Last Thursday (February 5th, 2015), President Obama gave a brief speech at the the National Day of Prayer Breakfast,* in which he preached acceptance of religious diversity with love in America. Though he never mentioned Islam in the speech, his point was that Christians should treat all faiths with a sense of humility because there were Christians too who have committed atrocities in the name of Christ so we American Christians should treat those of other faiths with love (e.g. not specified but he includes the American Muslims). For Republicans, or perhaps I should say Conservatives with a capital C, humility is not their strong suit, I say trying to express humility myself. So as might be expected, Conservatives were all over him the next day. Morning Joe, for example, went apoplectic over Obama's short speech saying how dare he bring up something 700 yrs ago like the Crusades or even something supposedly settled by war around 150 yrs ago with a Civil War in this country. Lest one not be aware of how much humility is preached to Christians, I include a source quoting humility in the Bible below.** (Note added February 11, 2015: Three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, NC, were fatally shot by a 46 year old man. See http://on.aol.com/playlist/most-popular-159813/videoid=518645763).
As a nation, we Americans are not humble. Some Conservatives like to talk all the time about American Exceptionalism. I was taught as a child , however, that I should not brag. If I am exceptional, I should bare it lightly. In fact, with all this talk about American Exceptionalism, I wonder if the people bringing it up are doing it to reassure themselves, because they have doubts. Make no mistake, others see Americans in their land as arrogant. Remember the Vietnam period and the 1958 book by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, "The Ugly American.?" that was also made into a well received 1963 movie.***
Perhaps you get the idea that I thought that the Presidents short speech was very good.
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html
** http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-humility-20-scriptures-on-being-humble/
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American. The hero of the movie was an American engineer who did try to adopt himself to the rural part of an Asian country - Burma and help the locals improve agriculture.
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