What a difference a word makes

What Barack Obama said:

We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.

What BO should have said:

We are God’s servants in matters of life and death.

It still would have smacked of hubris. It still would have been frightening to anyone who believes the government’s powers of life and death should be carefully circumscribed. But at least it would have recognized the vast gulf between God and presidents.

I am reminded of what someone allegedly said of Salmon P. Chase, who was a Senator, Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary,  and Chief  Justice of the United States, and apparently a man with a healthy regard for his own ability:

Mr. Chase is a capable man, but his theology is unsound. He believes there is a fourth Person in the Godhead.

Obama. In spades.