This is interesting. It looks like a more deeply integrated approach to “loving thy neighbor” is showing up in DC.
In his remarks today at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama retold the story of his journey to Christianity:
“I believe this good is possible because my faith teaches me that all is possible, but I also believe because of what I have seen and what I have lived.
He goes on:
I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person Ive ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done.
And then:
I didnt become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard Gods spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose His purpose.
Sounds like the kind of inspiration that could be very helpful about now.