“So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Barack Obama
At first I was a little insulted by our Professor in Chief referring to some of us in fly-over country as bitter clingers, but on further consideration came to the conclusion that he was just illustrating what makes him so insufferable.
First of all guns are just symbolic of personal safety in the same way that having locks on your door, a dog, nearby neighbors, or the phone next to your bed so that if help is needed, it’s close. Who doesn’t want a sense of personal security?
Second, religion is just a web of beliefs that ties one to the universe. It is important to feel a part of nature and not an orphan. People believe many things but everybody believes something.
Third, an ethnocentric perspective labeled as “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”: a fancy way of saying that people prefer what is familiar. Again, is that some sort of sin and not just descriptive of human nature?
So what our Professor impugned is exactly what he displayed in his animosity for those not like himself.
For if a person just listens and doesn’t obey , he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror; as soon as he walks away, he can’t see himself any more or remember what he looks like. James 1: 23
