Obama Slams Christians: Those Taking Their Faith Most Seriously Often Most

Now, the president has interviewed author Marilynne Robinson for the * a href=”http://www2.nybooks.com/articles/s3/2015/nov/05/president-obama-marilynne-robinson-conversation.html#fnr-*” target=”_blank” *NY Review of Books.

Normally President Obama is the one answering the questions – as he did somewhat testily Sunday in an interview with “60 Minutes”.

It was Obama’s line of questioning about Robinson’s Christian faith was grabbing people’s attention on Monday.

The President: How do you reconcile the idea of faith being really important to you and you caring a lot about taking faith seriously with the fact that, at least in our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?

Christianity, she said, is “supposed to be difficult”, and “when people are turning in on themselves – and God knows, arming themselves and so on – against the imagined other, they’re not taking their Christianity seriously”.

Obama said that America’s greatness stems from a sense of “nagging dissatisfaction” that spurred settlers to move West, helped astronauts land on the moon and inspired the creation of the Internet.

Obama and Robinson go back-and-forth a bit about the value of pessimism in American culture: “We have a great educational system that is-it’s really a triumph of the civilization”, Robinson said.

“But fear was very much – is on my mind, because I think that the basis of democracy is the willingness to assume well about other people “And the thing I’ve been struggling with throughout my political career is how do you close the gap”. “That’s the logical conclusion if, in fact, you think that government is the enemy”.

“We’re suspicious of government as a tool of oppression”. He sat for an interview with the “Vice”, the edgy media company, in a federal prison, took questions from GloZell, a green-lipped YouTube star, and spent an hour in Marc Maron’s Pasadena, Calif., garage for a chat with the comedian that aired on his “WTF ” podcast. In particular, Obama asks Robinson for her thoughts on American Christians who use their religion to push an “us vs. them” mentality.

The president is a longtime fan of the author and her novel “Gilead”, which he read while he visited Iowa as a candidate.

Obama awarded Robinson the 2012 National Humanities Medal, which honors individuals or groups whose work expands citizens’ understanding of history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.

“I first picked up Gilead, one of your most wonderful books, here in Iowa”.