As reported by TrekMovie (and elsewhere) Barack Obama is the first Trekkie President, having made several references to Star Trek in the past. And it just so happens that Star Trek worked its way into an event on his inauguration day today, unfortunately it was another Star Wars/Star Trek conflation.
Obama, Jedi or Vulcan?
This morning Bishop T.D. Jakes, a pastor of a Dallas megachurch, was the keynote speaker for the Inauguration Day Prayer Service at the historic St. John’s Church on Lafayette Square, across from the White House. The Obamas were in attendance and after giving a reading from the Bible, Jakes decided to try to ‘get hip.’ In an articled titled “At pre-inaugural church service, Jakes mixes up ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’” The Dallas Morning News reports what happened next:
Jakes then tried to make the point a different way:
"I say to you as my son who is here today, my 14-year-old son – he probably would not quote Scripture. He probably would use Star Trek instead, and so I say, ‘May the force be with you.’ "
Swing and a miss Bishop Jakes. As a Trekkie, and comic collector, Obama surely noticed that as a Star Wars quote. Jakes should have gone with "live long and prosper." The Dallas Morning news asked Jakes if he realized his mistake and said that he heard from his son who who showed him his error. Jakes noted "So much for trying to be young."
The Obamas arrive at church service Tuesday morning
Tahir attends inauguration
There is another Trek connection to today’s inauguration activities. The Associated Press of Pakistan reports that Pakistani actor Faran Tahir (Capt. Robau in the new Star Trek movie), was one of the invited guests of inauguration of President Obama…Surely this can inspire one of those ‘Facts About Captain Robau.’
Slow Trek News day. :)
Hurray, Trekkie President!
HE’S A FAKE!!!!!!!! (nerd that is)
I wonder if Obama will be screening the new Trek movie at the White House…
A great day for our country.
3 – Where’s Vreenak when we need him?
4 – That would be really cool.
Abrams 2009 – Change You Can Beam In!
I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!!! OBAMA! OBAMA!!!
Live Long and Prosper President Obama!
He essentially paraphrased Roddenberry when he spoke about our “patchwork” of multiple races, cultures and backgrounds that makes America strong. Roddenberry said often about diversity being strength.
A great day indeed!!
He likes Spider-Man too,or so I hear.
*Salutes the new CIC*
Welcome sir !
*looks to T.D. Jakes and gives him the traditonal Ork greeting*
Nanoo Nanoo!
first they blunder the oath of office now this im sure this is just a sample of the next four long years =(
Wow.
For a blog that doesn’t want its posters to discuss politics, ANTHONY sure does post enough political topics.
to 12
Who is THEY? The person who blundered the oath was the chief justice of the supreme court.
The Trek gaffe came from the pastor.
your comment makes it sound like Obama made the mistake.
You think the next 4 years will be long? Well they’ll never happen for a lot of my friends Mr. Bush sent to war.
12-
Many here believe that this is a great day- unfortunately the overwhelming sentiment is based more on his skin color and less on the content of his character- which violates Dr. King’s desires. So, until we recognize him as the 44th President and not the first black President, our society will still have misplaced priorities, and we will be doing more to keep racism alive.
TREKKIES, especially, have a long way in embracing *true* diversity. Because I disagree with his policies and beliefs, I have been- and no doubt will continue to be- labeled a racist. IDIC my butt!
4 long years indeed.
#15: Hush up and drink the kool aid like the rest of us. Dissent is no longer patriotic.
to 14: listen to it again. Obama cut in on the Chief Justice before he was finished speaking when he said his name. They both screwed up after that when Obama forgot what the next part was and the justice had to remind him but then flubbed it.
Not to sound rude here but I could care less who showed up for the inauguration, much less celebrities. If a Democrat is becoming a president, then it’s pretty much a given that a lot of people from Hollywood will be there considering how many of them stump for Democrat politicians.
15
Star Trek fans have not been interested in the concept of IDIC since the 70’s.
What we have now are mostly tech fans and canonistas.
I love Trek and i could care less how many decks a ship has. I care about the hope in engenders, just like my President does.
He’s #44 – don’t care about the flavor, just that he believes in much of what I do.
