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Obama Consulted Clergy, Scripture in Tragedy's Aftermath

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 4.02.38 PM WASHINGTON -- As President Barack Obama and his aides prepared to memorialize the dead in Tucson, they were dealing with death close to home.

Two days after the Tucson mass shooting, Ashley Turton, the wife of Dan Turton, Obama's liaison to the House of Representatives, died when her car struck a wall in their garage, igniting a flash fire.

Several members of Obama's staff went to be with their colleague, and with the couple's twin toddlers and year-old baby.

The White House was already preparing for another funeral later in the week for diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke.

"I think we're all searching for meaning here," said one senior administration official who, like others, described the personal scene on the condition of anonymity.

Obama's search began hours after he heard of the Tucson shootings. Six people were dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. One of the first people he reached out to after calling in his speechwriter was a young clergyman on his staff, Joshua DuBois.

A Pentecostal preacher in his spare time, DuBois set aside the e-mail devotionals he had prepared for Obama for the coming week and delved into new material.

Several clergy members who pray, e-mail and talk with the president also assembled, as they often do, to offer advice by messaging and speaking with Dubois.

Obama moved between biblical teachings from the life of Job and verses of Psalm 46 in what amounted to a personal search for the appropriate message, aides and advisors said, and merged his speechwriters with his spiritual counselors in an unusual collaboration.

It wasn't the first time Obama has meditated on the life of Job, the biblical figure who loses his family, health and money. Like a tree that is cut down, the president told New Orleans residents on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, their city can sprout again.

This time, Obama was focusing on the sorrow of Job. Among the words read by the president, according to his aides: "When I looked for light, then came darkness." And: "Days of suffering confront me."

On Saturday and Sunday, he spent long stretches preparing for and then calling family members of those killed and injured in the shooting.

He also talked to Mark Kelly as Kelly sat by the bedside of his wife, Giffords, target of the apparent assassination attempt.

On Monday morning, the president's interim chief of staff, Pete Rouse, e-mailed the West Wing staff, notifying them that Ashley Turton had died that morning. She was pulling out of her garage on her way to work when she struck the building. Fire officials surmised the low-speed crash may have ignited flammable chemicals in the garage.

There was a brief break from work at the White House that morning when the staff spilled onto the frigid South Lawn, joining the president and Michelle Obama in a moment of silence to honor the Tucson shooting victims. Some said they also were thinking of the Turtons.

It was a moment to "connect in grief," said one staffer, with one another and with the Obamas.

Then they returned to their duties, focusing on the midweek memorial set for the University of Arizona sports arena.

Expectations for the president were high. The shooting had set off a national debate about political rhetoric. Political commentators were talking about the presidential moments of Ronald Reagan after the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion and George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Would Obama be up to this moment?

The speechwriting started Monday. Obama summoned Cody Keenan, whose many written remarks for the president include his eulogy for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Keenan listened and wrote as the president dictated what he wanted to say.

Then there was research to do, such as tracking down "Faces of Hope," a book picturing 50 babies born on Sept. 11, 2001. One was Christina-Taylor Green, the third-grader who was killed when she went to the grocery store to meet Giffords.

In the book next to Christina's picture are aspirations for the children of Sept. 11. "I hope you know all the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart," it reads. "I hope you jump in rain puddles."

At the time of her death, Christina, 9, was almost the same age as Barack and Michelle Obama's younger daughter, Sasha.

Meanwhile, the president was moving his focus from the Book of Job toward Psalm 46, a familiar funeral text about how God is "our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

The president and Keenan were going back and forth with DuBois, by e-mail and in conversations, in a search for the right verses.

In e-mails with the White House, religious advisors alluded to the psalm. Its familiar closing words speak of a divine fortress "exalted among nations."

But in the end, Obama settled on the lesser-noticed, middle part of the psalm: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God," it says in a passage he quoted at the start of his speech. "God will help her at break of day."

"The middle part is about heaven," said Joel Hunter, a Florida pastor who prepared one of the devotionals the president studied in the aftermath of the shootings. "That is exactly where we needed to go as a people ... to know that God is not only waiting for us but in our midst now."

