A. Barton Hinkle on Obama, Terrorism, and the National Prayer Breakfast
Conservatives got a bee up their nose when, at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month, President Barack Obama reminded Christians not to cast the first stone. Christians had done some pretty ferocious things themselves, Obama said (citing, e.g., the Crusades) and ought to be careful about getting on their "high horse" over heinous crimes committed by Islamic fanatics.
In the wake of ISIS' hideous immolation of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasabeh, that was bound to stir resentment—even though the idea that we are all sinners is not exactly controversial doctrine in the Christian church. What's more, writes A. Barton Hinkle, America has its own very recent history of terrorism to grapple with. Namely, the widespread lynching of African Americans by white mobs well into the second half of the 20th century.