The invisible impact of Obama’s Christian faith

After seven years of perhaps the most disappointing presidency in American history, I thought the era of Obama worship was over. At a minimum, I thought we’d seen the last story about how badly Obama wants to unite the country.

But no. In a strong last-minute entry for silliest news story of the year, Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post gives us “The Quiet Impact of Obama’s Christian faith.”

Jaffe’s thesis is that Obama’s Christian faith drove him deeply to desire to unify the nation, and made him believe he could. Obama failed because, as he puts it, “there’s all this goodness and decency and common sense on the ground, and somehow it gets translated into rigid, dogmatic, often mean-spirited politics.”

Somehow.

Jaffe’s thesis is laughable. He writes, “[Obama’s] faith had been central to his identity as a new kind of Democrat who would bring civility to the country’s political debates by appealing to Republicans through the shared language of their Judeo-Christian values.”

But for many years, indeed almost until the 2008 election, Obama’s faith was manifested by his participation in the church of his “spiritual mentor” — the man who presided over his wedding and the baptism of his children — Jeremiah Wright. Rev. Wright brought civility to country’s discourse through such unifying comments as “America’s chickens have come home to roost” (following the 9/11 attacks) and “God damn America,” not to mention all of the vicious anti-Israel comments Wright included in his “pastor’s page.”

Jaffe never mentions Rev. Wright.

What attempts did Obama make to unify the country? He gave a nice speech on the subject in his famous 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention, but what action did he take as president?

Jaffe cites none, nor am I aware of any. Jaffe cannot even cite a conciliatory statement President Obama has made towards his political opponents. Yet Obama has the nerve to say that “somehow” goodness and decency doesn’t get translated into politics.

The fact is that Obama routinely demonizes his political opponents, going so far as to blame opposition on racism. Our whiner-in-chief even demonizes Christian leaders and hints that they are racists. As Jaffe reports:

Sometimes, Obama has appeared to single out conservative evangelical Christians for special blame, saying in an interview with the New York Review of Books that “it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them.”

In defense of his “Obama the healer” theme, Jaffe cites Obama’s interaction with Farr Curlin, a deeply religious Chicago doctor who, in 2004, wrote to the future president about abortion, which Curlin opposes. Back then, apparently, the two had a thoughtful exchange of views in which Obama showed respect for religiously-based social conservative views.

But now, Curlin says that Obama has opted for policies that minimize religious freedom for Christians, most notably through Obamacare. Curlin is right.

The best responses to Jaffe’s piece, however, come from some of those who commented on the Post’s website. For example:

I love these satirical fantasy articles WaPo runs at Christmas. This story is an offense to Christians of all stripes.

What’s next, a marriage coaching clinic by Bill Clinton? An “ode to truth” by Hellary? A list of Joe Biden’s greatest achievements as Veep? A vacation guide for Hawaii vacationers penned by the Obamas: “How to Get By on a Hawaiian Vacation for Less Than $12,000,000?”

And WaPo calls itself a news organization.

and

Really? This is an article? What a joke. El Presidente 0 is a spiritual Christian? Is that before or after he labels [Republicans] as a greater threat than the “JV” ISIS. Perhaps the propaganda machine wrote the article about Carson and then substituted 0 in his place?

and

Obama attended Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years. That tells me all I need to know about his Christian beliefs. The President is a congenital liar and divider. He has set back race relations 50 years. And he has made all of us less safe by his defense policy, foreign policy, and immigration and refugee policies, his doubling of the debt, and his view that Islam is a peaceful religion. He’s an ideologue immune from the facts.

and

“There’s all this goodness and decency and common sense on the ground, and somehow it gets translated into rigid, dogmatic, often mean-spirited politics.” Yes it does, Mr. Obama, and you are a polished expert in this translation. Your legacy will be divisiveness, generated by a determination to ram down the people’s throat your ideological agenda. 394 days to go before this long national nightmare hopefully ends.

Hopefully.

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