Finally, the two images of water - the stream and the rain puddles - came together in the dramatic close of the speech.

"If there are rain puddles in heaven," Obama said, "Christina is jumping in them today. And here on this Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit."

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was struck by Obama's unusual show of emotion. As he spoke of Christina, his voice grew choked and hoarse for a moment. Throughout the speech, his face registered grief at some points, resolve at others and, as he announced that Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time, joy.

"He did exactly what the moment called for, in a way that was consistent with him as a cerebral president," Kearns Goodwin said. "It was a completely authentic moment."

There were critics of the memorial, especially of its pep rally quality as the crowd cheered the speakers. But for the most part, Obama did not play into it.

"We've seen the cognitive Obama and the executive Obama and the orator Obama," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical pastor who has conferred in the past with the president and his staff. "For the first time in his presidency, we have seen and felt the heart of Obama. And that was an important moment."

On Friday, the White House was still mourning. Obama spoke at the Holbrooke memorial while at the same hour aides and friends gathered for the funeral of Ashley Turton.

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President Obama Attends Local Church Service

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 3.55.09 PM

Since President Obama's arrival in town two years ago, many local religious leaders have wondered when, or if, the country's first African American first family might choose a new church home. On Sunday, as the Obamas worshiped at the storied Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church a few blocks from the White House, a not-so-subtle appeal came direct from the pulpit.

Looking at Michelle Obama, the Rev. Marie Braxton declared: "It would be something if you joined our church, and I got to be your pastor and you got to be my girlfriend. And Mr. President, we would find something for you to do."

The president and his family were full participants for more than two hours, singing, standing, even enduring church announcements and the passing of the collection plates. But it seemed the family remained noncommittal Sunday on the question of joining.

"The First Family has been delighted to visit many Washington area congregations, and will continue to worship with churches around the city," a White House spokesman, Kevin Lewis, wrote in an e-mail Sunday when asked about the status of the family's church search.

"We will be sure to confirm when they have made a decision on a church home," Lewis added.

The Obamas' appearance at Metropolitan helped mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. It was the president's fourth visit over the past two years to a historically black congregation in the District.

A year ago, on the eve of the King holiday, Obama delivered remarks at the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church, where King preached in the early days of the civil rights movement. Obama reflected on King's legacy and the difficulties facing black Americans.

On Sunday, Obama did not make a speech. Instead, his visit offered a reminder of his complicated relationship with the black church community, a key hub of political and social activism within the president's most loyal base of support.

The question of whether the Obamas might join a new church has been closely watched by District clergy and religious leaders across the country ever since Obama's politically charged break in 2008 from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ amid a controversy over sermons by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Metropolitan AME, founded in 1838, was one of several in the area that had reached out to the White House in the administration's early days in hopes that the country's first black president and his family might become regular members.

The White House said that over the past two years Obama's church attendance included multiple visits to Evergreen Chapel at Camp David and St. John's Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House. He has also visited Allen Chapel AME Church and the 19th Street Baptist Church, both historically black churches.

In addition, the president has prayed in private with aides and a wide assortment of religious leaders, including Joel Hunter, a white evangelical pastor who heads a Florida megachurch.

On Sunday, the Metropolitan congregation clearly tried to make the Obamas feel at home.

At one point, the hundreds of worshipers joined together to sing "Happy birthday'' to the first lady, who turns 47 on Monday.

"I gave the first lady a CD of church hymns for her birthday because in this church we try to make people feel welcomed," said Braxton, whose husband, the Rev. Ronald Braxton, is the church pastor. "The gift came from my heart."

Eugenia Jacobs, a Sunday school teacher at Metropolitan, said she was thinking about the Obama girls during the service. "The White House is so close. It is my hope that he would come bring his kids to Sunday school and be part of our church family."

Ronald Braxton, in an emotional sermon, sought to draw a line between Obama and King. He compared the president's struggles with those that King experienced. Just as King found the divine strength to keep going, Braxton said to Obama, "You will get weak and tired at times, but God has singled you out."

