‘Cause devout Christians who pray every day do these kind of things.
On September 15, 2010, Obama’s addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In his Obama quoted from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Except is wasn’t an exact quote.
“So let me close by saying this. Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples. To British and French, to Dutch and Spanish, to Mexican — (applause) — to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land. We didn’t always get along. But over the centuries, what eventually bound us together — what made us all Americans — was not a matter of blood, it wasn’t a matter of birth. It was faith and fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Endowed with certain inalienable rights….endowed by whom Mr. President?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Oh yeah, Him.
Of course, Mr. Thin-Skinned will complain that Rush Limbaugh is somehow responsible for Americans questioning his religious sensibilities.
You can redact the Creator all you want Mr. President, the rest of us still know from whence come these inalienable rights.
September 18, 2010 at 6:53 pm
1-20-2013. 855 days.
September 18, 2010 at 7:15 pm
On the First Things Blog, I think it was Robert George who recently talked about the changing of The Gettysburg Address to remove the mention of God. This is done by a liberal group on purpose. You should check that out.
September 18, 2010 at 8:07 pm
This is the same President who speaks of "freedom of worship" rather than "freedom of religion". I admit to not thinking much of that, after all it's true that one swallow does not a summer make. So when a fair number of folk started fussing over it I just shrugged.
But something like this kinda sends a message. Did the teleprompter hiccup? Too much time spent planning the next family vacation? All that arugula causing heartburn? Did Bush cause it?
You'd think a Constitutional lawyer would be at least vaguely familiar with a related document so that an unintentional gaffe wouldn't be made.
September 18, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Before you mention the splinter in the eyes of the President, understand that corporately the CATHOLIC CHURCH does its own "slight of God" through the newspeak/double talk that a civil divorce
only effects the"merely civil" aspects of marriage, as if to reduce the ends of marriage to merely civil matters.
Open your eyes, Patrick, the Catholic Church, through the irresponsibility of the Popes is worse. their job is the Gospel!
September 18, 2010 at 10:54 pm
"Endowed by whom????????????"
You took the words right outta my mouth.
Wish I could put this question up on a flashing billboard in Times Square or someplace. So tired of this ****
September 18, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Dear Anon #2,
Perhaps, just perhaps, you might consider opening your own eyes. Perhaps go to http://www.vatican.va & print off all the talks by the Pope to the UK this week AND read them without the bias/prejudice/blindness your post displays so evidently.
Either that or, straining at gnats, you'll eventually swallow a camel.
September 18, 2010 at 11:22 pm
G,
I have read them and not a single one of them explain why the Pope hasn't done more to bring those to justice who allowed the abuse to happen. Guess because they are men of God.
Of course I am the one going to hell because I do not believe in God despite helping out those in need. Guess if I became a Christian I could stop helping others, start raping kids and still get into heaven.
September 19, 2010 at 12:52 am
Do not feed the trolls.
September 19, 2010 at 1:01 am
Anon at 6:22, If you are not Christian, and are an atheist then why are you bothering to read this blog? Actually, Pope Benedict has done more any anyone else to rid the Church of it's "filth." That just is not widely covered by the secular press.
I find it interesting that those who wish to condemn/dismiss the Church conveniently use the minor abuse to justify it. The abusers did terrible things and the bishops handled it poorly, mostly because, just as most organizations at the time, they did not know what to do. But society itself has a deep problem with abuse of minors.
We don't broadly condemn all teachers – who have perhaps a 4% abuse rate (and many are married.) Priests have approximately a 2% rate. Many people, especially the press love to try to destroy the Catholic Church but Orthodox Jews, Protestants of various denominations, Muslim clergy and I dare say – atheists, also have this problem – many at higher rates than Catholics (we don't really know the exact stats because it is not thoroughly studied.) The Catholic Church is the main target even though a priest has less chance of abusing your kids then your married next door neighbor.
If you discovered that atheists had a higher level of abuse then Catholics would you consider switching to the "other side?" We know for sure that even though the Catholic Church is blamed for perhaps a few thousand deaths over centuries, atheist regimes have slaughtered over 100 million people.
Anon, I hope you'll consider becoming Christian because even though you don't acknowledge Him, God does love you personally.
September 19, 2010 at 1:15 am
I'm suprised the text of the "Freedom of [Abortion] Choice Act" was not delivered verbatim in the speech (he co-sponsered it):
(1) The United States was founded on core principles, such as liberty, personal privacy, and equality, which ensure that individuals are free to make their most intimate decisions without governmental interference and discrimination. [emphasis added]
No Nature's God there.
Gerry
September 19, 2010 at 1:16 am
"Freedom of [Abortion] Choice Act" is FOCA for those who know the acronym better.
