How Do Walls Come Down?

“Quotation of the Day” in the email notice for the New York Times, July 25, 2008
“‘The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.’
- SENATOR BARACK OBAMA, speaking in Berlin”

I am sure Mr. Obabma has in mind the putting away of ancient and contemporary animosities that keep disparate groups from working together (at best) or killing each other (at worst). I assume he makes these comments when he does because of where he is, the city that was once divided by a wall.

The wall that once stood in Berlin was built by ideology. The wall came down, however, not as a result of compromise, a shifting of position by both sides, as Mr. Obama’s admonition above seems to suggest. Rather it was the steadfast, even aggressive, posture of the West, and in particular the US, that brought it down.

Lumping all of the entities in tension into the same list raises questions. For instance, what is the wall that separates “Christian and Muslim and Jew”? If those who stand on either side of the wall do so because of their theological commitments, how does the candidate envision the wall being torn down? Does it come down by asserting that there is little to no difference between them (which relegates the truth claims of each to something less than truth claims), or conversion? In a sense, it was conversion that brought down the wall in Berlin.