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Faith Leaders Urge Soul Searching

Screen shot 2011-01-13 at 12.33.07 PM In the wake of the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders are weighing in. They are urging a time of reflection and "soul searching" when it comes to political dialogue. It's important to note that the letter doesn't suggest that politics or rhetoric prompted the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, to launch his attack. However, the letter takes advantage of an opportunity to address the issue of civility in public debate.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter's House; the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland Church; and the Rev. Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference are among the 50-plus signatories.

Read the letter below:

Dear Members of Congress,

As Americans and members of the human family, we are grieved by the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. As Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders, we pray together for all those wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she fights for her life. Our hearts break for those lives lost and for the loved ones left behind. We also stand with you, our elected officials, as you continue to serve our nation while coping with the trauma of this senseless attack.

This tragedy has spurred a sorely needed time of soul searching and national public dialogue about violent and vitriolic political rhetoric. We strongly support this reflection, as we are deeply troubled that rancor, threats and incivility have become commonplace in our public debates.

We appreciate the sacrifices you make and risks you incur by accepting a call to public service, and we urge you to continue to serve as stewards of our democracy by engaging ideological adversaries not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.

In our communities and congregations, we pledge to foster an environment conducive to the important and difficult debates so crucial to American democracy. In our churches, mosques and synagogues, we come together not as members of a certain political ideology or party, but as children of God and citizens called to build a more perfect union. We pray that you do the same.

Naeem M. Baig Executive Director Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice

Dr. Carroll A. Baltimore, Sr. President Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

The Rev. Geoffrey Black General Minister and President United Church of Christ

Bishop John R. Bryant Senior Bishop African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Dr. Zahid H. Bukhari President Islamic Circle of North America

Rev. Jennifer Butler Executive Director Faith in Public Life

Simone Campbell, SSS Executive Director NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Bishop Minerva Carcaño Desert Southwest Conference United Methodist Church

The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin President National Council of Churches

Rev. Richard Cizik President New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Nathan J. Diament Director of Public Policy Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Faithful America

Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten Executive Director Arizona Ecumenical Council

Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson General Secretary Reformed Church in America

Simon Greer President and CEO Jewish Funds for Justice

Dr. David P. Gushee Board Chair New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Rabbi Steve Gutow President and CEO Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins Senior Pastor Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, Washington, DC

The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson President Auburn Seminary

The Rev. Anne S. Howard Executive Director The Beatitudes Society

James E. Hug, SJ President Center of Concern

Dr. Joel C. Hunter Senior Pastor Northland - A Church Distributed

Bishop T. D. Jakes The Potter's House

Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon General Secretary National Council of Churches

Chris Korzen Executive Director Catholics United

Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Eileen Campbell, RSM Anne Curtis, RSM Pat McDermott, RSM Mary Waskowiak, RSM Linda Werthman, RSM

Rabbi John A. Linder Temple Solel, Paradise Valley, AZ

Marie Lucey, OSF Associate Director for Social Mission Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Rev. Steven D. Martin Executive Director New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Brian McClaren Author/Activist

T. Michael McNulty, SJ Justice and Peace Director Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Rev. Peter Morales President Unitarian Universalist Association

Bishop Paul Morton International Presiding Bishop Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship

Muslim Public Affairs Council

Stanley J. Noffsinger General Secretary Church of the Brethren

Dr. Walter L. Parrish III General Secretary Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rev. Gradye Parsons Stated Clerk Presbyterian Church (USA)

Nancy Ratzan President National Council of Jewish Women

Rev. Meg Riley Board Chair Faith in Public Life

Dave Robinson Executive Director Pax Christi USA

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez President National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

Rev. Gabriel Salguero President National Latino Evangelical Coalition

Rabbi David Saperstein Director Religious Action Center

Dr. William J. Shaw Immediate Past President National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.

Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr. Immediate Past President Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Arizona

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed National Director, Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances Islamic Society of North America

Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Thurston President National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., Intl.

Rev. Jim Wallis President and CEO Sojourners

Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins General Minister and President Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Rev. Heyward Wiggins, III PICO National Network Camden Bible Tabernacle Church

Jim Winkler General Secretary United Methodist General Board of Church & Society

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