Last Thursday, President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. He said some very nice things. But he didn't say what needed to be said.
Some think he shouldn't even have attended the NPB, for the NPB is "fathered" by that notorious bunch of "Nazi-like," rich, above-the-law, christianist miscreants known as The Family. From what Mr. Obama said, it appears he is not familiar with The Family, or not as familiar as he should be. He said, for example, that The Family began in Seattle many years ago to help out the working folks. He couldn't have been more wrong. The Family has its roots sunk in nefarious activities - its forerunner was begun in order to break the power of the unions and strengthen corporate control in Seattle! It began as an organization to beat up on poor people!
Another reason some folks believe he should have boycotted the NPB is that the man responsible for the Uganda bill calling for the execution of homosexuals, is an active member of The Family, and another Ugandan pushing for the killing of homosexuals was involved in planning the NPB!
According to Religion Dispatches, Jeff Sharlet, author of the book, The Family, described the Ugandan situation thusly to NPR last year:
"David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family."
I don't know why Obama thought he had to attend this prayer breakfast, this superstitious, superficial nod-to-god.
But so long as he attended and spoke at the event, I cannot understand why he did not condemn in no uncertain terms the Ugandan anti-homosexual bill and everyone connected with it! But the president remained silent on the one issue that really mattered at that point in time.
Oh, and you'll get a kick out of this: Tim Tebow, a great theologian, known for passing a pigskin, gave the closing prayer! In Jesus name? Kinda makes you want to sing that famous ol' country song, "Drop-kick Me Jesus, Through the Goalposts of Life"!
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