Angry in the Great White North

When President Obama made an address at the National Prayer Breakfast, he explained that his class-warfare policies were rooted in his religious faith.

Does Obama have faith?  He says he does, and apparently it's quite the show sometimes:

He added: "I have fallen on my knees with great regularity since that moment [upon meeting with the Reverend Billy Graham] -- asking God for guidance not just in my personal life and my Christian walk, but in the life of this nation and in the values that hold us together and keep us strong."

Falling to his knees?  With great regularity?  Maybe he really has discovered his Christian faith.

But then again, probably not.  The problem is that while singing "Hallelujah!" and quoting the Golden Rule, the true Obama peeks through:

"I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years, and I believe in God's command to 'love thy neighbor as thyself,'" Obama said. "I know the version of that Golden Rule is found in every major religion and every set of beliefs -- from Hinduism to Islam to Judaism to the writings of Plato."

He sounds like a toothpaste commercial.  Three out of four major religions recommend the Golden Rule to their adherents.

The problem is simply this.  If Obama were truly wearing an authentic and deep Christian faith on his sleeve, he wouldn't bolster his argument by comparing Christian teaching with other faiths.  A person of faith doesn't need the agreement of other faiths to know that what he is doing is right.

It's simple really.  Did Mohammad put the Golden Rule into the Koran?  Who cares?  If you pointed out a passage in the Koran that read like the Golden Rule in Luke 10:25, would it make me think that the Golden Rule must therefore be more significant than I had previously thought?

No more so than how my appreciation of Shakespeare would be enhanced if you showed me a quote from Hamlet that had been produced by a monkey labouring for years at a typewriter.

Which is to say, not at all.

In both cases, the correspondence is a product of random chance.  On the one side is a divinely-inspired edict for how to live a good life and a quote from the greatest playwright of the English language, and on the other side are words that happen to look the more or less the same -- by accident.

And before the fatwa machine gets revved up, let me be absolutely clear.  I am not drawing a parallel between Mohammad and a monkey.

I am drawing a parallel between Mohammad and a monkey with a typewriter.

OK, we can move on.

Back to Obama.  On the one hand, he tries to ingratiate himself with the predominantly Christian audience (and by extension, the American electorate) by describing the Obama Revivalist Jamboree.  But then he assures his left-wing supporters that really, he treats all religious beliefs as morally equivalent, and by inference, equally irrelevant, just like they do.

A person of faith wouldn't ever do that.

A person with no particular faith might, but then the clever ones wouldn't be switching back and forth in front of the same audience.