Coated Layer Of Grace

Even among voices that have been extremely even-handed over the past week or so, there has been a lot of disappointment around the ‘sphere regarding the anti-Obama remarks issued yesterday by BET President and Clinton surrogate, Robert Johnson.

What I haven’t heard discussed, however, were the visual trappings surrounding those remarks.

For Obama partisans, the blasphemy was likely heightened by situating Johnson’s public presence that day in a house of worship.  From the Clinton side of the coin, however, the setting interjected a dissonance between the day’s picture and Johnson’s words, as if a visual dose of piety might lend a coated layer of grace to the offending executive and his words.

(click for full sizes)

To the extent this attack also had Hillary’s fingerprints on it — at least, as suggested by the photo WAPO ran of Clinton and Johnson together in church (link) — the day’s other “worship action shots,” starting with the first image above, offer similar warding off.

From the vicarious morality boost provided by Rev. Richard Dozier’s finger; to the grounding effect of being situated between those two angelic girls; to the effect of splitting the space between the Reverend and Mr. Johnson; the only thing that possible breaks the “sanctity show” is that little matter of the Secret Service agent accompanying the choir.

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(image 1& 3: Elise Amendola/AP.  image 2, 4 & 5: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters. All Northminster Presbyterian Church. Columbia, S.C. January 13, 2008. via YahooNews)