At U.N., Obama Brings God Into Mideast Peace Process
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Remember when President Obama finally heeded the call of progressive religious activists in his recent address to Congress, framing healthcare as a moral cause?
Well, he did something similar in his United Nations speech today. At the end of a longish, applause-fetching passage on the need to restart Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, he called the effort a religious one involving "God's children" and the three world religions that call Israel the Holy Land:
We must remember that the greatest price of this conflict is not paid by us. It is paid by the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the night. It is paid by the Palestinian boy in Gaza who has no clean water and no country to call his own. These are God's children. And after all of the politics and all of the posturing, this is about the right of every human being to live with dignity and security. That is a lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one small slice of Earth the Holy Land. And that is why—even though there will be setbacks, and false starts, and tough days—I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace.
- See President Obama's top faith leaders.
- See pictures from the weekend's Values Voter Summit.
Tags: UN | Barack Obama | religion | Mideast peace
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Reader Comments
The US Presidency
I did not vote for Obama. My views tend to be on the conservative side of moderate. However, he is our President.
Having observed President Obama in office these past eight months, I believe he is a good man and a capable leader. He deserves more bipartisian support and less criticism from shrill right wingers and whiny left wingers.
Our nation was conceived and built by people with a Christian tradition. It is OK for Obama, who has both Muslim and Christian roots, to involk God and God's will in public policy.
The US Presidency
I did not vote for Obama. My views tend to be on the conservative side of moderate. However, he is our President.
Having observed President Obama in office these past eight months, I believe he is a good man and a capable leader. He deserves more bipartisian support and less criticism from shrill right wingers and whiny left wingers.
Our nation was conceived and built by people with a Christian tradition. It is OK for Obama, who has both Muslim and Christian roots, to involk God and God's will in public policy.
Enlightenment Ideals - not religious ideals
The rights that Obama speaks of are derived from the ideals of the Enlightenment philosophers - not from the ideals derived from any religious holy book. Those ideals that we take as unmistakably good were fought against tooth and nail by the churches. Many religious institutions have given up opposition to to those ideals after they gained widespread acceptance and have adopted and oc-opted those ideals as their own. But, always be aware that freedom and the inalienable rights of Man are not concepts that spring naturally from any religious source. And even today, and even in America, there are strong and pervasive religious forces that would love to turn the clock back on our hard won individual freedoms and rights. Some Christians like to say that the Devils best trick was convincing people that he didn't exist; I say that the clerics best trick was convincing people that they on the side of the good.
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