neither do I see anything admirable about how she lived her life, nor do I as a Christian see an example to follow. [Please note there are many who would probably make the same statement about my life, albeit for different reasons.] Readers of this review and the book must be careful to not romanticize her life's choices, but should look closely at how she lived her life in light of God's word. I believe that Ms. Dunham lived her life with a broken heart because she refused to turn from her own way and turn to the only One who could satisfy her need and heal her broken heart. I must add that only God knows the heart of Ms. Dunham and her ultimate choice of belief. All I can do is look at the facts presented in this review and draw my own conclusions from the information available. I hope that my conclusions will be proven wrong in the light of eternity. In Romans 12: 1,2 Paul exhorts me (all Christians) "...by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." ...
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