Charlie Rose had an interesting discussion last night about what President Obama should say at the Arizona memorial service tonight. On hand were David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Atlantic correspondent James Fallows.
Brooks begins talking about Obama’s theology and how that might play into the speech at minute 10.
If I had to guess, based on Obama’s rhetorical style and speeches/sermons in similar situations by presidents past, I’d say there are three scriptural references that might make their way into the address tonight in Arizona:
Matthew 12:25: “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, `Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.'”
Genesis 4:9: “Then the LORD said to Cain, `Where is your brother Abel?’
`I don’t know,’ he replied. `Am I my brother’s keeper?'”*
Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
That last passage is a particular favorite of presidents after violent tragedies. Clinton used it after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995; Bush used it after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.
A nonbiblical source Obama’s may draw on is Lincoln’s second inaugural, when the embattled president addressed a nation even more deeply divided than our own. We may hear echoes of this passage in particular tonight:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves…”
*Obama plays this verse straight, though it’s likely that Cain is ironically (one might say sarcastically) answering God.