No, Jesus' very name, in the form of the ancient monogram IHS, which had been in gold lettering on the wooden archway above Gaston Hall's dais, was painted over (or otherwise expertly camouflaged) prior to Obama's arrival. Apparently, the Name that is above every other name is not permitted to be above Obama.The University's press office responded to the Washington Times with this:
"The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they've done for other policy speeches," she wrote. "Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn't high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context."Now that it is clear Georgetown was more than happy to respond to the White House's staging request, one has to wonder why a Catholic university would so happily go along with such a request...
Interestingly, in the past I have been told by a reliable source that former Attorney General John Ashcroft's partial covering of nude statues was similarly done for staging -- not moral -- reasons. Still, this did not prevent liberals from mocking Ashcroft.
One wonders if Ashcroft's covering of breasts will be percieved as more upsetting and controversial than Obama's covering of Christ ...
Of course, the Obama story comes on the heels of his trip abroad where he went out of his way to say America is not a Christian nation -- as well as on the heels of his controversial reversal of President Bush's stem-cell policies. It will be interesting to see how Obama fares in the future among Catholic voters -- who supported him in '08 -- and continue to be a vital swing-vote.
It is worth noting that Obama didn't seem to have any problem with religious imagery during the campaign ...
