Sabbati-blog Day 24: Defending our President

I didn’t sleep much Wednesday night before the National Prayer Breakfast.  I just had the feeling something special was going to happen the next day.  Did it ever.

It was an amazing day.  I was in the overflow room for the breakfast, and as it turns out we had eggs and potatoes while the ballroom had some bagel or something.  I’ll take the gluten free breakfast!  I sat with some wonderful people and experienced what was happening in the ballroom next door from a nice big screen near our table.  The prayers focused on love for our neighbors, especially the poor.   Most were prayed in the name of Jesus.  They were beautiful.  Darrel Waltrip gave a very personal and impassioned testimony of his life from arrogance to belief.  Frequently, he spoke of getting down from his “high horse.”  I was inspired and encouraged by his boldness to speak of matters of heaven and hell with the group, especially with many nonbelievers in the room.

Immediately following Mr. Waltrip, the President of the United States addressed the crowd.  He spoke eloquently of the evils that can arise out of misinterpretations of our religious beliefs and centered on the need for humility in all our dealings with others.  I must admit, I was surprised how much I liked the President’s speech.  While I may not agree with many of his policies, I felt that he made some important points during the speech and captured the essence of the gathering in his remarks.

The rest of the day was filled with breakout seminars and meals in the ballroom.  It was overwhelming.  At lunch we heard a message from King Abdullah II of Jordan through his ambassador to the US.  I was encouraged to hear such a beautiful message of love for others through this Muslim king.  At dinner we heard Manny Pacquiao speak frankly about his rise from the dumps of the Philippines to international stardom in boxing, and from a life of self indulgence to a life sold out for Jesus.  Wow.

After a night of Ethiopian delicacies with our friend Girma, it was time to check in with my wife before my head hit the pillow.  I asked her if the prayer breakfast had made any news.  (The President had twice helped out with a misbehaving stand behind the podium.  It was a humble and humorous gesture that I thought would get some mention.)  I was shocked and dismayed when my wife told me that all the headlines were about the President equating ISIS to the Crusades.  What?  The media queued in on that?!

I will admit I have never come to the defense of our President, not that he needs my help, but I must do so now.  This line of argument against the President’s remarks totally disregards the overall message of his speech and actually embodies the kind of pride and moral superiority that the President spoke against in the rest of his speech.

In a nutshell, here’s my takeaway from the President’s speech.  If we wish to fight violence of any form which is justified in the name of religion, we must do so in humility, knowing that, given the right circumstances, we could be the ones perverting our faith to justify violence or cruelty.  We submit to God and to his teachings in humility.  Moral superiority is not a right, nor a status based on what group we belong to, but merely a reflection of the God of love that we serve.  These aren’t my ideas, they came right from the President’s speech.  Please, if you’ve made it this far in this blog post read what the President said, considering the context of the breakfast that I gave you earlier.

This excerpt comes right after the President had just described many evils being done in the name of religion.

So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities — the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends?

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.  Michelle and I returned from India — an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity — but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs — acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.

So this is not unique to one group or one religion.  There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.  In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try.  And in this mission, I believe there are a few principles that can guide us, particularly those of us who profess to believe.

And, first, we should start with some basic humility.  I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt — not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn’t speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn’t care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth.

Our job is not to ask that God respond to our notion of truth — our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments.  And we should assume humbly that we’re confused and don’t always know what we’re doing and we’re staggering and stumbling towards Him, and have some humility in that process.  And that means we have to speak up against those who would misuse His name to justify oppression, or violence, or hatred with that fierce certainty.  No God condones terror.  No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives, or the oppression of those who are weaker or fewer in number.

And so, as people of faith, we are summoned to push back against those who try to distort our religion — any religion — for their own nihilistic ends.  And here at home and around the world, we will constantly reaffirm that fundamental freedom — freedom of religion — the right to practice our faith how we choose, to change our faith if we choose, to practice no faith at all if we choose, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination.

I preach sermons nearly every Sunday (when I’m not on sabbatical).  The President’s speech is roughly the length of one of my sermons.  I would be mortified if the press wanted to take one phrase of each sermon and make a scandal out of it.  They would have a hey day.  I can only imagine the things the world would think I had said, when it wasn’t that way at all.  I would be fighting a losing battle, much like the President does, where every word is twisted according to the bias of the reporter.  I know I would get to a point where I wouldn’t want to open my mouth at all, but even then the silence would be spun to mean… something.

At the end of the day, I am left humbled.  I have too often believed reporting that scandalized another person.  I admit, I did not take the time to investigate before passing judgment.  Often these judgments bring me to the edge of hate, a dangerous precipice that leads ultimately to violent extremism.  I repent.  Thank you Mr. President for talking me down from that ledge, no thanks to our media who brought the rest of the country to take my place.

If you would like the full experience, I invite you to read the entire speech here, or view the speech here.