National Prayer Breakfast Breakdown, Part 3: Obama on a Faith of Action

By Matthew Santoro

This is Part 3 of an three-part series on President Barack Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Read Part 1 and Part 2 now.

President Obama speaking at a church,
Source: Reuters/Faithworld

Part of President Obama's enthusiasm for a role for faith in public life is no doubt rooted in his understanding of Christian responsibility. Let's return briefly to the Biblical passage with that concluded Sunday's blog post (and from which Obama quotes in his speech):

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. —1 John 3:16-18 (NRSV, emphasis added)

Doers of the Word

For Christians, our knowledge of God's love compels us to have compassion for those in need. In quoting 1 John, Obama demonstrates the Biblical basis for Christian compassion that surpasses intellectual concern and becoming a compelling force for action. Through faith, its intended that Christians will become active stewards of their community and their world.

National Prayer Breakfast Breakdown, Part 2: Obama on Christian Responsibility

By Matthew Santoro

This is Part 2 of an three-part series on President Barack Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Read Part 1 now.

Having established a role for faith in politics, Obama explains how his faith affects his politics. His remarks paint a picture of a progressive and missional approach to Christianity, one that involves not just a personal relationship with God, but also personal responsibilities to your fellow neighbor as an intrinsic part of fulfilling that relationship.

U.S. President Barack Obama listens at the National Prayer Breakfast
February 2, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Pool/Getty Images North America)

On Christian Responsibility

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."  —President Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast (February 2, 2012)

President Obama traces his vision of Christian responsibility through both Old Testament and New, a responsibility with roots in Jesus' commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:34-40, Mk. 12:28-34, Lk. 10:25-28).

National Prayer Breakfast Breakdown, Part 1: Obama on the Role for Faith in Politics

By Matthew Santoro

The intersection of Christianity and American politics was on full display at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast, where President Obama delivered remarks that were equal parts piety and policy.

His speech in many ways reflected the core values of the progressive Christian movement within the United States, describing Christianity in active and missional terms. In a short, three-part blog series, I wanted to break down some elements of the speech that I felt really resonated.  This afternoon's topic ...

Obama on the Role for Faith in Politics

And there's no waiting in line!

In front of St. John the Evangelist Catholic
Church in Indianapolis, IN

Founding Fallacies: Newt's Alleged "War on Religion" and the Jefferson Bible

By Matthew Santoro

There’s a war on! Have you heard? No, it’s not the war in Afghanistan, nor the War on Terror. It’s not the War on Drugs, nor even the War on Poverty. Oh, no.

There’s a much more surreptitious threat. A threat to something more fundamental and—gasp!—fundamentally American. It’s the Obama administration’s secret “War on Religion"!

The intersection of Church and State. (Photo by Chuck
Coker via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.)

According to many conservatives, the United States was intended by its Founding Fathers to be a "Christian nation.” This heritage, they believe, is under assault from the "secular Left," with President Obama (that black-liberation-Christian-secret-Muslim-secularist) spearheading the effort.

But is this reconstruction of America's nascent principles, and Obama's alleged attack upon them, true to the historical record? A cursory review of the life and politics of Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and writer of the Declaration of Independence, returns results that will no doubt surprise many 21^st century American conservatives.