Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Public prayers

Mr. Obama chose to mention that America is a religiously diverse country, saying, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers."

Christians and Muslims.

Not Christians and Jews.

His liberal love of diversity overprivileges the outsider and reduces the great historical majority to one more spot on the "patchwork".

More than 75% of Americans are Christian. Muslims 1.5% perhaps.

As for the rest of his speech, my response to it is predictable.

On Rev. Robinson, the gay bishop who is horrified at the aggressively Christian tone of previous inaugural prayers. His prayer was, as most liberal prayers are, actually a speech.

On Rev. Warren, the supposedly bigoted homohating pastor, his prayer was mixed. Some speechifying and some actual praying. And he prayed authentically as a Christian, mentioned Scripture, used "the J word" (in English, Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish) and culminating in the Lord's Prayer.

If you combine secularism (the reduction of religious belief to the private sphere) and multiculturalism (the celebration of non-white cultures), you get this kind of stuff. The PC bishop just takes his politics and deifies it, but without any "offensive and marginalizing" specificity, at least for theists. The evangelical tells his truth, but has to make sure that Jews and Muslims...and Hispanics!....feel somehow included.

All in all, a strategy worth far less than any of its results. Since, in the end, what it can't handle is either reality or diversity.

__________________________-

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...