Normally I get really prickly about religion and and govt. War on Christmas? Sign me up! Prayer in schools? Boo!

And yet, somehow I found Obama's memorial speech last, which I thought was pretty religious, to be totally lovely and appropriate. Why is that? Is there a legit distinction here that makes it OK in this case? Or is it just that this is so sad that even I am hoping there's a heaven right now?

I had the same thought and I normally flinch when politicians name check Jesus. But I think context matters. It was a multi-faith memorial and his role was very much Healer as opposed to Policy Maker. I was more worried he was going to get explicitly policy focused.

It reminded me of: youtube.com as I'm sure it did others. I don't mean to minimize by comparing to WW – the reading of the kids' names was particularly devastating to me. And made the "Let the little children come unto me" quote seem entirely appropriate and sad.

I know, the names at the end totally killed me. The closing was really moving, so simple and well done.

I was happy to see him gesture, obliquely but clearly, to policy. If the speech had been just a paean to theodicy, that would have been fine, but what made it esp powerful for me was that he juggled both the Healer and Policymaker roles well. It's a good alternative model to what we normally think of as public invocations of religion. It demonstrates how they can coexist in a way that is respectful of both believers and nonbelievers.

Also, in general, I've found myself increasingly at peace w/ public displays of religion. I was at a Catholic funeral recently and was surprised to find myself moved, esp bc my connection to the deceased was very attenuated. There is something beautiful about the way faith and its rituals can be a comfort.

And yeah, the WW parallel hit me immediately, too. It's by far the West Wingiest speech I can remember from Obama, and maybe from any a sitting President.

I know, I went to an orthodox Jewish wedding recently and it was so nice! Religion: it has its moments. Still, I found myself unable to stop my grinchy complaining when super Christian music turned up on our holiday playlist at the office xmas party last Friday. Jesus is cool and all but I still don't like the idea that you have to be in his fan club to enjoy a company party, or run for public office. I was reminded of being the only person who objected to "Come all ye Faithful" when I listened to the speech this morning, because the religious parts were among the most moving.

As a little kid I was the only Jew in a 600 kid public elementary school and Christmas carols were something I had a problem with my whole life as an emotional trigger for isolation and alienation. (More opportunity for WW gun violence parallels.)

Maybe it's just getting older or living in NYC or something else, but it no longer bugs me like it once did.

I had similar experience w/ my parents being the only secular folks in my whole extended family. For me, I guess it's less of an issue now that I'm an adult and am (relatively) secure in who I am and my place among the people around me.

One thing I often wonder about is the extent to which our background as former (and sometimes current) public speakers leads us to respond to things at the level of craft. In other words, when we say this or that was a great speech, are we responding to it as an exercise in speechmaking (or speechwriting)? Does everyone do that? Or is it just us? And is that good/bad?

Getting back to the Obama Newton speech, to what extent are we responding to it because it is such a beautifully well-crafted line, as opposed to... I'm not sure what, exactly.

BTW, IMO this helps explain why lawyers and journalists tend to think of Scalia as really smart when really I think he's a skilled legal polemicist. /threadjack

I definitely think about it in terms of speech making generally. The WW comparison really stood out to me and that whole moment is about Sam's role as speechwriter. And the big tricks of speeches like parallelism become impossible to ignore when you know about the machinery at work.

The end of the speech was more purely emotional for me.

Web software exists in a similar category for me where I'm always looking for the man behind the curtain.