Secular journalist, Matt Lewis, tries to explain to secular people why President Obama’s lie about gay marriage is such a big deal to real believers. In short, it is because the President wrapped his lie in a cloak of faith. Lewis writes:
Consider this imperfect analogy. You say, “On the life of my daughter, I’m telling the truth…” and I find out that you lied. The lie itself might be about something terribly minor. But what kind of person would do that?
That’s the problem here. Obama cited his belief in something sacred to buttress an argument he apparently didn’t actually believe. By making his faith an accessory to a lie, he subjected something sacred to something profane.
For the faithful, this really is a damning revelation.
I’m less interested in how Obama feels about gay marriage than I am in the fact that he’s the kind of person who would cite his faith to justify a lie.
Read the rest here.
(HT: Jonathan Merritt)
6 Comments
Roy Fuller
What I am wondering is how many posts are we going to see on “the worst lie ever?” Denny’s audience already believes the President to be the worst president ever, so is this what could be called “preaching to the choir?” And no, I am in no way interested in defending the President’s lying.
Denny Burk
I m sure this will be the last one. I don’t want it to be overkill. Still, I think it is significant that the lie is so overt and apparently uncontroversial. I can’t tell that very many people are outraged by this, but they should be. If we are willing to overlook this kind of falsehood in our elected leaders, then we will deserve what we get. Character matters big time. I hope that is what people take away from this.
James Stanton
“If we are willing to overlook this kind of falsehood in our elected leaders, then we will deserve what we get. Character matters big time. I hope that is what people take away from this.”
I think this is true. Character deficiencies on the part of our elected leaders should definitely be pointed out. I was extremely disappointed with socially conservative pundits who did not make a bigger deal about the moral relativism of legalizing and ordering torture and in doing so participated in making torture justifiable rather than always evil and always wrong.
Christiane Smith
Hi ROY,
I read Denny’s blog fairly regularly, and sometimes I disagree with what is written and sometimes I am glad that the article does raise and issue for discussion. Please note that you have been able to express your comment here, and that Denny even replied in an appropriate manner.
What I do when I read blogs is to research quickly the sources mentioned. So I google in ‘Matt Lewis’ and I find out about him and his work. And who he writes for. And THEN, I can place what he wrote (the quote in the blog) into a wider context. It helps to do this, as blogging doesn’t give us opportunities to question someone directly.
There is always a ‘wider’ context. Only in exploring that, can we come to place what is written in perspective. In short, in some circumstances, you have to take what is written or quoted with a grain of salt, having ‘considered the source’. I am sure that many of Denny’s readers are more intelligent than I am and likely expand their knowledge about what they encounter with research, so don’t worry so much ‘the base’, and celebrate an opportunity to discuss your thoughts openly instead.
James Bradshaw
Implicit in your post is your apparent belief that there aren’t any politicians on the Right who have used (or are using) religion for their own political gain.
Personally, I would be shocked if there was NOT a politician who didn’t pander to some element to ensure their continued or future employment.
Obama came out in favor of gay marriage in May of 2012, before his second term. There was a risk for his coming out in support of gay marriage at that time, so one can’t be completely suspicious of his motives.
Chris Ryan
Politicians of all stripes, both Left & Right, have always used religion, and here in America specifically Christianity, to justify whatever preconceived political ideology they already had. This is as true of Obama as it was of George W. Bush & Ronald Reagan. Bush’s lie hat Saddam was acquiring nukes and had huge stockpiles of WMD cost tens of thousands of innocent lives. That’s many times worse than the effect of Obama’s lie. There are no saints in politics.