I read this yesterday and yawned. It’s right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook: “Tell them what they want to hear.”
Obama always did play us for stupid. Now that he’s in a free fall downward spiral, where even his own party doens’t want to be associated with him, it’s time for a “remake”, starting with that “Grace” stuff to neutralize all of the recent “collective salavation” rants.
Funny how that abortion question “just happend” to be asked, especially right after he illegally funded Kenya for pro abortion with American tax dollars, just refunded embryonic stem cell research, and undid the Mexico City policy as soon as he hit the oval office, all in addition to recently leaving the “Creator” out of the Declaration of Independence.
Remember, this is the guy who couldn’t speak in front of a crucifix, mocked the bible, specifically the Sermom on the Mount, and didn’t attend church on either Christmas or Easter, not had the time to attend National Prayer Day.
As Emmerson said, “You actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying.”
All said, I continue to pray for him, and suspect he has been so damaged in his upbringing and by the mentors of his youth, that he honestly believes that the Alinsky/Rev. Wright Way IS the way, and calls it “Christianity.”

I think that our President has no clue of what religion really is. For example if his mentor was rev. Wright that man is full of hate and it spicifically states in the Bible that every man is created equal and love thy neighbor as yourself. Now I know other so called Religious Organazations has a problem with this concept,but Rev.Wright went on national Television and showed his hate to the whole world and that goes against everything my Bible teaches me.Therefor I believe that the President needs to read the Bible in its entirity and he will see for his self that these hate mongers like WRIGHT ARE PICKING AND CHOOSING VERSES AND USING THEM OUT OF CONTEXT. Love is the main theme of the King James version Bible if one lays down his life for his neighbor he will recieve the highest award in heaven and putting on a bomb and killing people that dont believe the way you do is plain murder and a murder will burn in hell for eturnity no where in my Bible have I read that if one kills for jihad that they will get a number of virgins and a kingdom in Heaven OBAMA’s Father was for socialism and was a Muslem In my opinion so is OBAMA just look at some of the radicals he has appointed in office since he has been there do not for one second think that our President willfire one shot at anyone in the middle east except but Isreal he wants one world Government thats why he is expanding the Government so they have a say so in all aspects of our lives like we are to stupid to make our own decisions,people face it this country was founded on principles out of the Bible and was the greatest country there waS UNTIL WE LET THE GOVERNMENT TELL US WE HAD TO TAKE PRAYER OUT OF SCHOOLS AND FAGOTS HAD MORE RIGHTS THAN THE PILLORS OF SOCIETY THAT MADE THIS THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD NOW LOOK AT IT cfHINA OWNS TWO OF OUR LARGEST bANKS ARE WE SO STUPID THAT WE CANT SEE COMMUNISN IN OUR NEAR FUTURE. sTOP LETTING THESE PEOPLE DEVIDE AND CONQURE US iTS TIME TO DO WHAT gLEN bECK DID AND BRING THE MASSESS OF CHRISTIAns to Washington to our Capital and demand our country back from tyhe crooks that has raped our economyu and Bankrupt our nation. GOD BLESS PRAY FOR OUR GOD GIVEN WRIGHT OF FREEDOM AND GOOD WILL TO MEN

Although I have not ventured into this discussion previously, I have decided to do so because of a number of recent actions by him.
Point One:
I do believe he is a Christian but he is the type of Christian that leaves his faith at the church door at the end of service. Once outside the door, the only god is that of government. Faith takes a back seat to the all knowing, all powerful government.
Point Two:
I believe he is a Christian because he is really an opportunist. Why did he join Rev. Wright’s church? Because he knew that Wright had connections, Wright could open doors for him, etc., as he moved up the political ladder in Chicago. Why did he drop his membership in Rev. Wright’s church? Because it became a liability for him.
If most people in this country were Jewish, he would be a Jew. If most were Muslim, he would be Muslim.

I think the three preceeding comments are very sad. I am glad the President finds his Christian faith to be a source of strength and inner peace.

