Press to President Obama: Avoid The Appearance of Evil

Pretend to be poor. That is what pundits, so-called reporters, and other political critics suggested the President do this week. All of this is in reaction to the Obama family’s annual vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, balefully described by a newscast on a Christian radio station as “a playground for the rich and famous.” Funny, I know plenty of not so rich and famous people who vacation or visit there routinely, but I digress.

The major reason for this outrageous criticism is to stage some kind of “sympathy” poverty with the 25 million unemployed and underemployed Americans. Symbolically, the President’s actions should mean something, but realistically they don’t.

I refuse to begrudge President Obama a vacation of any kind. And neither do I begrudge the rich their mansions or the famous their photogenic good looks. One man’s treasure does not automatically make me a pauper, nor do I count my role models among politicians and certainly not the critics, many of whom have access to large bank accounts and lavish homes, even while pretending to eschew those things.

I won’t bother naming the specific names of certain columnists and critics because that would mean acknowledging their opinions as important, and they aren’t. It would also be lending credence to what has become a redundant argument.

The First Lady was previously criticized for a “lavish” European vacation by members of Congress no less, whose salaries come from the coffers of American taxpayers, yet many of them own multiple homes on Martha’s Vineyard and other upper class hot spots, while the Obamas are merely renting a place.

The Obamas pretend poverty would be meaningless and even discouraging. The hypocritical rage of the press comes from their own lack of grounding in firm spiritual principles. They prefer the appearance of goodness, rather than goodness itself, fulfilling the prophecy of Paul that men would prefer “the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.”

What difference does it make it a millionaire wears coutour or ripped jeans? They are still millionaires at the end of the day. It was once illegal in England for a poor man to even wear the same clothes as the rich because it was considered deceitful.

What example or lesson should the average unemployed American take from the President’s vacation? Nothing. I certainly didn’t think anything of it and was appalled that professional reporters would be cheeky enough to use the President's earned vacation time as their whipping boy for these tough economic times.

The idea of the President being “one of us” certainly sounds nice, but after all he is the President and you are not. As I have written in a previous blog, the rich and famous are definitely not like us.  But if an opportunity to spend quality time with the family arises, we might certainly benefit from being a little bit more like them.