No one called you a racist. And our society ain’t the Federation. But i think we can all understand the significance of the day, beyond the transfer of power.
18-
Funny stuff. While I am laughing, I’ll also preparing to be assimilated.
I knew Anthony would get something on here about the Obama inauguration today.
@15
Shoot, I like the guy because he’s articulate, measured, dignified, and smart. Everything I thought was lacking in Bush, precisely at the time this country needed those qualities. The fact that he’s actually trying to include some Republicans in his administration is a bonus. Last, but not least, is that I am extremely proud of my country for electing him- not just because of his skin color, because that shows that a lot of racism has been subdued, but also because it’s the first smart man to be elected in my lifetime- which shows that the country is looking at his character and not merely at his appearance. When this election started out, McCain was the safe sane bet, then he started making wild, erratic choices which indicated how he would’ve governed, whereas Obama showed how measured, calm and collected he was- and America finally picked the right guy.
Its funny how so many of the McCain people still cling to the paranoi of the campaign. But hey, I guess almost 2 million people packed into the Washington mall just because he was black, I doubt any of them cared about his messages of bringing America together and out of this hole we’ve dug our selves into…yeah, because you know, every single person there was black.
People have gotten pretty good at masking racism behind other words, I learned that much working on the campaign. I hope over the next 4 years at least some of these people learn to really judge a person by what he does rather than his skin or name.
If McCain were elected, we be almost as screwed as we are under Obama. I’m no fan of Bush, but to say that he is un-intelligent is just plain… incorrect. So he did things you disapprove of- that doesn’t make him stupid. Clinton is intelligent, and as far as I’m concerned, no better than Bush.
But don’t think that Obama was elected solely because of his ideas; Obama himself made race an issue several times in the campaign, and even used the race card against Bill Clinton- which I think is funny. Yet all anyone has ever been able to say- and continue to say- is “black president” instead of merely “president”. Even good racism is still racism.
This is neither what Roddenberry nor King wanted.
I too think Obama is likable; I wish him the best and hope we all don’t get screwed in the end. But so far, IMHO, he’s falling way short of any media created hype over him. I can already count 3 things I don’t like:
1) talking about facing the financial crisis- and then holding the most expensive innaguration in history.
2) Preeching “change”- and then surrounding himself with old, prior, cabinet members right out of Clinton’s cabinet
3) Wanting to close Guantanimo- right on the heels of a Pentagon report that stated that many released detainees have returned to terrorism.
As stated before- a long 4 years indeed.
wtf is “megachurch”
lock the thread, quick.
Intelligent, articulate and inspiring people have gained power before. Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin… and while I don’t group Obama in with these totalitarian regimes, I do believe we have to go beyond the speeches and see the quality of a leader’s character and what issues they really stand up for. All I have seen out of Obama thus far is the lofty words and showboating, we’ll have to see about his character. I didn’t vote for him, but I wish him all the best for the sake of the United States.
Nice to know Star Trek got a mention (even if it was by mistake).
I just think it’s pretty cool that The President Of The United States of America is a Trekkie! :)
@23
I have no doubt that Clinton and Bush were intelligent- but smart is something else entirely. By smart I mean that the person shows he won’t simply abandon reason for his personal emotion. It shows a flexibility in decision making based on his ability to weigh the different choices and their outcomes. I don’t believe Bush had that ability- he adhered to singleminded decisions based on emotionalism-which is why he wanted to war with Iraq IMO. Similarly I feel Clinton, while intelligent, was too quick to abandon reason for whatever emotion came his way- such as Monica.
OTOH, Obama has had many chances to forgoe calm and discipline, the Clinton and McCain surrogates tried many things to bait him into emotional mudfights, but he mostly held firm to his calmness, and so in my book he’s the smart one.
I don’t care about the color of his skin, the color of his hair, his eyes, or his underwear. He seems very intelligent and he seems to have real idealism. I thought about IDIC during the patchwork reference too. Let us hope that our constitutional freedoms are now restored in full, and excessive line item vetos are a thing of the past.
redbellpeppers final warning for trolling
this was a silly thing about Trek and star wars…it was not political and this is the last time you will try and derail a thing into a fight