Barry, I’m pleased to see that you brought up President Obama’s use of religion during his conference call designed to drum up additional support among religious Americans for his health care plan. I’m glad that you’re concerned, but disappointed that your response is so muted. Where’s the outrage, Barry?
Your comments barely reflect a slap on the wrist. If this had been President Bush, you would have issued a press release, sent out a blast email, drafted a letter of concern to the President, and launched a web-based campaign. I can see the image now – President Bush with a large cross behind him (super-imposed with a montage of Evangelical leaders). And, maybe a graphic title like: President Bush crosses the line – violates separation of church and state!
In comments to rabbis before the conference call, President Obama declared that ‘we are God’s partners in matters of life or death’ and asked the rabbis to preach his political agenda in their sermons on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year — one of the holiest days of the year. News reports indicate the conversation was supposed to be off the record but was captured on the Twitter feeds and blogs of some rabbis who took part in the call.
Barry, the fact is there has been little criticism of this event – in sharp contrast to the reaction that would have occurred if such a message was delivered by a conservative President.
Imagine if President Bush had accused opponents of his plan of ‘bearing false witness’ — the outcry would be deafening – from you and the other ‘separationists’ on the Left. The fact is President Obama’s conference call was a disingenuous use of religion in politics. It also showed desperation – a pandering for support for a plan that an increasing number of Americans oppose
Of course, President Obama should address all Americans – including those who hold religious beliefs. But, President Obama is not the 13th Apostle, as my son Jordan put it, and his conference call was problematic – trying to imply that his health care plan is God-approved – a health care plan that clearly offends many people of faith.
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posted August 21, 2009 at 6:01 pm
How dare this President, demonize Americans,because they don’t agree with this administration, trying to put a stop to free speech, (that is speech that disagrees and exposes what their agenda is…
It is a disgrace how Obama, and his staff are treating the people of this country, calling conservitives that are vocal extreamist and lyers, at least I know that most conservitives are able to back up what say with sinsability, and believe in the constitution of America that has made this country great…And futher more with trying stick thier nose in Churches and Christian Radio, and Conservitive talk, it realy seem’s that were ever their there is truth, they wan’t too blind the from it…
He try’s to tell people that he is not a socialist, but his conduct proves that He is… And what about seperation of Church and State that the left is strong against now trying to tell Christians how they are supost to live? and Pastors how they are doing it wrong? I can not believe for a moment that people believe him…But are they?
This is realy strang how they are getting away with this…
I do believe that theire are some very rich and powerfull people that are trying to shape this country in their own image… Such as George Soro’s, Hennry Kiniger, and many more… Many are bankers… I am sure you know far more about this than I…. This last year first time I have gotten involved in politics, It is scary that so many people seem to have a cloud over there heads where they can’t seem to see what is happing, such as in my bible study, when people talk about socialism or comonism or injustis they talk about everwere but the United states. I have mentioned that their have pastors that have faced trials, and some sentanced to imprisonment, and they didn’t me, said that “they must have something other than just speak the Truth”.
I know this isn’t a clear picture of every church, but I am going to the Methedist mainly because that is whear my wife wan’ts to go…..
Keep up the fight, we are in need of people like you, I hope that our country can be one back agian. I know it isn’t all lost I can still talk freely, about the bible and politics (to most) however I know that our freedom as we know it is on the line…..
I think more investigations need to be made about planned parent hood, there is website that is http://www.positive.org apparantly planned parent hood indorses that is alarming, that gives counsling to teens about sexuality, saying it is ok to be gay, among many other things.
What about the rampit pornogerphy on the enternet that is so easily accessed? (Just a huge concern.)
Well once again I appreiate what you are doing us…..
posted August 21, 2009 at 6:12 pm
expose positive.org It is sick, and it is stilling the inosence of our kids….
posted August 21, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I’ll tell you what’s sick, the lack of education on display here.
posted August 21, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Brain, did you misspell “Brian”?
posted August 21, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Heres my take on the issue..Barry can borrow it if more outrage is warrented
http://community.beliefnet.com/lulu2/blog/2009/08/18/the__problem_with_government_is_politics
posted August 21, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Brian,
If the shoe fits…
It is the conservatives who have offered nothing, as far as health care, to the American people. All they and the different conservative news and religious organizations are doing is complaining, putting forth lies to confuse the matter and create issues. Those who follow every little word of said groups have and generally don’t look up the information themselves as “so-n-so” is telling the “gospel” truth…in a pig’s eye!
One can not blame Bush alone for our circumstances as he, as much as he wanted to, could not pass laws without the house and senate, which was completely controlled by the Republicans for six years. They willingly put this country in our current situation. It has been the GOP and the RR claiming “god” in everything done and now we can view the utter hypocrisy they created. And now that we have an opportunity to have health care for everyone, they complain, spread lies and have offered no options, just complaints.
