"Sort of God"?

Newsweek magazine's Evan Thomas caused a mini-furor last week, by saying that:

in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.

Newsbusters has the video on YouTube:



Why is that such a big deal? After all, Thomas merely meant to figuratively describe the level of stature Obama has (in his opinion) in the world.

Well, for believing Christians, that was a MAJOR slap in the face. It's blasphemy:

1.impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.
2.Judaism.
a.an act of cursing or reviling God.
b.pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.
3.Theology. the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.
4.irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

Most of the time, in the modern world, we ignore this behavior. Sadly, Christians are accustomed to being disrespected and having their beliefs joked about. (Just once, I'd like to see comedians being "fair and balanced", who would try the same with Islamic beliefs - but it'll never happen. Muslims will kill you for just such "jokes". And the comedians know it.)

All kidding aside, I wouldn't want Islamic beliefs trivialized and belittled. It's not right to do that to anyone.

So, why are Christians always the target?

Why are those "sensitive" souls who chastise everyone else about multicultural awareness and respect so prone to ignore decency when it comes to Christians?

I'd like to think it's just ignorance. Sometimes we forget just how thoroughly the elite world has been indoctrinated against expression of Christian belief. When they do encounter a Christian, they aren't sure what to DO with him.

I once worked at a social service agency. The old director left, and the new guy came in. Someone had seen his bookshelf, and was concerned. I, being the token believer on the staff, was asked by a few worried staffers to do the recon and report back.

I checked out the bookshelves, and was able to report back that, although there were several Bibles and other religious books, they were mainstream (KIV, NAB, etc.). I left the group shaking my head at the invincible ignorance of these people, who understood NOTHING about Christianity or Christians, but who had no trouble expounding on "those people" and their beliefs (which, according to orthodox liberal philosophy, was bad, against education, and somehow mixed up with snake-handling and other such esoteric practices).

Evan Thomas might be like that - ignorant, prejudiced, and clueless. We should all direct him to sites where he might educate about the topic of Christianity.