he saw, I think he did okay.
It was a bit more subtle than his performance last week at the Q&A from the Republican Caucus retreat, but I want to let you give a listen if you hadn't heard--
He gave another shout-out to those with no faith, and he pointed out that the core of no faith is hate, and expressed that the Golden Rule was the uniting factor in many faiths. He acknowledged the wisdom of the separation of church and state.
I also appreciated how he spoke of his non-practicing grandparents, atheist father, and his "skeptical" mother, who nonetheless helped form his ethical beliefs.
I definitely paid attention to the criticism of his appearing at the National Prayer Breakfast, especially back when it was supposed that Ugandan legislator David Bahati, who introduced the reprehensible death penalty for gays bill in that nation, would attend. But I also see in how he addressed those assembled, and how he often addresses opposition, and approve--
He isn't scared of them. He reaches out. He sincerely tries to respond to criticism fairly and does not mind calling out the bigots, and subtly, I think he did--it wasn't a grand gesture. But he went there.
If he wasn't at the prayer breakfast, he couldn't have pointed out to those attending that you should do unto others as you would be done by, or that targeting "others" is wrong, or that secular people have as much right as the sectarians to do their thing for their communities. Like I've said before--I think he gets it, and us--secular humanist-types. And I appreciate that.
2 comments:
Thanks a lot for posting the videos, Vixen.
He mentioned secularists and humanists as equals a few times. That's a big change for this country! :)
It really is--I don't think any other political figure has acknowledged us as openly, nor had as much experience first hand (via both of his parents) of non-believers.
This makes me very hopeful that us secularists and atheists have influence in this administration. I like, for example, what he has to say about science (as witnessed by his approach to things like climate change). And I like to think that he "gets it"--undestands the rational point of view. (Re: everything---from missle defense to climate change to evolution-based science education.)
I think it's high time we had someone in office who is reality-based.
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