Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Was he kidding?

I didn't watch the Soul Train awards, but I did hear a soundbite from them.

And the way it's been snipped out, I honestly can't tell if the speaker is joking or serious. Tone of voice used says "joking" to me, but would someone joke about President Obama like that in front of a crowd of entertainers, many of whom (I presume) are supporters? Was there a collective sucking-in-of-breath after he said it, like "Wow, he just really put his foot in it"? I wonder what the crowd reaction was.

I will say that even as a joke, the "Lord and Savior" thing rubs me a bit the wrong way, and my brain immediately blipped to:

"Do not put your trust in princes,

in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

(Psalm 146, verses 3 and 4).

EVERY human being I have worked alongside or looked up to or known has, at times, disappointed me. Oh, I forgive them for it (though there are some I won't trust any more because of the level or constancy of the degree to which they disappointed me). But there's no human being - sorry, Obama-supporters, not even our President - perfect enough to be called Lord. There just ISN'T. And there won't ever be a human being like that. We're too selfish, too prone to conditional love, too desirous of getting ourselves ahead even if it's at the expense of another.

I do hope Foxx was joking; as I said, it SOUNDED to me like he was, regardless of what some of the conservative commentators are saying. But....if it's a joke, it's not a terribly funny one.  And in somewhat poor taste, I think, considering how many of us are gearing up to observe Advent, when we remember the coming of our real Lord and Savior.

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