May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan

Showing posts with label religion in America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion in America. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A Chronical of Obama's Anti Religious Beliefs Turned Into Action


1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith: 

April 2008 Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they cling to guns or religion and have an antipathy to people who aren't like them.1

February 2009 Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011.2

April 2009 When speaking at Georgetown University , Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name be covered when he is making his speech. 3

May 2009 Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House. 4

April 2009 In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican ; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three.5

October 19, 2010 Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about the Creator when quoting the Declaration of Independence an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions. 6

November 2010 Obama misquotes the National Motto, substituting E pluribus unum rather than In God We Trust as established by federal law.7

January 2011 After a federal law was passed to transfer a WWI Memorial in the Mojave Desert to private ownership, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the cross in the memorial could continue to stand, but the Obama administration refused to allow the land to be transferred as required by law, and refused to allow the cross to be re-erected as ordered by the Court.8

February 2011 Although he filled posts in the State Department, for more than two years Obama did not fill the post of religious freedom ambassador, an official that works against religious persecution across the world; he filled it only after heavy pressure from the public and from Congress. 9

April 2011 For the first time in American history, Obama urges passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates without regard to the dictates of their own faith, thus eliminating conscience protection in hiring. 10

August 2011 The Obama administration releases its new health care rules that override religious conscience protections for medical workers in the areas of abortion and contraception. 11

November 2011 Obama opposes inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelts famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial. 12

November 2011 Unlike previous presidents, Obama studiously avoids any religious references in his Thanksgiving speech.13

December 2011 The Obama administration denigrates other countries' religious beliefs as an obstacle to radical homosexual rights. 14

January 2012 The Obama administration argues that the First Amendment provides no protection for churches and synagogues in hiring their pastors and rabbis.15

February 2012 The Obama administration forgives student loans in exchange for public service, but announces it will no longer forgive student loans if the public service is related to religion. 16

2. Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith:
June 2011 The Department of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial ceremonies at Houston National Cemetery . 17

August 2011 The Air Force stops teaching the Just War theory to officers in California because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine in the third century AD a theory long taught by civilized nations across the world (except America). 18

September 2011 Air Force Chief of Staff prohibits commanders from notifying airmen of programs and services available to them from chaplains. 19

September 2011 The Army issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center stipulating that No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and/or facts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit. 20

November 2011  The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity. 21

November 2011  The Air Force Academy pays $80,000 to add a Stonehenge-like worship center for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans.22

February 2012  The U. S. Military Academy at West Point disinvites three star Army general and decorated war hero Lieutenant General William G. (Jerry) Boykin (retired) from speaking at an event because he is an outspoken Christian.23

February 2012  The Air Force removes God from the patch of Rapid Capabilities Office (the word on the patch was in Latin: Dei).24

February 2012  The Army orders Catholic chaplains not to read a letter to parishioners that their archbishop asked them to read.25

3. Acts of hostility toward Biblical values:
January 2009  Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to
fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations.26

January 2009  President Obamas nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional. 27
March 2009 The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit. 28

March 2009  Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. 29

March 2009  Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations.30

May 2009  The White House budget eliminates all funding for abstinence-only education and replaces it with comprehensive sexual education, repeatedly proven to increase teen pregnancies and abortions.31 He continues the deletion in subsequent budgets. 32

May 2009  Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their criminal activities. 33

July 2009  The Obama administration illegally extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of Foreign Service and Executive Branch employees, in direction violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.34

September 16, 2009  The Obama administration appoints as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, who asserts that society should not tolerate any private beliefs, including religious beliefs, if they may negatively affect homosexual equality. 35

July 2010  The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion.36

August 2010  The Obama administration Cuts funding for 176 abstinence education programs.37

September 2010  The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judges decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.38

February 2011  Obama directs the Justice Department to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act.39

March 2011 The Obama administration refuses to investigate videos showing Planned Parenthood helping alleged sex traffickers get abortions for victimized underage girls.40

July 2011  Obama, against advice from senior officers, allows homosexuals to serve openly in the military, reversing a policy originally instituted by George Washington in March 1778.41

September 2011  The Pentagon, against advice from senior officers, directs that military chaplains may perform same-sex marriages at military facilities in violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. 42

October 2011 The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion.43

4. Acts of preferentialism for Islam:
May 2009 While Obama does not host any National Day of Prayer event at the White House, he does host White House Iftar dinners in honor of Ramadan ( a Islamic Holy Month). 44

April 2010  Christian leader Franklin Graham is disinvited from the Pentagons National Day of Prayer Event because of complaints from the Muslim community. 45

April 2010  The Obama administration requires rewriting of government documents and a change in administration vocabulary to remove terms that are deemed offensive to Muslims, including jihad, jihadists, terrorists, radical Islamic, etc. 46

