we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another - as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.
There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next - and some subscribe to no faith at all.
But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is in religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.
From
Remarks of President Barack Obama
National Prayer Breakfast
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Washington, DC
and a correction:
Obama noted that
The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."
Not exactly. It's part of the Oral Torah.
The Written Torah has a verse "Love your neighbor as yourself".
What Obama quoted was the dictum of Hillel the Sage in The Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a
It's easy to be correct if you have a better staff assistant.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment