Logos & Muse

T THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST TODAY, Pres­i­dent Obama, accord­ing to this arti­cle on The Blaze, “her­alded the Bible as a sus­tain­ing doc­u­ment with the power to teach impor­tant lessons.”

I am glad that the pres­i­dent and I agree that “impor­tant lessons” are indeed to be learned from the Bible. In the ser­vice of this new-found accord with Mr. Obama, I thought I might share a cou­ple pas­sages that have some very impor­tant lessons in them. (I cite the King James Ver­sion through­out, since the lofti­ness of its lan­guage is well-suited to the high-mindedness of our president.)

Here, for exam­ple, is Leviti­cus 18:22:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with wom­ankind: it is abom­i­na­tion.

Not restrict­ing this “impor­tant les­son” merely to Leviti­cus, the Bible like­wise tells us in Romans 1:26–27:

For this cause God gave them [i.e., the unright­eous; cf. v. 18] up unto vile affec­tions: For even their women did change the nat­ural use into that which is against nature: And like­wise also the men, leav­ing the nat­ural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men work­ing that which is unseemly, and receiv­ing in them­selves that rec­om­pence of their error which was meet.

Here is 1 Samuel 8:4–18:

Then all the elders of Israel gath­ered them­selves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing dis­pleased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hear­ken unto the voice of the peo­ple in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Accord­ing to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, where­with they have for­saken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now there­fore hear­ken unto their voice: how­beit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the man­ner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the peo­ple that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the man­ner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for him­self, for his char­i­ots, and to be his horse­men; and some shall run before his char­i­ots. And he will appoint him cap­tains over thou­sands, and cap­tains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his har­vest, and to make his instru­ments of war, and instru­ments of his char­i­ots. And he will take your daugh­ters to be con­fec­tionar­ies, and to be cooks, and to be bak­ers. And he will take your fields, and your vine­yards, and your olive­yards, even the best of them, and give them to his ser­vants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vine­yards, and give to his offi­cers, and to his ser­vants. And he will take your menser­vants, and your maid­ser­vants, and your good­liest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his ser­vants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have cho­sen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

Impor­tant lessons indeed.

Still more, from Psalm 127:3–5:

Lo, chil­dren are an her­itage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are chil­dren of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the ene­mies in the gate.

Mr. Obama, tell that les­son to San­dra Fluke.

Finally, here’s a very impor­tant les­son indeed from 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 3:6–12:

Now we com­mand you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye with­draw your­selves from every brother that walketh dis­or­derly, and not after the tra­di­tion which he received of us. For your­selves know how ye ought to fol­low us: for we behaved not our­selves dis­or­derly among you; nei­ther did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and tra­vail night and day, that we might not be charge­able to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make our­selves an ensam­ple unto you to fol­low us. For even when we were with you, this we com­manded you, that if any would not work, nei­ther should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you dis­or­derly, work­ing not at all, but are busy­bod­ies. Now them that are such we com­mand and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quiet­ness they work, and eat their own bread.

Strong words; impor­tant lesson.

Again, I am very glad to know that Pres­i­dent Obama has acknowl­edged pub­licly that the Bible con­tains very impor­tant lessons for all of us to heed. I look for­ward to watch­ing the progress of this admin­is­tra­tion as it strives to observe the lessons I’ve quoted above.

Update: One day after high­light­ing the “impor­tant lessons” con­tained in the Bible, Pres­i­dent Obama has told NARAL that he “cel­e­brates” the “guid­ing prin­ci­ple” behind Roe v. Wade. It appears that the pres­i­dent has not yet begun to model his admin­is­tra­tion after the guid­ing prin­ci­ple inscribed, among other places, in Psalm 127–namely, that “the fruit of the womb” is a bless­ing from God. See the full story from Life Site News here.

As 40 Days for Life nears its open­ing this com­ing Wednes­day, I would ask that Rosaries would be said for the con­ver­sion of moth­ers, doc­tors, and the Pres­i­dent of the United States to the gospel of life. I would also ask that you pray for the inter­ces­sion of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a patron saint of the pro-life movement.