President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term on a stack (of two) Bibles — Lincoln’s Bible and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s traveling Bible. So what would Lincoln and King have to say about that?
“In regards to this great Book (the Bible), I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it.” –Abraham Lincoln
“Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.” –Abraham Lincoln
We Americans desperately need to open the Bible and rediscover the difference between right and wrong. We need to be shown the difference of purpose between us and God.
“The first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this: that all reality hinges on moral foundations. In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the physical laws.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“It’s all right to disobey the Ten Commandments, but just don’t disobey the eleventh, ‘Thou shall not get caught.’ That’s the attitude. That’s the prevailing attitude in our culture . . . My friends, that attitude is destroying the soul of our culture. It’s destroying our nation. The thing that we need in the world today is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and to be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they’re never caught up with. And some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“All I’m trying to say to you is that our world hinges on moral foundations. God has made it so. God has made the universe to be based on a moral law. So long as man disobeys it he is revolting against God. That’s what we need in the world today: people who will stand for right and goodness.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“There is something in this universe that justifies the biblical writer in saying, ‘You shall reap what you sow.’ This is a law-abiding universe. This is a moral universe. It hinges on moral foundations. If we are to make of this a better world, we’ve got to go back and rediscover that precious value that we’ve left behind.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“It’s possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and deny His existence with your life. The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism—that’s the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in Him, but we live with our lives like He never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That’s a dangerous type of atheism. And I think, my friends, that is the thing that has happened in America. That we have unconsciously left God behind.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
So what about President Barack Obama using Abraham Lincoln’s and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Bibles for his second inaugural oath?
Here is what King’s niece, Dr. Alveda King said about it: “I really hope that when the president — and those who handle the Bible — I hope they just, even if they just accidentally slip it open, to where it says ‘choose life,’ or ‘God hates the shedding of innocent blood’ or something like that, I’m hoping it will just reverberate, shake them up a little bit.” –Dr. Alveda King
“I believe my uncle if he happened to be invited to the White House — if he were today in this 21st Century, he would go in and pray and counsel the president and his advisers and he would lead them back to the word of God. I think he would encourage them with his sermon Rediscovering Lost Values.” –Dr. Alveda King
