As this is the last part of Obama Month, let’s review what I covered.
I started with calling for a nuanced view of Obama and talked about how his cool has benefited his administration as has his being a great father with an image of Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., then we looked at how Obama failed in negotiating and using his bully pulpit with an image of Jon Stewart, next was supposed to be this image, however, I discussed the gun debate and posted an image of W. Kamau Bell.
To build on those arguments, where is Obama fighting this week? As president, he could have a prime time speech to aid those in the House and Senate or even have rallies to help. His one speech was moving, but to quote him again “To do nothing is also a choice.” It made his visit to the families of Orlando a hollow visit. He has a chance to shame those holding back this change we need and instead he chose to do nothing.
Last week was a look at drones and how Obama’s legacy of war could erase his legacy of civil rights with an image of Cenk Uygur. Now we move onto the topic of religion.
For many years, I have been friends with David Silverman. It was surreal to turn on Countdown with Keith Olberman and to see him play a clip of Dave on Bill O’Reilly. Since then, I have made many graphics featuring Dave on religion and even a cartoon in his book Fighting God. We are a secular nation, and Obama, even though he is a Christian, is a secular president.
The idea is simple and I’m going to quote Cenk Uygur again:
When you combine church and state…It is actually damaging to both parties…Not only does it corrupt the government but it also corrupts the religion.
As I always say, Obama is a great speech maker, and his annual statement of Religious Freedom Day, is beautiful. He is, to the best of knowledge and research, the first president to recognize atheism. That is a brave thing indeed. Especially the way Christians have painted Atheists to be evil.
I consider myself agnostic. I know religion has lead to some horrible things like slavery, Jim Crow, the Klu Klux Klan, the holocaust, but it has also inspired people to do great things, like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pope Francis. Some people find comfort in religion. I have no problem with that. However, I do have a problem when people use religion, or non religion (I’m looking at you Sam Harris) as a cudgel.
Obama might be a Christian, he certainly says he is, but he does not use his religion as a cudgel.
After eight years of George W. Bush, this confuses conservatives. To be fair, I don’t think they ever read the Bible, so this is confusing for them. This is why they don’t know what religion Barack Obama even is. Even though they are mad at Obama attending the church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Obama walks a similar path of belief as Thomas Jefferson. There is debate about Jefferson’s religious beliefs, however, I see that as something personal like Jefferson did. (Jefferson also swore to tear down organized religion, which Christians quote out of context to prove he was a Christian.) Jefferson was influenced by the Deists, but never cut ties with his church and even wrote the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson and Obama practice(d) keeping religion separate from your daily life, as Jesus preached this in Mathew chapter 6 verse 5-6:
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
I wish that during the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama read this, dropped the mic and walked off stage. However, we did get him confusing conservatives with stating that Christianity has been as awful as other religions when he said:
Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. 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.
I hope going forward we have more presidents who approach religion like Obama; A person who knows he is president to *ALL* Americans of all faiths, and those who lack faith. However, even though the Supreme Court has struck it down, 7 states still have laws on the books that prevent atheists from serving in office. The joke of a grand jury in the murder of Mike Brown shows that laws that are struck down but still on the books can help further injustice. I wish someone, and this includes the President, had taken the time to advocate for removing these laws from the books.
It has been important to not just have freedom of religion but a freedom from religion. I am glad we had outside people like David Silverman working on this, but we also must have insiders, whether they be someone of faith (Like Obama) or someone who has none to work on these issues. Obama started the long road to create equal rights for those without faith. As confusing as this can be for those who think Obama is a “Godless Muslim,” faith is something private. People like Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, and ISIS need to learn this truth.
So this month, I hope I have provided some nuance in discussing our President Obama. As we look at the choices between who is likely to be president, one is a reactionary warmonger with a history of racism and the other is Donald Trump. We will miss the thoughtfulness of Obama, his cool, and his being a great family man. The next 4-8 years we won’t have someone who has acted as a secular president like President Obama did.
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