B59. Was the President Sleepy Through Yesterday's Prayer Breakfast?

Did you read President Obama’s speech from yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast?  “As Christians, we place our hands in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus Christ,” he said.  He called us, Republicans and Democrats, to be more prayerful and less partisan.

I challenge you to read the transcript http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/02/07/transcript-of-obamas-remarks-at-national-prayer-breakfast/?mod=google_news_blog  All of it.  And as you read it, block out your view of the president, and think instead of George Bush or Ronald Reagan or whichever president you admire most.  What if these were his words?  How would you hear them?

It might take 10 minutes of your day to read the entire speech.  Indeed it is easier to let someone else listen or read, and then they can just tell us what we need to know.  That has become a pattern for many of us.  Yet whose version shall we believe?

Andrea Redman, a NY financial executive, told Christianity Today that she saw hurt and pain in the president during the speech.  Joseph Brown, SIU professor, said this was the most serious he had ever seen the president. 

If you are a FOX News watcher, you will probably miss those comments, and Obama’s heart and words.  Here’s the FOX headline: WATCH: Amazing Conservative Speech Upstages Obama at Prayer Breakfast.  Then you get, not a story of Obama, but a story of Dr. Benjamin Carson’s speech and his views on the Affordable Care Act. (FOX calls it “Obamacare.”)

Or when I googled for prayer breakfast headlines, there was a right-wing news group called righttruth.typepad, with this sensationalist headline: Obama at Prayer Breakfast Forced To Hear Amazing Speech by Conservative Black Doctor . . ., and the artcle begins by quoting Mr Sensationalist himself, Rush Limbaugh.

The Rush Limbaugh headline says Sleepy Obama Sits Through Prayer Breakfast where Dr. Benjamin Carson Blasts Obamacare. (Besides the sensationalist tone, notice that Dr. Carson gets a first name, a last name, and a title, but the President of the United States of America is simply called Obama.)

Sleepy? Hurting? Serious? We believe whichever version we hear, and we hear whichever version we expose ourselves to.

“But I hear it from my friends, my pastor, my Sunday School teacher,” you might say.  “And they heard it from FOX,” I would respond.

A few months ago a study found that FOX News viewers were by far the least informed of all news viewers about national and international issues.  Even less informed than those who followed no news at all.  MSNBC, with its liberal bent and far fewer viewers than FOX, was next to worst, also less informed in the international category than those without any news.  (See that study here: http://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5 )

Friends, listen. Obama knew who was invited to speak, and I’m sure he knew his views. He invited him on purpose in an attempt to make the prayer breakfast bi-partisan. Please, please, please, be a proud Republican if you want, but choose another station for your news, and turn off the crazy talking heads like Rush Limbaugh.  Trust me when I tell you that even he does not believe what he says.  He’s an entertainer, an entertainer who makes a lot of money dependent on being able to stir up the American people every day.  We are becoming a brain-washed nation, shrouded in ignorance.

It is to FOX’s and Rush’s advantage that they not let you hear the real voice of your president, but if you do not hear it, it is not because it is not available for you to hear.  Be a good Republican, but be an intelligent Republican, a pre-FOX kind of Republican.  But don't take my word for any of this.  Read the transcript yourself with an open mind, and then switch the channel, forever.