Katherine, I agree.
Ray Daniel, I think maybe you should stop worrying about taking prayer out of the schools because you can’t even spell or use punctuation correctly. That is perhaps where schools are failing our children not prayer.
I do not personally care for Rev. Wright but perhaps you should take what he said and put it into context with the rest of what he was saying in that particular clip we saw over & over. FYI – I think you would be surprised at how many people preach exactly like Rev. Wright. Yes, it is different from Catholicism.
And my word if Glenn Beck is the savior and beacon of light for our country then I think I should move right now. But I suppose you think Palin, Hannity, Rush, Coulter, Bachmann are saviors too? Step out of your bubble and research these people. If you think god is proud of them and what they stand for (making money for themselves for one) then you are right god does need to help you. But then again he is a “true” American the rest of us should just go live in another country.
And Klaire,
The reason people are not happy with him on the left is because he is too center left with some center right thrown in.
I feel very sorry that millions of people are getting AIDS because the pope/catholics cannot see that condoms could help them from dying. You cannot expect people who do not share your views or standards on birth control & sex to not have sex. It is cutting your nose to spite your face. Yes, we don’t believe in bc so we are not going to provide condoms so you will just have to get AIDS and die. It makes absolutely no sense.

justanatheist: “…millions of people are getting AIDS because the pope/catholics cannot see that condoms could help them from dying”
This often repeated claim is preposterous. At some point, someone making it should provide evidence that there are effective restrictions on condom availability due to Catholic policies and a connection to HIV epidemiology. Given this assumption, it would seem strange that the African nations with the highest percentage of Catholics have the lowest rates of HIV infection. Or maybe the policies of groups that think that throwing condoms at people is a solution have resulted in “millions of people … getting AIDS”.

Tell me it wouldn’t make a difference?

Justa if you actually did any research instead of just spewing, you would learn that even a Harvard ATHIEST professor agrees with Pope Benedict that condoms DO NOT prevent infection of the HIV virus.
Here’s one of many articles on it, but I doubt you will read it, as you don’t appear to be very interested in facts.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5987155.ece
Katherine: Under normal circumstances I would never question anyone’s belief. But when a president of the United States (sorry to say but it’s true), has a history of his words not matching his actions, it becomes a public problem, especially when he is distorting Christianity in an “already hanging by a thread Christian nation.”
If you can’t see why his actions are a mockery to Christianity, than I suspect you are his target audience, as his rhetoric is powerful. He fooled half the country once, and now he’s giving it another go with his last ditch effort to prove to us that he’s a Christian.
When he actually repeals some of his anti-Christian acts, starting with abortion, and ESR funding, I will be more than happy to embarce his “Christianity.”

justanatheist,
The Pope received a lot of flack for saying that condoms are not a solution to the AIDS problem. The only problem with all this criticism is that the data agrees with him. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Center at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies said as much. Due to condoms’ inherent failure rate (not large but existent), the difficulties in getting them used consistently and correctly in large populations, and the very real problem of “risk compensation”*. The result is that the African cultures that have pursued a condom-based policy have also seen the highest infection rates and even *increases* in the infection rates after these policies were instituted while the countries that have moved to an abstinence/monogamy-based policy have seen their infection rates decrease.
So, throwing condoms at the problem actually isn’t a solution. In fact, it makes the problem worse.
*People have a set level of risk they are willing to tolerate. If you make an activity seem less risky, most people will naturally allow greater risk in other ways. Condoms are actually one of the classical examples of this phenomenon. The perceived reduction in risk that the condom provides leads to a significant tendency to compensate through engaging in more and riskier sexual encounters. With a condom-based policy this is especially problematic because the risk reduction is not as great as is typically hyped and even then relies on a consistency and correctness of use that rarely occurs in the real world.

You guys are right. I am an idiot and don’t want to read anything. Have fun. I don’t belong here anyway.

justanatheist,
The pique of your dismissive response kind of undercuts your claim that you came to your atheism through rational struggle. People offered you a legitimate critique to your assertion based on evidence and reason. Your response of “I don’t want to play anymore” to this challenge suggests that you may have taken the same approach to religion.
Your comments so far have been pretty respectful and thoughtful, it would be a shame to invalidate them with this exist.

