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The title of this post is by way of warning. For some, what I am about to say will fit the parental aphorism perfectly (don’t make mountains out of a molehills) and thus you may feel safe in guffawing and ignoring it. That is your right and privilege. It’s one of the great things about having free will in a free society. Nothing is being forced on you at the point of a sword or by any other means of coercion. All I urge is that you file this away for later. I don’t know for certain either. If you’re inclined to derision, spare us, please.

Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians speaks of a “man of lawlessness” who springs forth from an environment (mystery) of lawlessness, “taking his seat” and “exalting himself” (I’m paraphrasing; check it out for yourself) and that his emergence is both facilitated by and then proves to be, a “wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth… a strong delusion… they may believe what is false.” [see update below]

What does lawlessness mean in the Bible? Short answer: more than speeding, spitting on the sidewalk or cheating on your taxes. Longer answer: denying Jesus.

OK, that’s a shorter answer, but it’s a kind of super-dense, super-rich Ben & Jerry’s-yummy shorter answer… lots of calories in one little pint. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law spelled out in the Hebrew scriptures. He is the Word. He is inseparable from the scriptures and the law because he wrote them. They speak of Him, point to him and set the stage for his sacrifice being necessary. To deny them is to deny him and also God. (This would be the point where those who are rolling their eyes in disgust or laughing out loud would do well to re-read the first paragraph.)

Everyone who watched the inauguration knows that the initial public oath-taking got messed up. I’m not blaming Obama for that, though he seems to have jumped the gun a bit. The best explanation I’ve heard is that Chief Justice Roberts was ‘nervous as a whore in church’ (or perhaps the other way ’round). Roberts cannot possibly have been happy with who he was swearing in. To his credit, he did his duty. Yet, in territory perceived as hostile, your brain tends to devote cycles to other things and you stumble.

So, “just to make sure”, says the WaPo, they did the oath again… without a Bible. In private (I cannot find any video or audio, though reporters were in attendance [see update II below]). Including the word ‘faithfully’ (again) though one might ask: faithful to what, exactly? (Reminds me of ‘change’ — to/from what, exactly?)

It’s not clear if he used the words, “so help me God” the second time. If he did, the WaPo didn’t report it. [He did. Not clear from the audio if the 'g' was capitalized.] It’s also not clear if those words are required by the Constitution (or even if a Bible is required. If so, what kind, or even what faith is not specified AFAIK. See: Ellison, Keith for the last sad round on that one. Lesson one: it’s a free country, including freedom of conscience and that’s a good thing. Lesson two: the major world faiths are superficially similar and fundamentally different; one’s choice on these matters is important.)

The secular legalities of this are not my issue. He’s president. I don’t contest that. If you disagree, get over it and let’s get on the the praying thing — for wisdom, truth, and a changed heart among other things. After the citizenship thing and the terrorist thing and a host of other common sense things that would have been really big things for most other candidates in most other (past) media environments didn’t go anywhere, it dawned on me that much larger forces were at work here. Much larger — and by that I do not mean George Soros.)

So, in terms of authority and legitimacy under the Constitution, it’s over. Done deal. President accountable to whom in the larger sense is my big, lurking question. For if the second oath was needed at all, then it’s fair to assume (though I am hardly a lawyer) that it supersedes the first and that the Bible in the first one was really only for show — a prop of no real significance to the main actor but only to the audience.

I’ll admit: I’m suspect of Obama’s faith. I’m willing to reserve judgment. I’m not willing to avert my gaze and say ‘whatever’. God takes leaders and their loyalties very seriously and so should we. Like most of us, Obama probably has his good days and his bad days spiritually, his days of doubt and his days of greater certainty, days where the stuff he was taught in Islamic schools in Indonesia makes the most sense, days when Reverend Wright’s bitter worldview makes sense, and his days when something else altogether makes sense.

I JUST DON’T KNOW.

Some spiritual buffeting is to be expected in a secular society. Being un-moored from fixed truth looks and feels very different. I said I was reserving judgment, not my evolving opinion.

(One liberal pastor I conversed with here late last summer insisted on the perverse thought that the vast right wing conspiracy had drummed Obama out of his former church via the Reverend Wright thing and wasn’t that terrible that we had done to him — forcing Obama to be un-churched? Backwards doesn’t even begin to describe that line of reasoning. Changing churches is one thing. I’ve done it and I take full responsibility for it. Leaving the church altogether is quite another.)

All I can do is to watch what he says and does. What is done out of the public eye [see update II below] often matters more than what is done in it, and this seemingly small double scene (the oaths) gives us one more tiny, but critically important glance into his spiritual life and priorities.

If you don’t believe in the transcendent God revealed in scripture who rules the nations with an active hand, revealed himself in Jesus, actively guided the growth of his church and has made very specific and detailed promises to come back, then what I’m saying is absolute rubbish… total foolishness.

You’ve got plenty of company. Plenty of company. Take the blue pill. You may have already.

Such formalities, you might say, are so much silly tradition anyway, done for the superficial benefit of a bunch of superstitious, reactionary idiots like me. If it makes you feel better having the crowd on your side, that’s your right… to feel good… for now… on the surface. As for me, that hinky feeling I’ve had for some time but have been reluctant to commit to pixels just keeps getting stronger. Crucify him? No, I do not mean to do that. If what I’m implying here is true, someone else will take care of all things in due time.

UPDATE I: Gerald Warner at the UK Telegraph uses 2nd Thess 2 language and imagery to ask ‘Is it just me?’

This will end in tears. The Obama hysteria is not merely embarrassing to witness, it is itself contributory to the scale of the disaster that is coming. What we are experiencing, in the deepening days of a global depression, is the desperate suspension of disbelief by people of intelligence – la trahison des clercs – in a pathetic effort to hypnotise themselves into the delusion that it will be all right on the night. It will not be all right… It is frightening to think there is a real possibility that the entire world economy could go into complete meltdown and famine kill millions… It is questionable whether the present political system can survive the coming crisis.

No, Gerald. It’s not just you. H/T: The Return of Scipio

UPDATE II: Apparently the re-swear was more casual and deeply cloaked than I ever imagined.

“How is it transparent,” another reporter asked, “when you control the only image of the re-swearing – there’s nobody in there but four print reporters, there’s no stills, there’s no television? And the only recording that comes out, as I understand it, is one that a reporter made, not one that the White House supplied.”