WaPo | President Obama has never been one to go easy on America.
As
a new president, he dismissed the idea of American exceptionalism,
noting that Greeks think their country is special, too. He labeled the
Bush-era interrogation practices, euphemistically called “harsh” for
years, as torture. America, he has suggested, has much to answer given its history in Latin America and the Middle East.
His latest challenge came Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast.
At a time of global anxiety over Islamist terrorism, Obama noted
pointedly that his fellow Christians, who make up a vast majority of
Americans, should perhaps not be the ones who cast the first stone.
“Humanity
has been grappling with these questions throughout human history,” he
told the group, speaking of the tension between the compassionate and
murderous acts religion can inspire. “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.”
Some Republicans were
outraged. “The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast
are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my
lifetime,” said former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (R). “He has
offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes
further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the
values we all share.”
