Mark Joseph on The President and the Prophet, Obama's Unusual Encounter with Eric Metaxas.
If the organizers of the national prayer breakfast ever want a sitting president to attend their event again, they need to expect that any leader in his right mind is going to ask — no, demand — that he be allowed to see a copy of the keynote address that is traditionally given immediately before the president’s.
That’s how devastating was the speech given by a little known historical biographer named Eric Metaxas, whose clever wit and punchy humor barely disguised a series of heat-seeking missiles that were sent, intentionally or not, in the commander-in-chief’s direction.
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But before the president could utter a word, it was Metaxas who delivered a devastating, albeit apparently unintentional critique of such God-talk, recounting his own religious upbringing which he described as culturally Christian yet simultaneously full of “phony religiosity.”
“I thought I was a Christian. I guess I was lost,” he matter-of-factly stated.
For some reason I can't embed the video from C-Span , but Justin Taylor did, so watch it here. Metaxas is charming, funny, serious and profound Christian. It may be the best thing you've seen all week whether you are a believer or not.
Posted by Jill Fallon at February 9, 2012 1:09 AM | Permalink