Gerry
September 19, 2010 at 1:45 am
"Guess if I became a Christian I could stop helping others, start raping kids and still get into heaven. "
To Anonymous: Over 700 sexual abuse cases per year in public(government) schools in the mid-Atlantic state (49 other states not included) where I live (and work for public education). The day the you, the press, and the government do something about THAT statistic is the day I believe you, the press, and the government gives a $h1t about "the kids."
September 19, 2010 at 2:33 am
oh my god. atheists are trolling blog and posting. atheist are the biggest child molesters. atheist are ruining the country. I don't understand why more and more people are becoming atheist these days. TV is convincing them. we to go back to the day when minorities, women and gays knew their place in the world. once minorities staring getting equal rights, then women wanted equal rights, an now gays want equal rights. this blasphemy has to stop!!! people need to read the bible and follow the pope!
September 19, 2010 at 3:35 am
"people need to read the bible and follow the pope!" – Early Riser (9:33 PM)
People need to read the Bible in the Tradition that is guarded by the Pope via the Holy Spirit that was given by Jesus while He still lived.
Early Riser (9:33 PM), perhaps it would help to read the preamble of the MANHATTAN DECLARATION:
PREAMBLE
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.
In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes – from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
Gerry
September 19, 2010 at 2:07 pm
He must have been reading out of the pocket edition of the Constitution. You know, they have to leave out some words in order to fit it into your pocket.
September 19, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Obviously, he is paying attention to some of the the flack since he went to church with his family this morning and they all went up to receive communion. Sadly, it seems like a purely political move, and I am sad for him and for all of us.
September 19, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Anonymous – this is the "real" Early Riser. That other person is some troll who should be spending more time taking care of her new-born infant than behaving like a…well….
Anyway, just wanted to point out (yet again) that I did not write that.
September 19, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Who does he think he is – the endower of rights most probably. FYI, Harvard is overrated and affirmative action does not work specially in the presidency.
September 19, 2010 at 11:55 pm
I have been extremely disappointed that the self-professed leaders of Christ's Church have been turning such a blind eye to the obvious evil lies surrounding September 11, 2001. I had been publicly loosing my faith via an "Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson" because the Christian Leaders seemed to be ignoring the call of Psalm 94:16-20. God works in mysterious ways because look what he sent to my FaceBook Wall the other day! Thank you Marisela, and most importantly, Thank God for speaking through Strong Christians like Marisela who are so well spoken and entrenched in the Word of God!!!
Maybe God will convict you to forward this link to everyone of your contacts?
http://blandyland.com/?p=635
Daniel Edd Bland III
September 20, 2010 at 11:29 am
@ Gerry: Have you EVER read your Bible?
Prior to the civil war and even after every WHITE Christian preacher, behind the KKK, misconstrued quotes in the Bible to CONDONE SLAVERY
Exodus 21: 20-21
"And if a man smite his SERVANT, or his maid, with a ROD, and he DIE under his hand; he shall be surely PUNISHED. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his MONEY."
Exodus 21: 26-27
"And if a MAN smite the EYE of his SERVANT, or the eye of his maid, that it PERISH; he shall let him GO FREE for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake."
Leviticus 25: 44-46
"Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye BUY, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your POSSESSION."
2) The CHURCH justified (and in some cases still do) the OPPRESSION of WOMEN, WHY? Because of the BIBLE!!!
First Corinthians 14: 34-35
"Let your WOMEN keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to SPEAK; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a SHAME for women to SPEAK in the CHURCH."
Ephesians 5: 22-24
"Wives, SUBMIT yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the WIVES be to their own HUSBANDS in EVERY THING."
First Timothy 2: 11-14
"Let the WOMAN LEARN in SILENCE with all SUBJECTION. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was NOT deceived, but the WOMAN being deceived was in the TRANSGRESSION."
The bible can be read and misconstrued many ways. EVERY CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE U.S. HAS BEEN FAUGHT AGAINST THE BIBLE!!!!!
And ANON, I believe in the U.S. you have every right to believe in GOD and the BIBLE. But if you believe that Homosexuality is WRONG because the Bible says so. Then you must also believe SLAVERY is justified and WOMEN should be relegated to a lower status than men. If you do, so be it.
I DON"T!!!
Leviticus, Chapter Twenty-Seven, Verse Three to Seven, for males between the age of twenty to sixty year olds God places a value of fifty sheleks of silver; for a female of like age thirty skeleks; for males between five and twenty years old, twenty sheleks, and females ten skeleks; for males from one month to five years are worth five skeleks of silver and females there skeleks; older than sixty males receive fifteen skeleks and females ten.