奥巴马总统访问佛蒙特大道浸礼教会，一个马丁路德金曾拜访过的具有历史意义的圣会。

Adelle M. Banks, 宗教新闻服务

奥巴马总统周日在华盛顿教堂发表演说，信仰如何引导他和努力工作的重要性以作为对已故牧师马丁路德金诞辰的纪念。

 “有时候人们问我为什么看起来这么平静，”奥巴马在佛蒙特大道浸礼教会，一个马丁路德金曾拜访过的具有历史意义的圣会上说道，“在这里我要认罪……有时一切的努力都似乎是徒劳，变革来的那么痛苦而又迟缓，我不得不面对自己的怀疑。但是让我来告诉你，在这样的时候，是信仰使我平静，是信仰使我平安。”

总统在按教会程序通常布道的地方演讲近半个小时，在大约500人聚集的圣会家庭生活中心发表演说，那是由1866年获得自由的奴隶建立的。有时他说话像个牧师，他以“早上好，感谢上帝”开始了演讲；以“靠神凡事都能”作结语。

他谈到要把持一种“用祷告的声音和海地社会赞美的歌声打破地震后沉寂的信仰”时，会众鼓掌表示赞同。

马丁路德金在1956年拜访了该教堂，奥巴马指出：“一个27岁的牧师，就讲到了所谓的新时代的挑战。”

在马丁路德金访问的时候，最高法院就已经裁定了阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市有种族隔离的公交系统，他的反对是违宪的。高级法院还裁定了布朗诉教育委员会反抗学校的种族隔离，但学校和各州都“置之不理且不受责罚，”奥巴马这样回忆道。

“现在已经过去半个多世纪了，再一次面对新时代的挑战，”他说，尽管“时断时续”，但进步已经超越了偏执和偏见。

“就是那进步使我今天站在这里成为可能，因为这个国家里的优秀公民们选举了一位非裔作为美国第四十四任总统。”

他说当美国人民负责任，努力工作时，民权运动以至于整个国家就都已经胜利了。

“在这个国家，没有什么能代替努力工作，”奥巴马说。“没有什么能代替一份干的漂亮的工作，没有什么能代替上帝祝福的恪尽职守的管家。”

奥巴马与第一夫人米歇尔•奥巴马和他的女儿马利亚，萨沙同牧师坐在前面，与会众同声高唱《我们一定会胜利》。他还和牧师开玩笑说三十年后可能会允许他的外甥同牧师的孙女见面。

显然这不是在佛蒙特大道的象征性的服侍，开始前他同牧师Cornelius Wheeler一起提议信徒先不要离席一道献上丰盛的敬拜并照相。

去年，奥巴马拜访了华盛顿的三座教堂：为了他的就职祈祷拜访了华盛顿国家大教堂，在他就职和复活节的时候拜访白宫对面拉斐特广场上的圣约翰圣工教堂，还有就职前拜访了十九街浸礼教堂。去年七月他说会参加“一些不同的教堂”，欣赏带领总统度假地戴维营礼拜的牧师做的“大有能力”的布道。

介绍奥巴马时，Wheeler说他是“骄傲的孔雀且乐不可支”的展示自己，保证现在他的会众为他的就职而骄傲并且支持他。

承认这点也许在政治角度上这么说并非正确，Wheeler补充道：“我不知道为什么他们用了八年的时间把一切搞的一团混乱，你去收拾的时候他们却没有一点点耐心。”

最近已退休的接待员约翰•哈里森说87岁时，他在那付出过特别的努力。

马丁路德金在此发表讲话后哈里森就成为了教会的一员，他说：“我起床来到这，观看这一切是因为这是历史”。

President Obama addressed how his faith guides him and the importance of hard work as he marked the birthday of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at a Washington church on Sunday.

"Folks ask me sometimes why I look so calm," he said at Vermont Avenue Baptist Church, a historic congregation that was visited by King. "I have a confession to make here. ... There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts. But let me tell you during those times, it's faith that keeps me calm. It's faith that gives me peace."

The president spoke for almost half an hour in the usual spot for the sermon on the church's program, addressing about 500 people gathered in the Family Life Center of the congregation founded by freed slaves in 1866. At times he spoke like a preacher, opening his speech with "Good morning. Praise be to God," and concluding with "through God all things are possible."

He spoke of holding the kind of "faith that breaks the silence of an earthquake's wake with the sound of prayer and hymns sung by the Haitian community," as the congregation applauded in agreement.

King visited the church in 1956, Obama noted, "as a 27-year-old preacher to speak on what he called the challenge of a new age."

At the time of King's visit the Supreme Court had ruled that the desegregated bus system in Montgomery, Ala., he opposed was unconstitutional. The high court had also ruled in Brown v. Board of Education against school segregation but schools and states had "ignored it with impunity," Obama recalled.

"Here we are more than half a century later, once again facing the challenges of a new age," he said. Even with "fits and starts," he said there has been progress over bigotry and prejudice.

"It's that progress that made it possible for me to be here today, for the good people of this country to elect an African-American the 44th president of the United States of America."

He said the civil rights movement in particular and the country in general have been successful when all Americans are responsible and work hard.

"In this country, there's no substitute for hard work," Obama said. "No substitute for a job well done, no substitute for being responsible stewards of God's blessings."