How Moses Shaped America (A Time Magazine Article)

This is very interesting read which gives us a little look at how some religious stories, namely Moses helped shape policy and times in the USA.

A tidbit from the article:

"We are in the presence of a lot of Moseses," Barack Obama said on March 4, 2007, three weeks after announcing his candidacy for President. He was speaking in Selma, Ala., surrounded by civil rights pioneers. Obama cast his run for the White House as a fulfillment of the Moses tradition of leading people out of bondage into freedom. "I thank the Moses generation, but we've got to remember that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was ... he didn't cross over the river to see the promised land."

Eight months into his presidency, Obama might want to give Moses a second look. On issues from health care to Afghanistan, the President faces doubts and rebellions, from an entrenched pharaonic establishment on one hand and restless, stiff-necked followers on the other. There's good reason, then, for Obama to heed the leadership lessons of history's greatest leader. Like presidential predecessors from Washington to Reagan, Obama can use the Moses story to help guide Americans in troubled times. From the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers, the Civil War to the civil rights movement, Americans have turned to Moses in periods of crisis because his narrative offers a road map of peril and promise.

It took America's most Bible-quoting President to reunite the country. Called a pharaoh by his opponents, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves after a "vow before God"; he invoked the Exodus at Gettysburg. When he died, Lincoln, like Washington before him, was compared to Moses. "There is no historic figure more noble than that of the Jewish lawgiver," Henry Ward Beecher eulogized. "There is scarcely another event in history more touching than his death." Until now. "Again a great leader of the people has passed through toil, sorrow, battle and war, and come near to the promised land of peace, into which he might not pass over."

Lincoln's assassination initiated an even more long-lasting tribute to Moses, the Statue of Liberty, given to America by the French to honor the slain President. The sculptor, Frédéric Bartholdi, chose the goddess of liberty as his model, but he enhanced her with two icons from Moses: the nimbus of light around her head and the tablet in her arms, both from the moment Moses descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. The message: Freedom comes with law.

Rest of the article can be found here.

It's very interesting to see how much American history, design even politics has been changed or attributed to this particular biblical figure.

What are your thoughts ATS?

Edit to fix ex tags.

~Keeper


[edit on 10/4/2009 by tothetenthpower]

Never use religion and politics in the same article. That just leads to fighting.

reply to post by Maddogkull


I tend to keep a good eye on my threads to make sure that we discuss, not fight over the issues at hand.

This discussion will be no different. However, I would encourage you to write your responses to the actual material, versus just the format it is presented in.

~Keeper

I didnt mean fighting with you. I meant towards the president. They shouldent mix religion with politics. You can post w.e you like, I really dont care lol

[edit on 4-10-2009 by Maddogkull]

reply to post by Maddogkull


Ohh I apologize, I thought you mean the format, as it Moses changed America lol.

Thanks, and I agree, it should not be mixed.

~Keeper

Wow. That was really good. Thanks for posting.

I had never thought about a single religious leader's story as having such an influence on leaders throughout our history. But it certainly seems there are many parallels. And it's not a bad story to emulate, either. I loved the advice for Obama in the end.

Really good article.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Thanks for the reply. I was pretty shocked too. I mean of course I knew that religion played a big part in the founding of the country, however, I didn't know the symbology and message still carried to this day with present political leaders.

~Keeper

Actually, I think the Moses story is probably fashioned after someone else before him. I think I'll see what I can find.

I think the comparison makes a certain amount of sense from a logical point of view. America was a nation that attracted immigrants from all over the world who had dreams of "making it big." The Chinese called it "the big golden mountain" in the 1800s, while Irish immigrants said "the streets are paved with gold over there." For millions over the last 400 years or so, America has been (in imagination at least) a promised land.

Promised land, promised land...now where have I heard that phrase before...ah yes...Moses.

American history has been a succession of wanderings in search of a promised land, much as Moses allegedly wandered with his charges in the desert. Wanderings of immigrants, wanderings westward. The gold rush of 1849, the "Okies" fleeing the dustbowl and going to "Californee" in search of a better life in the 1930s, the covered wagons and so forth...a land of wandering micro-Moseses, all in search of their own personal promised land.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/41a0e02892ab.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 10/4/09 by silent thunder]