Obama Heads Out to Church
by KEITH KOFFLER on AUGUST 19, 2012, 11:26 AM
President Obama today made a rare appearance in church, strolling with his family across Lafayette Park to St. John’s, well known as the church where presidents pray.
From the pool report:
Sunday morning: POTUS and family are attending mass at St. John’s Episcopal Church at Layfayette Sq. in Washington, DC. The first family walks out of the WH at 10:28 am, and strolled across Layfayette Sq to the church at the north end. No hurry there. POTUS walks with Malia, a hand on her shoulder; FLOTUS walks hand-in-hand with Sasha.
Passing the Pool, POTUS says hello but nothing more. A member of the press asks Malia how her experience at a New Hampshire camp was. “Good, thank you,” she responds.
Chorus is singing “I Come with Joy” as the first family enters the church.
Delivering the sermon at St. John’s this morning is Rev. Michael Angell. He mentions the shooting this week at Washington’s Family Research Center, and calls on the country’s political rivals to come together to work out differences without violence. Angell mentions that he grew up near Auroura, Col.
Obama has been to regular Sunday services in Washington this year I think once or twice before this.
Don’t worry, there will still be time for golf, although they’re calling for thunderstorms in the DC area.
Between Michael Angell and Cardinal Dolan, Obama’s pulling out all his “christian” cards.
[Don't forget Catholics for Obama 2012]
Catholic College Profs Among “Catholics for Obama” 2012
8/17/2012 – Cardinal Newman Society – Campus Notes
Relying heavily on left-leaning academics at Catholic colleges and universities, the Obama campaign on Monday unveiled its “Catholics for Obama” team for 2012 in an effort to boost its Catholic vote.
Among those leading the group are several pro-abortion rights politicians along with faculty members at Catholic colleges including Sister Jamie Phelps, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans; Nicholas Cafardi, a canon and civil lawyer who teaches at the Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh; Thomas Groome of Boston College, a theologian [and ex-priest but not ex-Jesuit]; and Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic University of America.
Cafardi just last week took to the pages of the National Catholic Reporter to convince readers that Obama was more pro-life than Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He didn’t mention in that piece that he would soon be publicly affiliated with the Catholics for Obama group. Presumably, that affiliation will be pointed out in future writings.
Schneck is on the board of directors of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which was co-founded by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ director of faith-based programs, Alexia Kelley, to generate Catholic support for President Obama’s policies. Last year Schneck led a faculty effort to embarrass Republican House Speaker John Boehner, when he delivered the commencement address at The Catholic University of America. In February Schneck joined with other politically liberal Catholics in an open letter “celebrating” the “accommodation” proposed by President Obama with regard to the HHS contraceptive mandate – a compromise that the U.S. bishops have explained is entirely unacceptable to Catholics, and which has still not been written into the regulations.
Other members of Obama’s 21-member team includes Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward Kennedy who was uninvited by a Catholic college at the request of the local bishop in May, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who pushed for that state’s law legalizing gay marriage.
“What’s distinctive about Catholics and politics is our ancient idea of the common good,” Schneck told David Gibson of the Religion News Service. “We measure that by how the working class and poorest among us are doing. Government, for us Catholics, is obliged to be caring. It’s obliged to serve and to help build the country as whole. President Obama ‘gets’ this at a deep level.”
The Catholics for Obama website touts Obama’s opposition to Paul Ryan’s proposed budget, saying: “We are proud of the President for his opposition to the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, embraced by Republicans in Congress, and heartily endorsed by Mitt Romney. The Republican plan would shred our nation’s compassionate safety net, gutting Medicare, food assistance programs, Head Start, and many other programs-all while cutting taxes for the wealthy.”
As far as social issues such as abortion, the only reference on the home page is veiled:
As Catholics, we believe that every human being is made in the image of God. From this we discern that, individually and as a nation, we share a moral obligation to care for one another. As the President has so passionately affirmed throughout his career: ‘I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper.’ The President has upheld and advanced this principle in many ways, including his support for pregnant women and the Adoption Tax Credit.”
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The Obama campaign said that state co-chairs will be announced in the coming weeks.
I wish that I didn’t think this was a ploy, but I do.
Photo of the Reverend Michael “Mike” Angell (a self-styled “renegade episcopal priest [or] clergy type”) from his Twitter page
I guess that’s part of the political game in every country – when you run for some position, you have to visit factories hospitals and schools, meet people, shake hands, eat and drink this and that.
Nice to see the Obamanation’s wife dressed in something almost decent.