OK, I can understand why religious people would be angry with a president who said:
“I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline or exercises. … I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline or its doctrines; nor of the religious societies that the general government should be invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and prayer are religious exercises, the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the Constitution has deposited it. … (E)very one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the president of the U.S. and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.”
Or this:
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.”
Wow, that’s strong stuff! In a posting today on the Web site of the Carol Stream-based group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern said President Obama is more committed to the radical homosexual agenda than he is to biblical morality.
“For the first time in America’s history, we have a president who has no understanding of the biblical worldview and who has even less understanding of the truths of the Bible. This is evident when he says that support for homosexual ‘marriage’ (unions) can be found in the Sermon on the Mount or that certain passages in Romans are just obscure passages. Whereas George Washington expelled from his military those who practiced sodomy, President Obama honors sodomites by proclaiming an entire month as Gay Pride Month, but he won’t acknowledge one day for our National Day of Prayer.”
That last sentence is quite provocative. It would be even more powerful if it were true.
Obama did not make either of the two quotes I referenced above. The first was made by Thomas Jefferson in refusing to proclaim a National Day of Prayer, and the second was made by John Adams. While it’s true that Obama said the United States is not a Christian nation (he’s right — it’s not), he signed a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer in early May.
What he didn’t do was hold a public event in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer like former President George W. Bush did during his time in the White House. In fact, aside from signing a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer, Obama asked a federal court in Wisconsin to dismiss a case challenging the government’s involvement with the National Day of Prayer.
It doesn’t sound like Obama is as hostile to Christianity as his opponents have claimed. Kern made her comments last week in Chicago during a AFTAH press conference.
What’s peculiar is that her inaccurate statement about Obama’s refusal to proclaim a National Day of Prayer would be repeated by a group using the word “truth” in its name. Apparently those who believe you can have an inerrant word of God that’s riddled with mistakes are the same people who proclaim “truth” while dispensing falsehoods.
Stumble It!
