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| WND : Obama: America is 'no longer Christian' | ||
| 2008-06-23 | ||
The comments have been recently recirculating on Internet blogs. 'Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers,' Obama said during a June 2007 speech available on YouTube. At the speech, Obama also seemingly blasted the 'Christian Right' for hijacking religion and using it to divide the nation: 'Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us,' he said.
'We should acknowledge this and realize that when we're formulating policies from the state house to the Senate floor to the White House, we've got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community,' wrote Obama. Obama did clarify his statement about the 'Christian Right.' 'My intention was to contrast the heated partisan rhetoric of a distinct minority of Christian leaders with the vast majority of Evangelical Christians – conservatives included – who believe that hate has no place in our politics. 'When you have pastors and television pundits who appear to explicitly coordinate with one political party; when you're implying that your fellow Americans are traitors, terrorist sympathizers or akin to the devil himself; then I think you're attempting to hijack the faith of those who follow you for your own personal or political ends,' wrote Obama. The Illinois senator's speech declaring the U.S. 'no longer Christian' was met with little fanfare. But it has been getting some recent play. A television commercial that aired in South Dakota by a group calling itself the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric juxtaposes the audio of Obama's 'no longer Christian' statement over images of the presidential candidate dressed in Somali garb and a picture of Obama with his hands rested below his waist while other politicians place their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance. 'It's time for people to take a stand against Barack Hussein Obama,' declares the voiceover on the commercial. Obama's campaign has long utilized faith as a central theme. The candidate's Christianity and his former membership in the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ have been much scrutinized. His comment about the 'Christian Right' echoed similar statements made by Merrill A. McPeak, Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman. As WND reported, in a 2003 interview with The Oregonian newspaper, McPeak seemed to compare evangelical Christians to the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The Oregonian interviewer asked McPeak whether 'there's an element within Hamas, Hezbollah, that doesn't want Israel to exist at all and always will be there?' McPeak responded by comparing the two terror groups to 'radical' Oregonians. 'There's an element in Oregon, you know, that's always going to be radical in some pernicious way, and likely to clothe it in religious garments, so it makes it harder to attack. So there's craziness all over the place.' Oregon has a large evangelical Christian community. | ||
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #8 Compare wid REDDIT [Title paraph] > JESUS IN CHINA: CHRISTIANITY's GROWTH IN CHINA IS INDUCING MAJOR CHANGES TO TRADITIONAL CHINESE VIEWS OF GOVT, CULTURE, ECONOMICS, and SOCIETY AT LARGE??? FREEREPUBLIC Poster > RUSSIA downsizes while America MILITARIZES...WORLD goes Free Market Capitalist while America turns SOCIALIST. Dare we add CHINA goes CHRISTIAN while America goes SECULARIST-ATHEIST??? YET MORE EVIDENCIA/INDICIA THAT AMERICA = NEW WORLD IS PREVAILING/WINNING GWOT > KNOWN AS "MACKINDER'S WAR", for the OWG-NWO "WORLD ISLAND"! ION REDDIT > ON TRACK: RUSSIA [in LT]]WANTS TO BUILD A RAILROAD TO JAPAN [via SAKHALIN ISLAND = RUSSo-NIPPON JOINT SAKHALIN ECON DEV]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-23 20:56 |
| #7 Dang it, I was going to try to hold my price down on the M1A I was looking for on gunbroker.com. I read this story and thought that maybe I'd just better go ahead and pay the extra; I may truly need that gun sooner than I hoped. |
| Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 2008-06-23 18:53 |
| #6 We never were a Christian nation as the rest of the world understands national religions. What we always have been is a mostly God-fearing people, most of whom (currently somewhere in the 70-85% range, depending who is counting) consider themselves Christian of some sort. And most of us don't really care what other people believe -- or don't believe -- so long as everyone remains polite of word and deed... which is where the jihadis get in trouble. Poor Candidate Obama doesn't realize that the Jews probably arrived with Columbus (we won't go into the discussions of whether Columbus himself was secretly Jewish himself), and most definitely arrived with the Dutch. George Washington himself wrote approvingly to one of the early Jewish congregations about their good citizenship. As for non-Abrahamic religions, there were significant numbers of Chinamen here around the time of the Civil War, and the Native Americans of course never left. Mr. Obama is trying to triangulate with this statement, but only shows his lack of understanding, especially of the church he was a member of for most of his political life. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-23 17:03 |
| #5 The problem is, we're NOT a "Christian" nation. Christ has been replaced by every feel-good, "fundamentalist" claptrap that we can think of. The words of Christ are seldom heard in churches, or there'd be fewer problems in this country. The difference between that and what Obamass is spewing is that HE thinks we need to cut out all the laws, rules, and limits that MIGHT be based on Christian thought, so we could replace them with his schlock. The man has a great mind, but it's empty of anything of substance. What a waste of oxygen! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-06-23 16:25 |
| #4 The only people offended by this will be typical white people clinging to their bibles and guns. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-23 15:55 |
| #3 The McPeak remark about evangelicals is disgusting. That said, Im not sure Im getting the uproar over Obama's statement. We ARE a nation of many different faiths (even if we are still a people the majority of whom are Christian if, that is, you include a bunch of folks that some fundamentalists dont think are 'christians') |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-06-23 15:30 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-06-23 12:57 |
| #1 This is going to play reeeeealy well in "red state" areas - and with Moderates. How long until Obamadhi™ (he's moved up from Obamessiah™) throw McPeak under the bus? Once he does so, I want to be driving that bus so I can back it up and rock it back and forth to make sure the bus completely run over McPeak. He is the guy that ruined the USAF and his screwups are even today being felt. First those jackasses in Chicago, now McPeak... Know Obama from the company he keeps. Will America ever wake up? |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-06-23 12:51 |