August 2010 Obama speaks with great praise of Islam and condescendingly of Christianity. 47

August 2010  Obama went to great lengths to speak out on multiple occasions on behalf of building an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time he was silent about a Christian church being denied permission to rebuild at that location. 48

2010  While every White House traditionally issues hundreds of official proclamations and statements on numerous occasions, this White House avoids traditional Biblical holidays and events but regularly recognizes major Muslim holidays, as evidenced by its 2010 statements on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.49

October 2011  Obamas Muslim advisers block Middle EasternChristians access to the White House. 50

February 2012  The Obama administration makes effulgentapologies for Korans being burned by the U. S. military, 51
but when Bibles were burned by the military, numerous reasons were offered why it was the right thing to do.52

Sources for these here.


Sunday, July 1, 2012

Democrats\Obama Error Thinking They Can Pit Religious Denominations Against Each Other


Much has been made by the Left, and its propaganda division, the Re-elect Obama Press, about how divisive Romney's Mormonism is among religious people, especially evangelicals. I've always been curious about that term, since Jesus made it clear we are all to evangelize His Testament. I suppose to their narrow, intolerant, uniformed bigoted minds, and evangelical is any person with traditional values and believes Jesus Christ is who He said He is and that makes them right wing extremists.  

Very much of how the Left\Democrats and Obama operate is to divide and pit one group against another; Black vs White, Rich vs Poor, Hispanic vs White, Illegals vs Citizens/ legal immigrants, and whatever else they can come up with, Secular vs Religious. They take a very wrong turn thinking they can pit religious denomination against religious denomination. In the religious community, because of God as the centerpiece, an attack on one is an attack on all.

Even an attack on Mormons is seen as an attack on religion, and cannot be tolerated. When Obama attacked the Catholic Church demanding they jettison a couple thousand years of belief and tradition and provide abortion, contraception and sterilization, all Christians perceived this as an attack on freedom of religion. Of course the Left, as it does, denies it's doing what's wrong when caught. Rev. Rick Warren: “I’m not a Catholic but I stand in 100 percent solidarity with my brothers and sisters to practice their belief against government pressure.” ... “I’d go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do. Would you? Acts 5:29.” ["But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men"]

In their letter of protest, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: “We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom.”

There's been lots of religious persecution in this country by government officials. In 17th century New York (then New Amsterdam) government officials tried banning Jewish immigration; couldn't do that so banned synagogues. Ulysses S Grant issued General Order 111,  to expel all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Lincoln overruled the order. Mormon Reed Smoot was appointed Senator to the new state of Utah, and they refused to swear him in; he eventually was. New York banned Mormon missionaries of the time. The main reason Mormons moved as a group was because in the East, it was open season to kill them. Governor Lilburn Boggs in 1838 issued an order that Mormons “must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace.” That wasn't lifted until 1976.

Secularists, Democrats, Leftists, don't get the unity of the religious. They only understand unity when various groups of people they've divided up decide to become subservient to them, the State. That there are people, like in Acts 5:29, that are subservient to God, not men when the occasion warrants, is incomprehensible to them.

Religious people take the 1st Amendment very seriously, even if Leftists and Our Dear Leader don't. By their continual attacks on the religious, they are creating a huge voting block against themselves.  


Saturday, April 28, 2012

Leftist Statists Attacks on Religion, Local and National - More


Here are two stories from the Leftist, anti Christian government currently in power; one local and one directly from Obama.

The Hutchinson City Council (Kansas) has proposed an ordinance to force churches renting space to secular groups to also rent to homosexual groups, or LGBT groups. They could not discriminate “against a gay couple who want to rent the building for a party.”

Meryl Dye, spokesperson for the Human Relations Commission: “They would not be able to discriminate against gay and lesbian or transgender individuals.” “That type of protection parallels to what you find in race discrimination. If a church provides lodging or rents a facility they could not discriminate based on race. It’s along that kind of thinking.”

Our own church, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Las Vegas took five years to get all the secular challenges taken care of to get Miracle League on our campus. Miracle League is an organization for disabled kids to play baseball. There was an attempt to get us re-zoned as secular institution because Miracle League is, plus we have many groups providing alcohol, marriage, divorce support that are secular. We would have to then pay taxes, which most likely would end our 60+ year old church.

Non-compliance would be investigations and fines. Churches are not rich, are voluntarily supported by donations and run by volunteers. The Left is forever campaigning for taxation of churches because they know it would cripple most and close down many. As oft repeated on this blog, the Left needs to shut down religion because they need to create a vacuum to replace it with their religion of the State and eliminate opposition. Nazis do, communists do it, fascists do it, and socialists do it. All Leftist movements.   Full article here.

