Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Questioning Obama’s Hand On The Bible
Questioning Obama’s Hand On The Bible
Mar 15, 2025 2:56 AM

Just after the Presidential inauguration several leaders raised questions about whether or not President Obama should have sworn the oath of office by placing his hand on the Bible. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church—a Protestant mega-church in Seattle—after seeing Obama sworn in said, “Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.” ments stirred up a firestorm of controversy across the country and the Internet.

From a different angel, Dr. Cornel West, professor of Religious Philosophy and Christian Studies at the Union Theological Seminary, reacted strongly against President Obama placing his has on the Bible of Martin Luther King, Jr. in particular. From West’s perspective President Obama had no business placing a hand on King’s Bible for any reason. Obama is no King, suggests West:

“You don’t play with Martin Luther King, Jr. and you don’t play with his people, said West. “By his people, I mean people of good conscience, fundamentally good mitted to peace and truth and justice, especially the Black tradition that produced it.

“All of the blood, sweat and tears that went into producing a Martin Luther King, Jr. generated a brother of such high decency and dignity that you don’t use his prophetic fire for a moment of presidential pageantry without understanding the challenge he represents to all of those in power regardless of what color they are.

“The righteous indignation of a Martin Luther King, Jr. es a moment of political calculation. And that makes my blood boil.

West is upset about Obama’s theatrics because the President does not go far enough to deal with issues like race, interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, the military use of drones, and issues related to poverty.

Cornel West is now taking heat because he is a prominent black intellectual publicly critiquing the nation’s first black president. West’s own socialist mitments mean that he and I would not agree on many solutions. But he should be given freedom to at least ask the questions he is asking. What about race? What about military intervention into the affairs of other nations? What do we do about poverty in America?

Religious leaders, rightly, should be asking better questions about how the mitments of political leaders inform their politics. By extension, religious leaders have a role to play in helping political leaders remain accountable to the religious texts and traditions they claim. Driscoll and West simply seem to be raising questions about what they believe the Bible teaches and Obama’s relationship to it—which is a discussion worth having.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Acts 1:6-11   (Read Acts 1:6-11)   They were earnest in asking about that which their Master never had directed or encouraged them to seek. Our Lord knew that his ascension and the teaching of the Holy Spirit would soon end these expectations, and therefore only gave them a rebuke; but it is a caution to...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 John 4:7-13   (Read 1 John 4:7-13)   The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. The law of God is love; and all...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 124:1-5   (Read Psalm 124:1-5)   God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his power may be seen the more in their deliverance. Happy the people whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Besides applying this to any particular deliverance wrought in our days and the ancient...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 16:27-28   (Read Proverbs 16:27-28)   Ungodly men bestow more pains to do mischief than would be needful to do good. The whisperer separates friends: what a hateful, but how common a character!   Proverbs 16:28 In-Context   26 The appetite of laborers works for them; their hunger drives them on.   27 A scoundrel plots evil, and...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 John 4:1-6   (Read 1 John 4:1-6)   Christians who are well acquainted with the Scriptures, may, in humble dependence on Divine teaching, discern those who set forth doctrines according to the apostles, and those who contradict them. The sum of revealed religion is in the doctrine concerning Christ, his person and office. The false...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Hebrews 11:1-3   (Read Hebrews 11:1-3)   Faith always has been the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. Where the principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of Christ. And the same things that are...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Matthew 5:3-12   (Read Matthew 5:3-12)   Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 91:9-16   (Read Psalm 91:9-16)   Whatever happens, nothing shall hurt the believer; though trouble and affliction befal, it shall come, not for his hurt, but for good, though for the present it be not joyous but grievous. Those who rightly know God, will set their love upon him. They by prayer constantly call upon...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Ephesians 5:1-2   (Read Ephesians 5:1-2)   Because God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you, therefore be ye followers of God, imitators of God. Resemble him especially in his love and pardoning goodness, as becomes those beloved by their heavenly Father. In Christ's sacrifice his love triumphs, and we are to consider it fully.   Ephesians 5:11-14...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 62:1-7   (Read Psalm 62:1-7)   We are in the way both of duty and comfort, when our souls wait upon God; when we cheerfully give up ourselves, and all our affairs, to his will and wisdom; when we leave ourselves to all the ways of his providence, and patiently expect the event, with full...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved