There was something eerily familiar about Barack Obama's speech January 8 at Dartmouth College...
"My job this morning is to be so persuasive...that a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack," he told a crowd of about 300 Ivy Leaguers.
Where had I heard this before? Wasn't it from the Acts of the Apostles, 9:3-6...
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
In case you might have missed the religious connotation of epiphany, Obama delivered this speech on January 8, during the Octave of Epiphany, an eight-day feast celebrating the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. There is some difference of opinion between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches whether the feast commemorates the star of Bethlehem shining on the manger, or the heavens opening above the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, but the basic idea is the same, and it was naturally extended to the epiphany of St. Paul when a blinding light revealed Jesus to him.
So Barack Obama was soliciting an endorsement from God at Dartmouth College, and he's obviously raising the stakes over other inspired candidates like Mike Huckabee. Huckabee may talk back and forth with God, like many other believers, but in the Christian religion, a great light from heaven is reserved for the Messiah alone.
Obama's disciples will obviously object that when Obama pictures himself as a new Messiah shining in the supernatural light of epiphany, it's just a metaphor, but when he says "Yes we can," it's a solid promise to enact the progressive agenda.
I hope they're right.
__________________________