At the national level Obama doubled down on his bigoted intolerant attack on religion in a recent speech on his idea that contraception should be mandated and paid for by the State. Churches must submit to the State on this issue, and as he often does, mocks those that differ from him.

From the speech to Women's Leadership Forum in Washington Friday April 27:
“This contraception fight in particular was illuminating. It was like being in a time machine,” Obama told the crowd, many of whom had purchased tickets that cost $1,000 to attend. “Republicans in Congress were going so far as to say an employer should be able to have a say in the health care decisions of its female employees. You know, for a party that prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulations of almost any kind, for folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling, it doesn’t seem to bother them when it comes to a woman’s health.”
Full article here.

Christians must be ever vigilant. The anti Christian bigotry and intolerance and persecution isn’t violent like in other places in the world, but the effect is the same. Christianity is the most prosecuted religionon the planet, and we must support each other and defy the State.

As an aside, in this speech he also said:
 "As long as I’m President, we are going to keep moving forward."…  "You can count on that.  You don’t have to take my word on it – you’ve got my signature on it.  Because something like standing up for the principle of equal pay for equal work isn’t something I’m going to have to 'get back to you on' – it’s the first law I signed."

Thing is, female employees in the White House get paid 18% less than men. Oooops. Plus, study after study shows when days off and hours worked are calculated into the pay equation, women do get equal pay, except I guess, in the White House. Yes of course there are other exceptions, but men work 8-10 hours a week more than women, and take fewer days off.

Our Dear Leader is shameless using lies, bigotry, intolerance and deceit to keep power.  

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Yet More Attacks on Christianity by Our Secularist, Bigoted President & His Party


This President and his political party have made it abundantly clear they are Secularists, and specifically anti-Christian. Here’s a few items to make the point.

I had written earlier that I’m disgusted by the use of Our Savior Jesus Christ being used as a political pawn. The anti-Christian bigot Obama did just that when he attended a prayer breakfast and used the time meant for communing with God to make a Marxist campaign speech, saying Jesus' admonition to help the poor means the government must raise taxes, especially on the rich.

Obama: “When I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling and at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income or young people with student loans or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone.”  … “And I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.”
“But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that, ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’”
He added this even more appalling observation:  “…mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.” Since Christianity came first, and Islam imperfectly picked and chose what it wanted and needed to oppress people, I don’t think so.

The quote, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required,” does not mean from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs. Obama sees everything through Marxist lenses. It’s his religion.

Part of that religion is to ignore the establishment clause of the Constitution (and the rest of the Constitution too, but I need to stay on point), “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” and the free exercise clause, "... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". The latest kerfuffle is his forcing the Catholic Church to adhere to his secular religion, which advocates the killing of babies, i.e., abortion, over the life of babies. Add to that forcing, against the teaching/values/beliefs of the Church requiring them to provide contraception. This Administration ruling forcing the church to provide abortions, sterilizations, and contraceptives as part of their health care programs is a requirement from Health and Human Services Department, not even legislation. They can get away with it because, contrary to what was said to the public by Obama and the Democrats, mandating abortion is in ObamaCare. This doesn’t only apply to the Catholic Church, but to all religious organizations; if the Catholic Church and other organizations stick to their guns on this, many religious funded hospitals, health facilities and companies will be forced to shut down. The Obama administration isn’t entirely insensitive to this issue; all the affiliated organizations have a year before being forced to comply or shut down.

Archbishop Timothy Nolan has published a letter to the president in protest, and there are several with some variations from many Bishops in America. A copy of one is at the bottom of this article.

He's also forbidden Chaplin's in the military to comment on this abuse of power, this ignoring of the Constitution, this forcing of Religion, specifically Christianity, to ignore and reject the teachings of their respective churches. He is Commander in Chief and has the legal right to do so, but not the moral right. 

Recently struck down by the Supreme Court, and not reported or under reported by the re-elect Obama press, was a ruling requiring Churches to adhere to equal opportunity legislation. This requires the Catholic Church to allow female priests, and Jews female rabbis. You may color me wrong on this, but aren’t elected officials sworn to uphold the Constitution? If I’m right, the Secularists in power that took that oath are definitely ignoring both the establishment clause and free exercise clause.

Off on a tangent here; the first female ex-Speaker of the House, a professed Catholic, stated about the issue: “First of all, I am going to stick with my fellow Catholics in supporting the administration on this. I think it was a very courageous decision that they made, and I support it.” Say what? She’s one of many Catholic politicians that are pro-abortion and contraception ignoring the teachings of the Church she professes to be a member of. For most of us practicing Christians, God comes first, and informs our beliefs and actions. If one is a politician, and speaks honestly about his\her Faith, they should let it be known and live by it. I think if a Catholic runs for office on a pro-abortion platform, or lives and legislates in opposition to the Church, they should renounce the Church. If not, and I’m not Catholic, so I don’t know how exactly this works, but if they stay in the Church and support the kinds of regulation written about here, they should be excommunicated. It shouldn’t bother these anti-Christian, anti-Catholic Catholics anyway since they apparently don’t believe or practice Church doctrine.  

