Dealing with Loss

It is difficult to examine the bad faith of others, because in doing so we are forced to face it in our self.

Listening to Metric - Collect Call

Is Obama Religious?

We tend to project our own ideals on those whom we idolize, and we can only project onto someone what we know of them.  Obama is no exception to this when it comes to his admirers, but like all of us he is a man of contradictions.  The infamous "guns and god" comment, which may be construed as anti-religious, doesn't seem to mesh particularly well with some sentiments from his latest speech at a national prayer breakfast.  There are of course other instances, e.g. the Chicago pastor scandal, that demonstrate a certain degree of spirituality in the man.  What is unclear is whether that religiosity is sincere.  An irreligious admirer would believe that it is insincere.  A religiously apathetic or agnostic admirer would not think twice of it, and a religious admirer would ignore the seemingly disparaging comment and be heedful of his comments demonstrating religiosity.  Whatever one's religious persuasion, he's on the right moral track regardless.  The moral principles that he derives from Christianity, among other religions, to bolster his motivation for advocating health care reform ought to ring true to decent beings.*  There are moments in the speech where he plays a pan-religious note by discussing the origins and merits of moral principles and maxims which can be found in similar forms in various religions e.g. Polytheistic, Mosaic, etc.  This escalates the contradictory religious qualities he projects.  Statements projecting his spirituality become both meaningless and clear at this point.  He is a politician, and like all politicians most of his public words are carefully crafted so that his admirers consume the agreeable and disregard the contradictory.  So, my answer to the title of this is: who knows?

*see link, and I only know of the statements quoted there, so I say this only regarding what I read at the link and my memory.

Listening to YACHT - Psychic City