What confounds me most is that a candidate who claims to be a person of faith repudiates the human tendency to cling to faith in times of despair. I am wondering if Clinton or McCain ever read their Bibles. Throughout the Bible, the tendency of women and men of faith to cry out to God and become deeply pious during their time of grief was the pattern and not the exception. Actually, it would almost seem to a Biblical scholar that God's plan for the world was to allow suffering so that those who had forgotten God would turn back to the faith.
According to the Book of Exodus, the children of Israel who were in bondage in Egypt, cried out to God, and God heard their cries and delivered them out of slavery. Some of the most poignant Psalms (songs of King David) were written in moments of intense sorrow, fear, shame, and repentance. And King Solomon, as he was preparing to take the throne after King David has passed, pled with God to grant him wisdom since he felt inadequate and too feeble to become king of Israel.
Did Obama say that suffering is the only reason that people are faithful? No. Did he say that people clung to their faith because they felt helpless and even bitter? Yes. Is that contrary to anything Biblical? No. Obama was only commenting on the historical nature of humans to reach out to the Divine when feeling hopeless.
As a Christian, himself, Obama was rebuking those who passed on by, ignoring the plight of those who were frustrated. Of course, the faithful can and should pray, but, as the Christian parable of the Good Samaritan demonstrates, those who pass by without working to relieve their plight are rebuked; the passersby, in his scenario, are Beltway politicians, who have consistently ignored the needs of people in rural, small-town U.S. His rebuke was to them.
And, of course, what about the guns? I am from rural, small-town Ohio and I know that people do not hunt and hold guns only because they are desperate. They hunt because they enjoy it; it is a way of life that they want preserved. Was Obama saying otherwise? No. Rather, he was pointing out that this issue tends to serve as a wedge issue that can cause concern, which can be distracting. Considering how much Clinton and McCain have distracted Americans from the real issues by focusing on a soundbite about guns [and religion] uttered in San Francisco, I would say that Obama gets it far more than Clinton or McCain and understands reality much more clearly. So, Clinton and McCain, go back to Sunday School and get a reality check. It would seem that you both live in ivory towers like two (gasp) elitists.