Religious Values

Yesterday president Obama gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. Here is an excerpt from that speech: “Living by the principle that we are our brother’s keeper. Caring for the poor and those in need,” Obama said before an audience of about 3,000 at the Washington Hilton – these values, he said, “they’re the ones that have defined my own faith journey.”

A Republican congressman claiming that this was a “campaign speech” walked out in protest.

It is incredible and pathetic to make an issue of the President of The United States saying his faith helps guide him in his commitment to those who are poor and who are in need, including the ill.

For a party to preach religious values and yet continue to cast aspersions on Obama’s faith, and his motives in helping people, and to make obscure accusations about which religion he truly adheres to – all the while speaking ad nauseum about Christianity and about living a life following in the footsteps of Christ – is the very essence of hypocrisy.

The Republican right has since the election of President Obama exuded venomous hate and mendacity toward him. And all under the guise that somehow the people in the right wing are more holy, and somehow sanctified to conduct this malicious crusade. But we know from history that “Christian Crusades” were very much about greed and conquest and very little about the teachings of Christ.

Empirically, every day, we see in their words (“I am not worried about the poor,” said Mitt Romney) and in their actions (last year trying to stop aid to people affected by tornadoes and floods) that the right wing and the tea party have an agenda based in selfish self-interest, not to mention racial stereotyping, and that their mission is much closer to demagoguery than to the humble teachings of a Lord and Savior.