President Obama on Thursday praised the Dalai Lama during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, a move likely to strain relations between Washington and Beijing.
Obama hailed the Tibetan religious leader as a “good friend” and a “powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.” He said the Dalai Lama inspired everyone “to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings.”
{mosads}The prayer breakfast was the first public event for Obama and the Dalai Lama, who was seated at a table near the front of the room. The president has met privately with the spiritual leader at the White House on three other occasions.
China has routinely denounced meetings between the leaders, casting the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist leader.
Obama touched on other foreign policy matters as well, warning that religion can be “twisted and misused in the name of evil” and denouncing terrorists who distort religion “for their nihilistic ends.”
“From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith — their faith,” Obama said. “Profess to stand up for Islam, but in fact are betraying it. You see ISIL, a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism, terrorizing religious minorities.”
The president said it was difficult to reconcile those realities with instances where faith was used as an “instrument of great good,” like with doctors who were drawn to fight the Ebola crisis.
The president said members of all faiths were guilty of such distortions, pointing to biblical justifications given for the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery and Jim Crow laws.
“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency, that can pervert and distort our faith,” he said.
But, Obama argued, the solution lies with “not being so full of yourself and confident that you are right and that god speaks only to us and doesn’t speak to others.”
He said humility meant constantly reaffirming the freedoms of others to speak and practice their religions in peace.
“Our nation is stronger when people of all faiths feel they are welcome,” Obama said.