During a speech on immigration in Nashville on Tuesday, President Obama claimed to quote from the Bible when pronouncing an adage about 'throwing stones in glass houses.'
It would have been an eloquent reference, had it actually been in the Bible.
"I think, you know, the Good Book says 'don't throw stones in glass houses,' or, 'make sure we're looking at the log in our eye before we're pointing out the moat in other folks' eyes," Obama said. "I think that's as true in politics as it is in life."
The 'don't throw stones in glass houses' reference is actually a proverb with no confirmed origin that is famously used in Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th Century work "Troilus and Criseyde."
As for the quote about the 'log in our eye,' the Washington Post pointed out that Obama had the right sentiment, but egregiously botched the quote from Jesus's 'Sermon on the Mount':
"Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye."
The man who New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called an "intellectual" unfortunately did not get his references straight in attempting to make a crucial point justifying his executive action on immigration.