wineinthewater, I do NOT belong here. Yes, I left a childish comment but when Klaire makes comments that she will pray for the president but doubts it will do any good it drives me nuts. It drove me nuts when I was a christian and it drives me nuts now. Why bother praying for him? It makes no sense. If you believe in God then he is in control and why vote for someone when you clearly don’t even like the person or want to because he doesn’t agree with everything she wants him to? She also said, “Here’s one of many articles on it, but I doubt you will read it, as you don’t appear to be very interested in facts.” Wow, because I disagreed with her. It is condescending. Point me out to the information but don’t tell me I probably won’t look at it anyway.
I know a lot about Africa & AIDS and what is going on there. I am very active within the gay community because I am the mother of a “fagot”(sic) as Ray Daniel calls them.
I KNOW condoms are not full proof. I disagree that throwing condoms at these people will make them more sexually promiscuous. They ARE promiscuous like you can’t believe. It is their culture and it can be changed in time (it will take a lot of time though). So my honest opinion – if only one condom saves only one person from AIDS and spreading AIDS then to me it was worth it.
I apologize for my comment and you have no idea why or how I made my decision to leave christianity but I assure it was not made lightly. It was very painful.

“If you believe in God then he is in control and why vote for someone when you clearly don’t even like the person or want to because he doesn’t agree with everything she wants him to?”
Oops, I meant pray for him. Of course you wouldn’t vote for him if you didn’t like him.

Justa you are making this far more difficult for yourself than need be. Maybe you should slow down when you read. Here’s what I wrote:
All said, I continue to pray for him, and suspect he has been so damaged in his upbringing and by the mentors of his youth, that he honestly believes that the Alinsky/Rev. Wright Way IS the way, and calls it “Christianity.”
How did you get THIS out of that?
but when Klaire makes comments that she will pray for the president but doubts it will do any good it drives me nuts
If anything I have compassion for his confusion, and thank God I didn’t grow up with the mentors and lifestyle that he did. You also fail to understand that it’s the job of all Catholics to pray for conversions and salvations, and let God do the rest.
That said, I was actually pretty impressed with your humility to stick around when you were proven incorrect (most people would have just left the board at that point). I’m also very saddened to hear that you have an gay son. That can’t be easy for a lot of reasons, and all the more reason you need the love of God to help you. Today is the feast of the Archangles, Michael, Gabrial, and Rapheal. Just in case your are curious, they guide is in healing, strength, and protection, not a bad trio to have praying for us!
Of course, I’m not forcing anything on you, just can’t help to think that you came here maybe to find a bit of hope, or even a friend with some kind words. IMO, it would be nice if you stick around, providing you realize that if one is going to make accusations, especially against the Pope on a Catholic Blog, it would be good to have the facts straight. I think most bloggers here welcome disagreement, providing it’s respectful.
Back to Obama, I don’t only pray for him because it’s my “job” as a Catholic, I actually care about him, despite the fact that I will fight tooth and nail against most of his policies.
While I won’t apologize for my opinion on Obama, I do apologize if I have hurt you in any way. I’ve been on blogs long enough to know the anti-Catholic sword throwers, who keep throwing out the fire until someone yells stop. Ninety nine times out of 100, none of them read the evidence. Anyway, I’m sorry that I jumped to that erroneous conclusion about you, as your humility really impressed me.
I hope you stick around!

Klaire, the thing about blogs is that you can’t tell how people are saying things. If I were talking to you in real life I would be able to read your facial expressions, etc.
As I said what you said makes me crazy however please understand that there are so many people in my past life that would make comments like that all the time in a bad way. I will tell you that if you don’t like someone it always helped me when I really prayed for that person because it is hard to hate or be mad at someone you are honestly praying for. Not saying it is easy;)
At any rate, being the mother of a gay child is not an easy thing but don’t feel sorry for me! Even though I was always a person that tried to put myself in someone else’s shoes and tried not to judge people you have NO idea how much it made me grow as a person. I think I am a far better person for it. Until you really walk in their shoes you can never understand what they are going through.
At any rate, I really am leaving this time. I just came to let you all know that atheists aren’t horrible people and not all of us are in your face like the “new” atheists that a lot of people associate us with. We don’t care what you believe and to be quit honest I am glad that you are all happy in your walk. I have peace now after this long walk so all is good.

justanatheist,
I’ll let Klaire speak for herself.
The reality of the AIDS epidemic is that all the data that we do have indicates that risk compensation does exist and that condoms are a prime example of risk compensation in action. You can disagree if you like, you can certainly criticize the research as not being solid enough for your taste. But the reality is that every indication that we have is that condom-based policies do not work and actually seem to be exacerbating the problem while other policies have shown strong evidence of at least limited success. Since it is human life at issue, it seems the most reasonable thing to do is move forward with the best information we have available. Africa is awash in condoms, so perhaps it is time to try something else and stop criticizing those who express an opinion that is supported by actual research even if it contradicts common notions.