I think it is safe to say that when President Obama was voted in as the President of the U.S., it showed the GOP where they stood in the eyes of the American people. Instead of eating crow and taking their knocks, they’re pulling the same old routine again. I, for one, am glad at their actions as it cementing the views that the GOP is self absorbed, self serving and really don’t care for anyone but those who have money or for big business – at the expense of everyone else.
The GOP has learned nothing, they’re creating more issues and i will be very glad to see this all come back and bite them in the bahoogies!
posted August 21, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Who are you to judge? It is sad that when people actually step to the plate and put their thinking to blog and then have people like you who actually put them down for it that conscerns me. If you want to help correct their
writings, then you can make a list of all their misspelled words with their definitions and then you will be helping educate, wrather than putting others down for their conscerns.
Cara Floyd
posted August 21, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Don’t judge somebody elses brain, Mr.
posted August 22, 2009 at 12:18 am
Judge spelling? Its ether write er rong conscerning grammer, but okay, the thoughts are as error filled as the spelling.
posted August 22, 2009 at 2:14 am
Cara you don’t think. You are a brainwashed repeater of what your insane dishonest cult leaders tell you to say. You make me sick with all your Christian lies and Christian distortions and Christian bull%#*&. Jesus never existed. There is no God. Grow the %$#* up will you. This is the %#*&ing 21rst century.
posted August 22, 2009 at 9:47 am
“Woe to those who call good evil and evil good”. This latest Obama-lie is Satan’s effort to confuse people and garner their support for something that might well be the most evil piece of legislation ever proposed in this country.
“A nation who destroys its own children is a nation without hope.” (Pope John Paul II)
Abortion is present-day mankind’s sacrifice to Molech.
“And they built the…places…to cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which…[God]…did not command them, nor did it come into…[his]…mind that they should do this abomination…
posted August 22, 2009 at 10:24 am
Prez Obama isn’t 13th Apostle. lol…I love that. Anyways, President Opaquely Transparent, is actually very transparent when it comes to his ridiculous rhetoric and his ridiculous ideas for healthcare and pandering to rabbis in his quest for them to preach his altered truth on the day of the Jewish New Year. Also mind-boggling is the amount of Jewish people that voted for this American imposter. For goodness sakes, just because he looks like an American and lives freely like an American, doesn’t mean he’s for America. Arnold Schwarzenegger is more American than Mr. Sotero. He’s going to go down in the annals of history as the worst president ever – unless, of course, we have liberals writing the textbooks.
posted August 22, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Ow Boris, look who dragged in the cat, so to speak. Well if you go back in history you will find documentation on Jesus. I am sorry that you have great conscerns with excepting that Jesus lived and died for you. Truth be told, they did not find his body. He fufilled prophesy, Old Testament. You can go back in the text and figure that one out.
There will be people who will not believe the truth.
Cara Floyd
posted August 22, 2009 at 3:47 pm
No that is not what I meant. Your not supposed to judge people. I do believe in shedding light on darkness. Which is telling people when they have wronged you or showing what is evil. I was pointing out that people are getting all caught up in the spelling and grammer issue of the matter and not getting to the heart of it.
The heart of it is loving people. Which that would first begin with the ending murder in my eyes. You can’t love people when your murdering them through policy. They need love and care instead of an abortion murder. That would include to stop murdering the people of Embryonic Stem-Cell. Those are people you know. They need love also. They don’t need to be killed for a disease of some sort. Despite the uncomfortable issues ascociated with the disease of conscern. So let’s keep out posterity alive, instead of killing them through policy.
CARA
posted August 22, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I meant keep our posterity alive, sorry for the typo-o
posted August 22, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Jay,
You are absolutely correct in your assessment. The hypocrisy on the left is so telling. There allowed to use Jesus to further their cause but when a conservative invokes Jesus its how dare you force your religious beliefs on me. This health bill ought to scare the heck out of everyone since it has nothing to do with reducing the costs of health care services and gives a huge amount of power and control to the government. For a person who hasn’t even picked out a church for his family to attend, it highly disingenuous for him to invoke that he will be partners with God. God would not endorse Obama’s health bill because of the totalitarian nature of the bill and it supporting the death of our most precious unborn children.
posted August 22, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Obama is unschooled in science. So are all but one of the Supremes. So are all but a handful of our congressmen.
No wonder they keep blathering about God. There is no god. One of them needs to report on an experiment run to determine the efficacy of prayer before continuing to promote the nonsense.
Prayer does not work. Let someone who disagrees with that run an experiment and report the results in a peer-reviewed journal. Then we can finally put this god and prayer nonsense to rest.
posted August 22, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Well if you go back in history you will find documentation on Jesus.
Boris says: I did and there are no mentions of Jesus Christ in any historical documents anywhere. Not one word. Not one historian within 6 to 8 decades of the supposed time Jesus died ever mentioned one word about Jesus. Not a word. Look for yourself. You’ll find nothing. You should have looked into this before you bought the hoax of Christianity
posted August 23, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Boy are Jimbino and Boris going to be surprised!
hahahaha
posted August 23, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Jay, President Obama crossed the line once. Bush kept crossing the line, over and over and over again.
