The One at Georgetown U.

Rod Dreher's take on the Obama at Georgetown University story is as good as anyone's. Amy Welborn has links to the evidence (before and after photos).

For those with better things to do than to follow breaking news on Obama's attempt to undermine the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the US (see the post on Notre Shame), what happened was this: Obama wanted to use a room at Georgetown to make a speech. Some eagle eye noted that the letters IHS (the first letters of Latin words for "Jesus, Saviour of Men), which is the official seal of the Jesuit order (Georgetown is a Jesuit university), were missing during Obama's speech. Turned out that the Obama team asked that they be covered up as it was their policy that Obama would always give speeches with no other symbols in view - just American flags. So the damning evidence of Christianity was duely covered.

Secular messianism is more dangerous in the US than in most nations and some of its recent manifestations are downright creepy. Americans are incurably religious and will be long after Christianity has disappeared from its shores. Secular Americans who reject Christianity just can't help projecting a religious aura onto liberal progressivism and its messiah. Well, fine. Do it. Just leave the Church out of it.

But he wanted to speak at a Catholic university. And yet he wanted to have symbols of Catholic identity covered up. It is kind of like saying "I'd like to come over to your home for dinner next Thursday; do you suppose you could take down that ugly picture of Jesus from the hall?" Not very good manners, one would have thought.

It is hard to know who looks the worst here: Obama the secular messianic pretender, his handlers for their harsh and heavy-handed secularism or Georgetown's administration for its gutless fawning over Caesar. I'm pretty sure that when Jesus said "Render unto Caeaser what is Caesar's," he didn't mean for the Church to throw its own identity into the bargain.

On the other hand, reports are completely unfounded that when Obama walked into the room he put his hands on his hips, assumed his best John Wayne stance and growled: "There's only room for one Messiah in this a-here town!"