Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 79, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 20, 2013 Page: 11 of 46
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Denton Record-Chronicle
NATIONAL
Sunday, October 20, 2013
11A
Obama nurtures his faith away from spotlight
“This office tends to make a person pray
more. ”
President Barack Obama
By Josh Lederman
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Presi-
dent Barack Obama is not an
overtly religious man. He and
his family rarely attend church,
and he almost never elaborates
in public about his own relation-
ship to his Christian faith.
But away from the public eye,
advisers say, the president has
carefully nurtured a sense of
spirituality that has served as a
grounding mechanism during
turbulent times, when the ob-
stacles to governing a deeply di-
vided nation seem nearly insur-
mountable.
Every year on Aug. 4, the
president’s birthday, Obama
convenes a group of pastors by
phone to receive their prayers
for him for the year to come.
During the most challenging of
times, prayer circles are orga-
nized with prominent religious
figures such as megachurch pas-
tor Joel Hunter, Bishop Vashti
McKenzie of the African Meth-
odist Episcopal Church and the
Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights
activist.
Each morning for the past
five years, before most of his
aides even arrive at the White
House, Obama has read a devo-
tional written for him and sent
to his BlackBerry, weaving to-
gether Scripture with reflections
from literary figures such as Ma-
ya Angelou and C.S. Lewis.
“I’ve certainly seen the presi-
dent’s faith grow in his time in
office,” said Joshua DuBois, an
informal spiritual adviser to
Obama who writes the devo-
tionals and ran Obama’s faith-
based office until earlier this
year. ‘When you cultivate your
faith, it grows.”
Obama is particularly moved
by theories that draw connec-
tions between biblical themes
and the personal journeys of his-
torical figures such as Abraham
Lincoln and Martin Luther
King Jr., DuBois said.
He added that the president’s
spiritual strength is his belief
that God will carry him through
to see another day even in times
of crisis.
“Because of these grounding
aspects of his life, he doesn’t let
the day-to-day challenges really
shake him,” said DuBois, a for-
mer associate pastor at a Pente-
costal church.
The image of Obama as
someone who draws heavily on
faith to guide his daily life con-
trasts with his public persona.
An intensely private person,
Obama has shied away from all
but the most general descrip-
tions of his spiritual life.
Obama had to distance him-
self from his longtime pastor, the
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, when his
anti-American rantings threat-
ened Obama’s 2008 presiden-
tial campaign.
Persistent and false claims
that Obama is secretly a Muslim
have followed him even into his
second term.
“Sometimes I search Scrip-
ture to determine how best to
balance life as a president and as
a husband and as a father,” Oba-
ma said in February at the Na-
tional Prayer Breakfast. “I often
search for Scripture to figure out
how I can be abetter man as well
as a better president.”
The best clues to which texts
fortify Obama’s spiritual con-
sumption may come from the
daily devotionals that DuBois
started sending Obama, then a
U.S. senator from Illinois, in
2008.
DuBois ran religious out-
reach for Obama’s presidential
campaign that year, and his digi-
tal benedictions for Obama have
been compiled in a forthcoming
book, The President’s Devo-
tional.
“A snippet of Scripture for me
to reflect on,” Obama has said.
“And it has meant the world to
me.”
At pivotal moments in Oba-
ma’s presidency, DuBois some-
times selects texts that offer les-
sons appropriate to the chal-
lenges at hand.
Before one State of the Union
address, it was the words of Isa-
iah, in an appeal for clarity of
speech: “So shall my word be
that goes out from my mouth, it
shall not return to me empty, but
it shall accomplish that which I
purpose.”
Others are intended as an oa-
sis from the conflicts Obama
confronts on any given day.
“We are hard-pressed on ev-
ery side, but not crushed. Per-
plexed, but not in despair,” reads
a verse from 2 Corinthians that
DuBois sent Obama one No-
vember, followed with his own
meditation: “Dear God, give us a
resilient spirit, a spirit that re-
turns to face this day even in the
shadow of yesterday’s challeng-
es. Help us, today, to bounce
back.”
In his final years in office,
Obama plans to continue with
the morning meditations, the
birthday call with pastors and ad
hoc prayer circles, said a senior
administration official, who
wasn’t authorized to comment
by name on Obama’s spiritual
life and has requested anonym-
ity.
In times of crisis, from hurri-
canes to school shootings, many
Americans look to their presi-
dent as a source of strength and
comfort.
“This office tends to make a
person pray more,” Obama said
last year in an interview with
Cathedral Age magazine. “And
as President Lincoln once said, ‘I
have been driven to my knees
many times by the overwhelm-
ing conviction that I had no
place else to go.”
Community Forum 2
2030:
Our path to the future
Thursday, Oct. 17 or Saturday, Nov. 9
6 to 8 p.m.
Open House at the
Denton Civic Center
321 E. McKinney St. | Denton
The City of Denton is updating the comprehensive plan, an essential and collaborative effort
to prepare and vet guidelines for Denton's future growth. Community Forum 2 (CF2) will
share the outcomes from public input gathered during the first Community Forum and the
work that followed. At CF2, the draft Community Vision Statement, Growth Trend Scenario,
Alternative Growth Scenarios, and Community Character Considerations will be available for
feedback. The input received at CF2 will ultimately form the detailed Future Land Use Plan
for the Denton Plan Update, guiding the future growth pattern and development priorities
for the City for the next 15 to 20 years.
D
.
y
9 to 11 a.m.
Open House at the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Rec. Center
1300 Wilson St. | Denton
jurpatnieim^
Produced by PCO, 9/13 | TDD: (800) 735-2989
ADA/EOE/ADEA | www.cityofdenton.com
more details:
information@dentonplan2030.com
www.dentonplan2030.com
(940) 349-8368 #dentonplan
The City of Denton Neighborhood Planning Program (CDNPP)
presents the 5th Annual
NEIGHBORHOOD EMPOWERMENT SUMMIT
Featuring the following sessions:
• City Codes: The Building Blocks for Health, Safety, and Aeshetics
• From Point A to Point B: The Growing Denton Bike Community
• buildingcommunityWORKSHOP's POP Toolkit
• Make It Happen: Funding Neighborhood Projects
• A Spot on the Dias: Boards and Commissions
““'AW
Saturday, Oct. 26 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Denton Civic Center, 321 E. McKinney St.
All associations, organizations, and
institutions are invited to attend.
Register online at
www.cityofdenton.com/neighborhoodplanning
For more information, contact
Katia Boykin at (940) 349-7274 or
Katia.Boykin@cityofdenton.com.
jEm
Published by PCO, 9/12 • ADA/EOE/ADEA • TDD: (800) 735-2989 • www.cityofdenton.com
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Cobb, Dawn. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 79, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 20, 2013, newspaper, October 20, 2013; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1102021/m1/11/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .