Another public school showed students a video that urged
them "to be a servant to our President." Arne Duncan's
Department of Education even organized a day on which all
public school children had to listen to a speech by Obama
and answer such questions as: "What is President Obama
inspiring you to do?" and "How will he inspire us?"
Four dismal years later, as Obama ran for reelection,
chastened liberals acknowledged that he hadn't live up to
the hype and that such silliness wouldn't continue. But it
has. No sooner was he reelected than liberals resumed the
gushing. Appearing at the Soul Train Awards in Las Vegas
recently, actor Jamie Foxx said, "It's like church in here.
First of all, give an honor to God and our lord and savior,
Barack Obama."
Obama once referred to Jesus Christ not as "the" Son of God
but "a" son of God, inviting the question: Who are the
others? Perhaps Jamie Foxx considers Obama one of them. But
Foxx is not the first liberal to place Obama in the godhead.
The press reported this week that a painting on display at
the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Boston
depicts a crucified Obama with a crown of thorns standing
before the presidential seal.
Unlike the "Innocence of Muslims" YouTube video creator,
the artist behind this painting, Michael D'Antuono, isn't
worried about a knock on his door from the Justice
Department. "We should celebrate the fact that we live in a
country where we are given the freedom to express
ourselves," he has said.
Not all liberals, of course, compare Obama to God. Some
think it more modest to compare him to Abraham Lincoln.
"From Lincoln to Obama," CNN titled one of its documentaries
on him after he won in 2008. Now with Steven Spielberg's
movie about Lincoln out, the comparisons have started up
again. Obama's progressive agenda is treated by liberals as
an extension of Lincoln's abolition of slavery.
But Obama's Thanksgiving message last week didn't sound
very Lincolnian. He offered thanks to plenty of people,
particularly Americans who had reelected him, but God didn't
make the list. The press reported that it was the fourth
year in a row that God went unthanked.
Compare that with Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamations,
which almost read like theological treatises. In 1863,
Lincoln urged Americans to thank "our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the heavens" and "fervently implore the
imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the
nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with
the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquility, and union."
Drawing upon the rhetoric of revolution, Obama has
encouraged Americans to see him as a transcendent figure.
His campaign slogan "Forward," with its Maoist echo, fired
up his starry-eyed supporters, who still see him as the one
they "have been waiting for." Gone are the days when
Democrats could mock him, as did Hillary Clinton in 2008,
for his ludicrous conception of himself. "The skies will
open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be
singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing
and the world will be perfect," said Hillary, sarcastically
summarizing his campaign promises.
Don't be surprised if Arne Duncan's public schools crank up
their chants for Obama again. When the state replaces God,
politicians are the only beings left to worship.