The man’s faith (or lack of it) is his business, and he shouldn’t have to “prove” continuously that he isn’t Muslim, but Christian. If he was a Muslim—-so what? I don’t think he is, as I really think he is the kind of man who would admit it.
awashingtondccatholic: Sad commentary. If you are old enough to remember JFK, first Catholic president, do you think he would have become non-Catholic for political reasons? Politicians may do a lot, but changing religions for political reasons so far as I know isn’t one of them.

pagansister:
Yes…I do remember JFK. And no, I would not believe he would. Why? Because (1) he wasn’t an opportunist like BHO and (2) if he did, the country would have look more unfavorably on him changing than staying Catholic at that time in history. Besides, changing religions today wouldn’t phase most people. And I would not underestimate BHO — again, he threw Wright and Pfleger under the bus because it was becoming a liablity. I don’t underestimate him.
Oh, please, stop with the “sad commentary” non-sense. You and Katherine (I miss u commenting over at my site) wouldn’t say such things if deep down, it did not hit a nerve.

Opportunist? Non-Christian? You’re describing yourselves quite well. You’re certainly not describing the president, who is a fundamentally decent man, and someone far more trustworthy than anyone here. I see mostly hatred here, much self satisfaction, and no love at all. I find most of you quite sad.

Katherine (I miss u commenting over at my site) wouldn’t say such things if deep down, it did not hit a nerve
It does hit a nerve. It works counter to my great desire to see Christ brought to the world. It is more difficult to evangelize the lost when they are exposed to such hateful comments said by people claiming to be faith-filled Catholics.
Those who do not know the faith are at a disadvantage to discern between the Church’s true teachings and the private, uncharitable and unChristian statements of individuals.

It works counter to my great desire to see Christ brought to the world
Katherine did you forget that Christ comes to the world through the cross? Appeasing “inconvenient” pregnancies by making a core of his presidency WORLD funding for abortions and subjecting more embryos to research is never going to bring Christ, only great darkness.
You and Mike seem to have confused “hatred” with Truth, but the reality is, real love, and certainly the love of Christ, can ONLY exist in Truth. If there is anything to be “sad” about, it’s a president with an abortion agenda, not counting of course, the millions of abortions that take place each day in this world, more and more with American tax monies.

There is not religious requirement for the office of President. I am ashamed of my fellow Catholics who have chosen to pass judgement on someone’s Christianity. I have said it before, there are an awful lot of people out there who will be surprised to find out that they’re one of the Pharisees.
“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ ”
Matthew 23: 1-7

There is not religious requirement for the office of President. I am ashamed of my fellow Catholics who have chosen to pass judgement on someone’s Christianity END QUOTE
As Catholics/Christians Mhari we are required to judge actions, and even more so in public and influential figures. The current actions of our president mock Christianity.
What irony in you quote. Substitue “Obama” for “they” and the point is made. Maybe it’s the lack of the defense of Christ, and the unborn, you best be ashamed of, in your failure to see reason for their defense, all while our president continues to preach “collective salvation” to the youth.

Andrew Sullivan said this today: To govern as a Christian is to engage in a tragic compromise. It is to do what we are enjoined as Christians not to do: to order killing, to make decisions that do not turn the other cheek, to fight – not love – the enemy. And that is why, as Obama’s brilliantly Niebuhrian Nobel Speech revealed, the man we now have in the White House has a far deeper understanding of Christianity in this fallen world than anyone on the Christianist right or Christianist left.
And yet they dare call him an infidel.
President Obama is a good man and a believing Christian. Those who denounce him, as Klaire does above, are neither Christian nor good.

Mike, I will say the same about you..you are neither Christian nor good, but you do seem to have put all your faith in a mortal man not who you should be putting it in.