Obama talk on economic troubles turns to religion

Reuters blog Front Row Washington reports on President Barack Obama’s Georgetown speech about the economy, where references to scripture flowed freely:

Barack Obama in front of stained glass“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit,” Obama said.

“But the second is known as the wise man, for when ‘…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

And wait for it…here it comes…the tying of the Sermon on the Mount to the U.S. economy…

“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock,” Obama said.

Continue reading at Front Row Washington.

Nathan Schneider is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he directs the Media Enterprise Design Lab and is a resident fellow at the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture.

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