Irish Turn on O’Bama

By C. J. Refsland on June 20, 2013 • ( 0 )

(FRC) President Obama was nine months into his first term when he won the Nobel Peace Prize — but most Americans have spent the last 44 wondering why. The latest example comes from comments the President made while he was attending the G8 Summit. Irelandgot its first taste of The Great Divider on Monday in a speech the President delivered to 2,000 young people in Belfast. There, in one of the tensest regions of the world, President Obama sowed even more dissention by suggesting that religious schools are somehow to blame forNorthern Ireland’s ancient conflicts.

Invoking “segregation,” the President claimed that faith-based education is fueling the country’s culture of fear and resentment. “If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden — that too encourages division and discourages cooperation.” The American and Irish media pounced on the comment, calling it the “bitter clingers” moment of his second presidency — a reference to the President’s infamous middle America-bashing in 2008.

His comment took a lot of people by surprise in Ireland, especially since a local Archbishop had just commended Catholic schools for unifying students in a major speech a few days earlier. Perhaps, as several Irish people said, the President should get American schools in order before he criticizes other countries’. Others, especially religious groups in the U.S.were less shocked than they were offended. “[This is] another example,” said Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, “of what this man wants: total isolation of any religious values in the private sphere alone. President Obama is working to either intimidate or legislate or even tax religious freedom out of the public square. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a foreign visit to an Islamic nation where he told people on his arrival that they shouldn’t have madrasas. Can you?”

Essentially, the President is suggesting that Ireland needs more government schools — which, at least in the U.S., are even more divisive due to multiculturalism and other poisonous ideas. Unfortunately, the White House’s view continues to be that religion does more to estrange than unite. It’s a revealing statement in many ways, given how aggressive the President has been lately in eradicating faith from our education, military, and political institutions. The reality is, Americans “cling to their religion,” as President Obama so rudely put it, because true faith draws us together.

There are real theological differences, but as we’ve witnessed from the health care, abortion, and marriage debates, the greater gulf is between those who are orthodox Christians and those who aren’t. That’s why the Left’s attempt to pit red vs. blue, successful vs. poor, parent vs. child has so spectacularly backfired. In driving this anti-faith, anti-value, pro-government agenda, President Obama has done a lot to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Our shared outrage over the contraception-abortion mandate, the redefinition of marriage, religious hostility, and taxpayer-funded abortion has helped to strengthen ecclesiastical bonds. Years from now, history may record that, in fact, President Obama was a unifier — the accidental unifier of Catholics and Protestants who came together to defend moral truth.