Bonnie Erbe

On Obama, God, and the Religious Right

January 21, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

What is the Obama administration's attitude toward God? Clearly, President Obama is a deeply religious man and not afraid to show it in public. He is smart politically, trying to woo the evangelical community away from the GOP fold and into the Democratic camp. That inaugural invocation by Rick Warren, however, characterizing the nation as Christian (excluding deeply patriotic Americans who are not) was more divisive than inclusive.

According to the Christian Science Monitor :

For Obama, the broad outreach into the faith community isn't confined to ceremonies but is emerging as a key element in his approach to coalition-building, say religious leaders who worked on the transition.

I understand the politics part of his motivation. But after eight years of having a distorted vision of God's wishes crammed down our throats by an administration that could not do enough to cater to the religious right, I, for one, would love to see President Obama back off some on this front. Will it happen? I doubt it.

Tags:
conservatives,
religion,
Barack Obama

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+1

soundtracks of AL 8:02AM July 17, 2009

I want to say - thank you for this!

soma cheap rx of AZ 6:16AM July 04, 2009

James you may assert you are Christian, but you are not. You see, there need be a criteria in order to a member of any group: soldier, parent, gay, socialist, student - well you get the idea.

To think Christ is ok with whatever you ( or anyone) decides to do is to make Christianity meaningless.

This is not to say that you can not become Christian, but that involves conforming your will to His as much as possible. Yes James, Christ loves us and forgives all we ask of him, but we do need to ask and we do need to accept his teachings and example... He expects that of us.

It is obvious that human life is precious in His sight - starting in the womb and until a natural death. To deny this is to deny Truth, and God is the source of Absolute Truth.

Now, you can assert that you are a Christian, the same as you can pretend to be a secret agent or the reincarnation of King Arthur. You may even believe it yourself, but believing doesn't make a thing true.

Now, to you atheists who believe that Christianity is akin to insanity I'd like to point out that your belief system is merely the opposite pole... Instead of Creation, you believe in the Big Bang (which answers nothing). Instead of design you rely upon coincidence and happenstance. Instead of accepting that there is Absolute Truth, Perfect Morality and Eternal Justice you worship the idea of impenetrable skepticism, obstinate relativism and absolute moral subjectivity - all of which makes the basics of life, right and wrong - good and evil - love and hate, not only unknowable but irrelevant... A belief system leading to an ephemeral and shifting landscape without bounds or parameters. A world easy to get lost in.

By the way, to those of you who think I'm playing God - You couldn't be more wrong.

I'm done here. Beam me up Scotty.... Kirk out.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:42PM January 22, 2009

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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