From Iowa, Comey solves Twitter mystery

Former FBI Director James B. Comey ended a monthslong Twitter tease when he confirmed - with a photo posted Monday morning of him in Iowa - that he is the owner of a cryptic account with the name Reinhold Niebuhr.

Since the spring, when Gizmodo journalist Ashley Feinberg sleuthed that the account belonged to Comey, thousands of people have retweeted and tried to analyze the account's nature photos and phrases.

But photos over the weekend from Iowa triggered panting speculation that Comey is running for president.

Despite the speculation, the Des Moines Register said it has confirmed that Comey was in Des Moines for something far less political - the 90th birthday party held at a steakhouse for his wife's father.

On Monday, Comey tweeted a photo of himself on the account. 'Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways,” wrote 'Reinhold Niebuhr.”

So that's one mystery solved. But who is Niebuhr, and why did Comey name the account after him?

After the Gizmodo reporting, Post reporters found that Comey's undergraduate thesis at the College of William & Mary was about Niebuhr, a theologian who died in 1971.

Jack Jenkins wrote in Think Progress that while most Americans wouldn't know Niebuhr's name today, 'he was once unavoidable: beginning in the 1930s and extending into the 1960s, Niebuhr's various treatises on the intersection of Christianity and public life were at the center of innumerable public debates, and his voice was a constant in conversations about the moral dimensions of war, use of nuclear weapons, and civil rights.”

Among those who have quoted and called Niebuhr their favorite theologian are thinkers and politicians from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to David Brooks and John McCain, Jenkins wrote.

Niebuhr warned that people should never assume they could eliminate evil. Rather, they should be on guard lest their moral ambitions lead to a 'self-deluded and destructive pride.”

Comey's thesis compares Niebuhr with Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell. Comey's study was an effort to understand how each man would answer: 'Why should the Christian be involved in politics?”

Sunday, Comey tweeted from Iowa a photo of birds, writing he was 'thinking about Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer.” The prayer is one of the most famous meditations, adopted by clergy as well as many 12-step programs.

'God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference,” it says.