I had to laugh at your description of Bush with a large cross behind him. Several different images, complete with a halo around Bush’s head, is exactly the image of him that a lot of folks found extremely offensive. Look up “Bush with halo” on google and see for yourself.
In addition, Bush’s references to speaking with God and fighting a “crusade” against an “axis of evil” made a lot of folks wonder just what we all had done by giving this born-again wacko the reins of government.
President Obama’s words don’t begin to approach that level of insanity! And if a rabbi happened to mention health care on Rosh Hashanah as one form of tikkun olam (to heal the world), I’d think it highly appropriate.
posted August 23, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Boy are Jimbino and Boris going to be surprised!
Boris says: Why? Is the three-headed Christian monster going to follow us to our graves to punish us for not buying into a particular brand of sectarian dogma? Oh now we’re really afraid. I suggest a bong hit or three Elle Dee. Then you’ll be closer to reality.
posted August 24, 2009 at 8:05 am
Exactly the type of exchanges I’d expect on beliefnet. But I gotta go with Jay on this one. The very last thing any good Christian would want is to help anyone less fortunate than themselves, such as, the sick. Or live in a society that comes together to share their wealth with those less fortunate.
That just isn’t the Christian way as taught by Fawell and Robertson or Sekulow. Christianity is the religion of “I” “ME” “MINE” “I GOT MINE” and finally “GET YOUR OWN”
Look at the massive wealth the FAWELL family has stored up for itself. Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland. Copeland’s estate has its own zip code and airport with a whole fleet of lear jets.
Religion: Good business — Christianity: the wealthiest business. Spiritualism: Not to be found in our religion.
posted August 24, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Try Josephus,Boris. I believe that was his name, a Jewish hisorian.
So you can keep lieing to yourself all you want. There wouldn’t have been all the hype of conscern when it came to Jesus, if he was nothing. Not to mention his disciples who were killed for believing in him. Not to mention that they didn’t stick up for him when he was crusified. Sorry, but no can do Boris. You were greatly designed. Make no mistake about it.
Cara
posted August 24, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Christian- The power of God within. Having christ like qualities. So from the earlier put downs of I believe Peter, that just is not the Christian way. So, it is giving to the needy , less fortunate, the people who need care, that is the Christian way. The me me me me rought is just that, flesh. That is what the Bible teaches, of which we need to crusify it daily.
posted August 24, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Mr. Sekulow,
I encourage you & your readers to read this blog post, written by Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, about President Obama’s phone call last week with nearly 1,000 rabbis of all streams of Judaism: http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2009/08/there_has_been_some_discussion.html.
Kate Bigam
Press Secretary
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
posted August 24, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I like the comment Jordan made about Obama not being the “13th apostle”. You’ve got that right. Heck, some of your callers, Dr. Jay, have even called him the anti-Christ. I think this is going a little too far, but if we are going to play the name game, the White House calling others bearers of false witness, then might as well pipe in, right? Wrong. I’ll argue my point, not participate in elementary name calling that is prevalent with my grade school clients. Stay on your level, White House, and in your territory: politics and not religion.
posted August 26, 2009 at 5:40 pm
There comes a point in society that we all have to face the man in the mirror and realize that if we are going to make the world a better place, we need to love people. It is not about being pretty on the outside, it is about being pretty on the inside, that counts. There is too much focus on outer beauty, wrather than inner beauty. If we are truly going to love people we need to give them a chance to grow and become adults and moral citizens in this country. We need to stick up for the people who need protection against society. Seeing how society has become such a disgrace. Love the person within so to speak. Let go of your fears and let others love you to their best capabilities. Learn to appreciate others despite their flaws. Forgive others when they have hurt you and move on to a better a place. A place where we can love eachother to the fullest.
C.F.
posted August 28, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Peter, you don’t get it.
The bleeding heart Ted Kennedy didn’t fulfill his Christian obligations by donating his wealth to the poor. NO: he claimed to do so by donating my hard-earned wealth to his idea of the poor.
This is the idea of socialism: forget raising up the valleys and concentrate on bringing the mountains low. Level off by bringing everyone down to the lowest level–Pareto minimality.
I celebrate Kennedy for opposing the RC church on abortion, women’s rights and homosexual rights. He was a true American Catholic in that regard, brother to the Brazilian Catholics who are diminishing the RC church’s role in Brazilian society, supporting distribution of condoms to ALL students at age 11, allowing homosexual and heterosexual marriage and unions for those who have no use for the marriage superstition.
posted August 29, 2009 at 12:24 am
Jimbino loves his capitalism. Capitalism assures that we will never be happy, because it surrounds us with advertising that constantly reminds us of all we are missing. Advertising has become our culture now, pushing all others aside. Capitalism keeps people running on an endless treadmill,chasing a carrot they can never reach.