Feature photo via White House Twitter
Speaking at his seventh National Prayer Breakfast yesterday morning, President Obama raised eyebrows and provoked the ire of Conservative pundits and politicians when he compared the bloodshed caused by groups like ISIS to the terrors committed by followers of Christianity dating back to the Crusades. During the annual event, which has drawn speeches from every sitting president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Obama condemned ISIS as a “vicious death cult” while pointing out that Islam, as a whole, cannot be held responsible for the atrocities carried out by the terrorist organization. “There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith,” he said.
The president pointed to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, to the recent Taliban massacre at a school in Pakistan, to the different faith systems attacking each other in India, to the religious wars in the Central African Republic and Nigeria — and then he pointed to Christianity.
And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.
It’s not his first time President Obama expressed these concerns. At the National Prayer Breakfast in 2009, he said:
Today, as I see presidents and dignitaries here from every corner of the globe, it strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill. I raise this history because far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another – as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.
But it is the first time he has used the platform to address Christianity’s human rights violations, specifically.
The response from the Right was swift and furious, with many Republican pundits suggesting that the president was trying to deflect blame from ISIS for their acts of terror. Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, who has sent exploratory committees to both Iowa and New Hampshire to feel out a presidential run in 2016, said, “He has offended every believing Christian in the United States.” Bill Donohue, the president of The Catholic League, said the speech was “insulting” and “pernicious.” Conservative news organizations have called the speech everything from “horse pucky” to “an indictment of the entire Christian faith” to “a bigoted, anti-Christian rant.”
But over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that the blow-up on the Right is really about conservatives’ unwillingness to acknowledge that the Bible was used as the “moral justification” for the very real “250-year reign of mass torture, industrialized murder, and normalized rape” that was slavery in the United States. Tactics, Coates points out, that ISIS very familiar with.
On the whole, President Obama’s speech was a prayer for humility, a reminder that the country’s founder were firm believers in the separation of church and state, and call to treat others the way we want to be treated.
“Whatever our beliefs, whatever our traditions, we must seek to be instruments of peace, and bringing light where there is darkness, and sowing love where there is hatred,” the president said.
Here lies the problem (okay, one of many, many, many) problems with the Right (which in itself I hate the implication they are “right” in any way, but I digress). Say anything remotely non-positive of Christianity, and oh boy, incite a riot. “He must not be a believer, he is anti-Christian, he’s a muslim supporter”, etc. Why is it you are either for Christianity or against it? There are so many people that stay away from the religious talks for fear they might offend someone. I say, offend them, make them confront the reality, and goddamn it, take responsibility and learn from the mistakes you and others have made. It’s the only way we are going to move forward.
A racist rant by the worst president in history. Attacking Christianity instead of confronting Terroist Radical Muslims.
Ah yes, those awful followers of Islam with their unwavering brand loyalty to Terro ant killer. How ever will our nation survive with our president ignoring this insanity?
Just curious, do you have an argument, our just an unfounded opinion?
mhmmmm if the right wingers can’t take it then they shouldn’t dish it out
oh golly!
Whatever his “criticisms” are of the U.S. (which are very mild, by the way), he has still essentially maintained Bush-era foreign policy. I don’t know what Republicans have to complain about, except the fact that he is black, maybe?
Hit the nail on the head.
Dear Obama,
Finally! Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you.
Nice that he’s still willing to speak the truth sometimes even though it inspires ire on the right.
I really don’t understand those guys. It’s like all or nothing. Critical thinking and honest reflection, apparently, is just too much to ask.
The religious right tend to ignore history. And are constantly insulted by accurate information.
I’ve been seeing “The Muslims did atrocities in Europe first, causing the Crusades, so they’re bad and the Crusaders were virtuous” all over the place. Neatly forgetting and excusing what the Crusaders did on their way, such as torturing, burning alive, and looting defenseless Jewish communities across Alsace-Lorraine and beyond.
Obama is the worst president in history!
Totally. In these moments of darkness, the best thing to do is pray and kiss your gilded icon of St. Reagan, seven times.
* presidents ranked by fraction of light reflected from skin
Judge not by the color of the sking but by
“THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER”!
How dare you quote Dr. King for this. You should be ashamed.
He endears himself to me by referencing the prayer of St. Francis. I am more “Christian adjacent” than Christian, but that is my favorite prayer hands down, and possibly my favorite repetitive-mantra-thing to meditate on. The French version (original?) is also very good.