Super Bowl 45 interview and the Prayer Breakfast -- political magic?

By Michael Bresciani

Watching the interview O'Reilly conducted with the President during Super Bowl 45 kept bringing to mind the name of a message I once heard a preacher give to his homily at a revival rally in a small town in the frosty little State of Vermont.

The preachers' message was entitled "If Jesus is the answer; then what are the questions?"

The President danced around O'Reilly like so many children around the maypole and to say he covered most of his questions with smooth political rhetoric would not be fair: O'Reilly was hornswoggled by shear political nonsense. In the plainest language the nation's top conservative commentator was had!

In politics, conservatism may hold the answers to America's future but if that is so: then what are the questions.

Whatever the questions may be it is certain that O'Reilly was not asking them. Many if not all of the question millions of Americans would ask, never got asked. The emails read on the Factor the Monday evening following the Super Bowl reflected a better cross section of what most Americans would ask. The difference between what O'Reilly thinks is important, and what most Americans think is important, was abundantly clear.

Questions about the birth certificate never got asked because O'Reilly is sure it already been answered. We can only wonder why he has not checked the many polls taken across the nation that indicate that somewhere between 60 to 80 percent of his own viewers do not agree with his assessments of the birth certificate and dual citizenship question. Should we now thank him for his attention to detail? Is he looking out for us only if we agree with him?

Questions about Obama's coddling the gays had no chance probably because of a predisposition that O'Reilly made clear in "The Culture Warrior." He doesn't think the gay agenda is any serious threat to America. While Mr. O'Reilly may be a good Catholic guided to some degree by ex-cathedra and Papal encyclicals why doesn't someone inform him that most people in this nation are protestant and are guided only by scripture.

Our trusted system of guidance clearly warns that unchecked homosexuality will bring down any nation, America being no exception. No one is asking Mr. O'Reilly to switch to our faith but we would like him to know perhaps one or two facts about it. Isn't that part of his job?

Questions about abortion were wholly avoided even though it is well known that O'Reilly is a staunch pro-lifer. One possible answer to that may be that he thought he would be countered with Obama's usual "It's the law of the land" retort coupled with promises of programs to educate youth to ostensibly eliminate the possibility of most unwanted pregnancies. That high and lofty ideal is seen by many Americans as Obama's fantasy version of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream."

The question about dumping billions more taxpayer dollars into a ruptured system of education was also conspicuously missing from the interview. New schools, equipment, teachers and more science in the curriculum can do almost nothing to offset the total lack of discipline, the influence of pop and rap culture and the unbridled sexual activity between students. This is not a blind spot in the President and his administration it is total blindness by anyone's definition. Was the question skipped because at least now we know our students are not doing dangerous things like eating french-fries in the school cafeteria?

The one question that O'Reilly asked that may have been on the minds of millions of Americans was about the debt. When asked why the President didn't show much concern about the debt in his recent State of the Union Address, Obama took our man Bill down a long winding road to nowhere; so why is it we are not surprised?

The debt question was obviously the equivalent of the interview's big guns but it produced only the distant echo of a firecracker. Please note, that no one doubts Mr. O'Reilly's sincerity but this is a question that Obama was well primed to divert or totally dismiss if he had to; why didn't O'Reilly see this coming? With a few quick grins, some dismissive and trivializing rhetoric, Obama threw up a shield of paper thin subterfuge deferring the weight of the question like so much water off a duck's back. One of the most pressing questions on the minds of American's today met with Obama's standard fare.

It is hard to believe at this point that Mr. O'Reilly has not learned that in the celebrity oriented, pop culture atmosphere of today's nascent and cool; the words of the icons need only to be believed because they are spoken by the acceptable figure of the day. They do not need to be true and the pop culture icon spreading the verbiage does not need to be "smart." You can't learn this in Harvard but it is hardly a secret.

The other bit of Obama political magic that nearly matches the Super Bowl interview was his message heard at the National Prayer Breakfast only two days prior to the Super Bowl interview.

Many, although, not all, are convinced that like his recent make ups with the Chamber of Commerce and the newly elected GOP members of the House, he was just pandering to the Evangelical Christians. With some 18 percent of Americans still believing he is a Muslim, and apostasy in full swing in the nation and with many church leaders pointing away from the issues of the gay agenda and abortion to emphasizing only a softer kinder social gospel message it is reasonable to think he scored a few points with his proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Scripturally grounded evangelicals cannot be so easily swayed. In fact, until the scriptures change, they will never be swayed. To the secular world this appears as dogma but to us it is called faithfulness.

The question of who Obama actually worships may be a matter for no one but if he is going to make it public then he is leaving himself open to public scrutiny and that includes those who are guided by the Bible. For those without Biblical guidance some may think that the worship of Obama is good enough regardless of whom he (Obama) may worship. This is no exaggeration and perhaps can best be seen in a recent but typical blog response addressing the subject of the Prayer Breakfast and posted to Reuters online.

"Nobody is more talented than the president to awaken the Lord. His commanding voice can pierce even the ears of the deaf and his prayers will be heard in the heavens."

Posted by, morristhewise Feb 3, 2011, Reuters.

We may want to laugh about the voice that's so commanding it can pierce the ears of the deaf but clearly, we might want to warn the President not to awaken the Lord until he could better explain his policies that run directly against the very words of the one he says is his Lord and Savior.

During his address Mr. Obama said "When Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time, we are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us, but whether we're being true to our conscience and true to our God"

Let's go with that because as the scripture teaches, God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10: 34) so here is where we have to say, indeed it does not matter what other people say about our chosen faith.

The question Obama raises is not whether he cares about what people think; but does he care about what his Lord and Savior thinks, says or commands?

Jesus said, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6: 46)

For example, Christ said, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Mt 18: 6)

Is it possible to be a pro-choice President and be true to Christ's words? Here is a theology that even children understand and the obvious answer to that question is an unequivocal no. There is no greater offence that can be laid on a human being than to murder or sanction the murder of that person. Mr. Obama is indeed caught in the entanglement of his own words.

If he chooses to say that no one as yet decided when a human being is a person then we must remind him that neither we nor God have asked him to decide this question for us. Until it is forever decided isn't sanctioning abortion simply playing God? No one can be true to their God if they choose to supplant his authority by making themselves God. Again this takes no theological giant to understand but even children can get this. Unfortunately until Mr. Obama gets this, all that unborn children will be getting is the abortionist's scalpel.

For those of us who hold the words of Christ as final we care little that Mr. Obama sees T. D. Jakes and Dr. Joel Hunter as his mentors because as the President himself said, it doesn't matter what other people say, it is about honoring our God.

There is something so altogether final in Christ's words about harming children that to ignore it can only be explained if a person has no faith in God whatsoever.

Support for the gay agenda, abortion and dozens of other decisions the President now has to his record may be overlooked by some evangelicals but for those of us that take the scriptures seriously there is yet one more little verse that keeps us from swallowing The Presidents Prayer Breakfast proclamation hook, line and sinker.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Mt. 7: 16)

© Michael Bresciani