President Obama and the National Prayer Breakfast

According to articles on the event, the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, was unique this year:

In a town where just about everything is scripted, the sight of the President, Vice-President and members of Congress singing “Amazing Grace,” during the 60th Annual National Prayer breakfast was one of several off script moments that was almost refreshing today.

According to another source, the talk of the town was the speech delivered at the breakfast — but not President Obama’s speech: 

Eric Metaxas…the author of biographies on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce, talked to an audience of 4,000 important people about false religion, human depravity, poverty, slavery and abortion. But the New York author delivered his sharp commentary with his trademark wit, which kept the audience roaring with laughter.

While the paper called it “almost refreshing,” others have said the event was more a National Breakfast Gathering than a prayer event (which was markedly light in its focus on prayer, compared to prior years).

In his address, President Barack Obama supported the concept that “we can’t leave our values at the door” in his speech to the National Prayer Breakfast last week.  This is contrary to the claims by some critics of religious freedom in the US military.

If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union…

The majority of great reformers in American history did their work not just because it was sound policy…but because their faith and their values dictated it, and called for bold action — sometimes in the face of indifference, sometimes in the face of resistance.

In the “unusual” prayer breakfast, President Obama likewise deviated slightly from tradition and inserted politics into his address.

When I talk about our financial institutions playing by the same rules…[and] making sure insurance companies aren’t discriminating…I do so because I genuinely believe it will make the economy stronger…  But I also do it because I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years, and I believe in God’s command to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The President was also criticized for “abusing” the Bible in his remarks when he said:

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”  It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.

Conspiracy theorists will take issue, no doubt, with the President using the imprimatur of the government to enforce his religious beliefs.  In the case of Christians, however, at least one has pointed out the President misappropriated his Scripture reference.  The “much is given” reference is to what God gives man; at best, the President’s characterization implies the government is responsible for “giving” to those who have “much,” and is therefore able to require much of them.

With reference to the Religion Clause.  See the transcript and video of Obama’s address.

One comment

  • Eric Metaxas is coming to speak at Woodmen Valley Chapel on 26 February at 1830. I read his excellent book on Bonhoeffer, and I’m excited to hear what he has to say.