As Victor Davis Hanson notes in the Corner, this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama declared:
How do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities — the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religions for their own murderous ends?
Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.
Does the President Obama think American Christians are “on a high horse” when it comes to examining and discussing religious extremism?
Is that really the problem here? Is this really what ought to be the focus of the president of the United States at this moment?
Is it a problem that Americans or American Christians think of themselves as better people than those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends?
News flash: Americans are better people who those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends. No, really, go ahead. Feel good about yourself. I have confidence in declaring you, reader, for whatever flaws you have, a better human being than any member of ISIS or al-Qaeda.
Obama goes on to declare, “This is not unique to one group or one religion.” Except we don’t see Crusades or Inquisitions going on today.
By the way, the president with a “kill list” who’s authorized more than 390 drone strikes probably ought to tone it down a little on lines like, “No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives.”