I recently read an article from Bloomberg News concerning the "Audacity of Obama" and it tells a very telling tale on how our President views his presidential calling and purpose. I believe it also betrays how his warped view of the Bible and a skewed meaning of hope has led our country down a dead end road. (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-28/the-audacity-of-obama) The article points to Hebrews 11:1 as one of the driving forces directing his vision for America. The article states, "There's a passage in the Bible that has spoken to Barack Obama time and again, inspiring him, provoking him, haunting him, and goading him on. 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,' the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Hebrews, 'the evidence of things not seen.' I find it funny how political leaders quote the Bible when it suits their purposes; but when it come to dictating morality and personal behavior it is seen merely as an irrelevant relic from the ancient past. Scripture has become the plastic fruit on grandma's kitchen table. In this case the President used Hebrews 11:1 to highlight, "the power of hope and belief in the face of gnawing doubt." The article also said this verse, "inspired Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention that paved his way to run for president, and it gave him the title for his 2006 memoir, The Audacity of Hope." But what kind of hope does Hebrews 11:1 inspire? What exactly should 'we the people' be hoping for? The article answers those questions this way: "The Bible calls us to hope,” Obama said. “To persevere, and have faith in things not seen.” What exactly are the things we are to hope for? The article goes on, "If what the scripture says on faith and hope fit what Obama wanted to say to make sense out of a massacre in Charleston that has united the nation, turned Southerners against the Confederate flag, and reignited a debate on guns, Hebrews 11:1 also seems to speak to Obama’s political fortunes and his ambitions for the end of his presidency. On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, the health care expansion that was his signature domestic legislative achievement as he sought to make health insurance coverage a basic right for Americans. Then on Friday, the court ruled 5-4 to legalize gay marriage nationally, a cause Obama had come to cautiously but then embraced fully, taking it up in his second inaugural address and bringing it up again and again, culminating with the White House joining in the public celebration of the Supreme Court decision by bathing the mansion Friday night in lights that mimicked the rainbow flag of the gay-rights movement. Obama explicitly linked the crusade for gay rights to that of people of color, invoking the 'Ripple of Hope' speech Senator Robert F. Kennedy delivered in Johannesburg in 1966 when South Africa's anti-apartheid movement was far from achieving its eventual success. 'What an extraordinary achievement,' Obama said. 'What a vindication of the belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. What a reminder of what Bobby Kennedy once said about how small actions can be like pebbles being thrown into a still lake, and ripples of hope cascade outwards and change the world.'" To sum up the President's view on Hebrews 11:1, 'hope' becomes a catch-all word that refers to anything you darn well want it to. Anything that you desire, rub the bottle of faith, make a wish, and God the genie will pop out of the bottle to fulfill all your political priorities and pass all your legislative dreams. He will 'get er done' for you. Hope has become silly-putty in the hands of an 'avant garde' artist. Our President has shaped the scriptures to mean anything he wants them to, just as he continually does to the Constitution and the word 'marriage.' When you look closely, his hermeneutics has major holes in it! So what then does Hebrews 11:1 refer to? According to an earlier passage in Hebrews 6:13-19 hope is directly tied to two things: (1) the clear revealed promises of God found in the word (2) and the fulfillment of those promises through Jesus Christ. Hope is directly tied to a relationship with Almighty God and his desire for you to live a moral life. Why doesn't he quote Hebrews 11:25 and ask Americans to avoid the 'enjoyment of fleeting pleasures of sin?" It wouldn't make for a good sound bite when you try to promote the new rainbow colored lights shining on the White House. Neither would Hebrews 12:3-4 for that matter. In fact, as I kept reading the rest of Hebrews I am not sure if the President is familiar at all with it? Just take a gander at this little section: * Hebrews 13:4-6, "Let marriage (man and woman only) be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Boy, if only the President would read that, then maybe, just maybe we could have hope in the direction he is taking us. If he took those three little verses to heart, goodbye Obamacare and goodbye gay-rights! But, just like to the rest of America, the Bible really isn't a book anyone reads and follows anymore, it is an ornamental piece of Victorian literature to find a nice quote here and there and then use it to invoke the Magic Genie to come do your bidding. Forget about "Hope and Change", Obama's slogan should have been, "Let's Change Hope!"
1 Comment
Jan Weston
6/30/2015 01:23:20 am
Your insight into the President is revealing. Thank you.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
August 2018
|