There’s a whole section of the Bible discussing Spiritual Warfare, mostly in Ephesians 6: 10- 18. This is where it manifests itself in physical world. We have the leader of the free world leading an assault on Christianity (and supporting Islam). Good for the Catholic Church for standing up to these bigots and secularists.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

4th of July As a Religious Observance

Today is one of those July 4th's that happen on a Sunday. Despite protestations to the contrary from Secularists, this nation was founded on Judaic-Christian principles. Saying anything other than affirming this truth, makes them willfully ignorant or liars. Worshiping on this Sacred Day gives yet more meaning to our celebration of it.

I loved our Responsive Reading this morning:
Worship Leader: Many years ago the founder of our great nation gathered to initiate a new experiment in government.

Congregation: They were people of faith - faith in the providence of God and the competence of all citizens to manage their own destiny.

Worship Leader: They possessed a vision of a land where the human spirit, created free and owing ultimate allegiance only to the Creator, would be free to reach its highest potential.

Congregation: We are heirs of that faith and vision. We therefore come to worship this day asking God to continue to bless this land of ours, to keep watch over it and to protect it from the power s of tyranny and all that oppresses the human spirit.

Below is a rather long speech to read, but should be read by both Secular and Religious people. Secular people must be intellectually honest, and recognize that all they claim they believe in, the values, The Bill of Rights, the rule of law, the institutions of freedom, all have at their core, Judaic-Christian tradition. If there is no religious freedom, then there is no freedom, because there is nothing else to challenge the State.

On 23 August 1984, President Reagan spoke to an ecumenical prayer breakfast in Dallas, Texas.

Part 2


"I believe that faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation — and always has — and that the church — and by that I mean all churches, all denominations — has had a strong influence on the state. And this has worked to our benefit as a nation.

Those who created our country — the Founding Fathers and Mothers — understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion.


The Mayflower Compact began with the words, “In the name of God, amen.” The Declaration of Independence appeals to “Nature’s God” and the “Creator” and “the Supreme Judge of the world.” Congress was given a chaplain, and the oaths of office are oaths before God.

James Madison in the Federalist Papers admitted that in the creation of our Republic he perceived the hand of the Almighty. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, warned that we must never forget the God from whom our blessings flowed.

George Washington referred to religion’s profound and unsurpassed place in the heart of our nation quite directly in his Farewell Address in 1796. Seven years earlier, France had erected a government that was intended to be purely secular. This new government would be grounded on reason rather than the law of God. By 1796 the French Revolution had known the Reign of Terror. . . .

In 1962 the Supreme Court in the New York prayer case banned the compulsory saying of prayers. In 1963 the Court banned the reading of the Bible in our public schools. From that point on, the courts pushed the meaning of the ruling ever outward, so that now our children are not allowed voluntary prayer. We even had to pass a law — we passed a special law in the Congress just a few weeks ago to allow student prayer groups the same access to schoolrooms after classes that a young Marxist society, for example, would already enjoy with no opposition.

The 1962 decision opened the way to a flood of similar suits. Once religion had been made vulnerable, a series of assaults were made in one court after another, on one issue after another. Cases were started to argue against tax-exempt status for churches. Suits were brought to abolish the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance and to remove “In God We Trust” from public documents and from our currency.

Today there are those who are fighting to make sure voluntary prayer is not returned to the classrooms. And the frustrating thing for the great majority of Americans who support and understand the special importance of religion in the national life — the frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and openmindedness. Question: Isn’t the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? [Applause] They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives.

If all the children of our country studied together all of the many religions in our country, wouldn’t they learn greater tolerance of each other’s beliefs? If children prayed together, would they not understand what they have in common, and would this not, indeed, bring them closer, and is this not to be desired? So, I submit to you that those who claim to be fighting for tolerance on this issue may not be tolerant at all. . . .

There are, these days, many questions on which religious leaders are obliged to offer their moral and theological guidance, and such guidance is a good and necessary thing. To know how a church and its members feel on a public issue expands the parameters of debate. It does not narrow the debate; it expands it.

The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’re sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.

A state is nothing more than a reflection of its citizens; the more decent the citizens, the more decent the state. If you practice a religion, whether you’re Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or guided by some other faith, then your private life will be influenced by a sense of moral obligation, and so, too, will your public life. One affects the other. The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state; the churches of America are not mere citizens of the state. The churches of America exist apart; they have their own vantage point, their own authority. Religion is its own realm; it makes its own claims.

We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions. . . .

Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."