Reverence Vs. Zealotry

In typical right-wing fashion, Fox"News" is using the occassion of the "National Day Of Prayer" to cast aspersions at Barack Obama. The Three-Stooges-Of-Morning-TV took to their assigned task with ridiculous ferver.



Fox Nation insists that Obama isn't even celebrating the day.

The poorly constructed thesis that they are operating around is that since Obama is not making a specticle of the day, then he must be anti-religion. Whereas George W. Bush used his "faith" as a theatrical set-piece during his presidency, Obama is showing reverence for not only the day but is being humble in his approach to it.

Having grown up in a staunchly conservative and religious family, I saw more rank hypocrisy in those that made it widely known that they attended church as many times as they could each week. And, seeing as how the religious-right is more about creating divisiveness in America rather than treating each person as equals, it is no suprise that Obama is not using this day as a "show". This angers conservatives and their media mouth-pieces are willing to take up the torch and fan the flames of ignorance as much as they can.

It's interesting to not that Obama has decided he will mark this day in private at the White House. I say this only because of a bible verse that the religious-right seems to have forgotten:

Matthew 6:5-6

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret....

Seeing as how these are allegedly the words of Jesus, and the religious-right is widely known for attempting to interpret the meaning of Jesus' teachings, I'm guessing they aren't going to touch this one.

To interpret this literally, one would get the assumption that Jesus is saying that praying in public ( i.e. in a church, religious gathering ) is wrong. However, this passage is more about using the occassion of prayer in order to draw attention to yourself is what is wrong. And, as there is a clear seperation of chruch and state, it's likely that the Obama adminstration is not going to violate that by hosting theatrical events as George W. Bush did.