Yesterday President Obama tried to boost his religious
credentials with religious groups. While he was aiming for a
theocratic-style impression, I think, he came across as a
bumbling, lying demagogue.
From yesterday's
blogtalkradio address sponsored by 30 religious groups:
I know there's been a lot of misinformation in this debate. And
there are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false
witness.
This was said without any hint of sarcasm. My guess is that the
phrase "bearing false witness" is not part of Obama's everyday
vocabulary.
You've heard that this is all going to mean government funding
of abortion. Not true.
These are all fabrications that have been put out there in
order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a
core ethical and moral obligation. And that is that we look out
for one another. That I am my brother's keeper and my sister's
keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are
neglecting to live up to that call.
The first line is an out-and-out lie. Unless Obama is right here
commiting to vetoing health care reform legislation unless a Hyde
Amendment-sytle provision prohibiting funding for abortions is
added, it's very
black-and-white. The AP headline:
"Gov't insurance would allow coverage for abortion."
(Note that in the second paragraph he imputes the worst possible
motives to his opponents -- they're trying to prevent people from
fulfilling a core moral obligation.)
There are a few problems with his reference to the account of
Cain and Abel. On a literal level, his gender-inclusive use of
the phrase "brother's keeper" (i.e. he says "sister's keeper"
too) is nonsensical. The biblical reference is not to some
abstract commandment or ideal, but to a specific story, in which
Cain kills his brother Abel, covers up his actions, and later
pleads ignorance of his brother's whereabouts to God, asking
rhetorically, "Am I my brother's keeper?" There are no sisters in
this story.
On another level it's ridiculous for Obama to use this phrase as
a justification for government intervention. There's a lot in the
Bible about feeding the poor and clothing the naked, etc., but
not a lot about getting the federal government to provide
entitlements. It's a bit rich for him to say "we are neglecting
to live up to that call" on the basis of our aversion to coercive
and probably harmful governmental policies when in fact we are
the
most generous nation on earth.
That’s what you can do again today to help us achieve quality,
affordable health care for every American so that you don’t
have families out there who are worrying about going bankrupt
because a child gets sick. So that you don’t have people who
are desperate about a situation where they lose their job and
suddenly can’t find health insurance again.
That’s not the way that our religious faith instructs us.
Does Obama really think that people of faith really believe that
all religions and denominations have some sort of encompassing,
one-size-fits-all "religious faith" that instructs us all? I
don't think that Catholics and Unitarians or Muslims and
Congregationalists or Seventh-Day Adventists and Jews really
think that they have a common religious faith that instructs them
alike. What a weird comment. It's the kind of oddly out of touch
remark that, to me at least, betrays a deeper failure to
comprehend even broad religious differences.
And from his
conference call with rabbis from across the country:
In a morning conference call with about 1000 rabbis from across
the nation, Obama asked for aid: "I am going to need your help
in accomplishing necessary reform," the President told the
group, according to Rabbi Jack Moline, who tweeted his way
through the phoner.
"We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama
went on to say, according to Moline's real-time stream.
As Erick Erickson
asks (via
Michael Goldfarb), "Really? So this is a tacit admission that
Barack Obama's government is going to play a role in matters of
death?"
And again, note that Obama thinks he can win the rabbis to his
cause with the breeziest of vaguely religious sentiments --
"God's partners." If their interests overlap, it's understandable
that Obama would think they would want to work together. But why
would he think it was necessary to try to persuade them he was
one of them?
UPDATE:
Tevi Troy
explains that the phrase Obama used is from a Jewish prayer
that is apparently not appropriate for the subject. Furthermore,
Obama also
opened the call with a Jewish greeting used for Rosh Hashana,
which is a month away.
Also, in past episodes of Obama's awkward attempts at playing the
theocrat, we've seen him confusedly invoke the Sermon on the
Mount while speaking on the economy
and on gay
unions, and also use the name of Jesus even
more than his
evil theocon predecessor George W. Bush.
