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Political Hay
Religiously Returning to 2004
While the president may have rediscovered religion this year the religious vote is not moving his way.
A recent article from CNN’s religion blog describes President Obama’s increasingly more personal religious faith over the course of his presidency.
“His faith has been growing as the challenges of the presidency have become more naturally the main part of his own everyday life,” declares Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter of the president. He regularly prays with Obama, sometimes on a conference call with other mostly evangelical clergy, including Houston United Methodist megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, who was close to President George W. Bush. Also reputedly spiritually influential is Joshua DuBois, a young Pentecostal minister who directs the White House faith-based office.
Unmentioned in the article is the rumor that Obama’s mother-in-law, who lives in the White House, is herself devout and has prayed for increased faith by her son-in-law. If true, more power to her.
Whatever the influences, it would be unusual if Obama has not grown more religious during his presidency. Many of his predecessors have. And it would be inhuman not to crave spiritual solace amid such pressures. Of course it’s also politically smart to develop ties to influential clergy, especially among evangelicals, who are America’s largest religious demographic.
But there’s no evidence that Obama’s evangelical ties and more personal references to religion have affected how evangelicals or other traditional religious voters will vote. According to the latest Pew poll, 76% of white evangelicals support Mitt Romney and only 17% back Obama. About 26% had supported Obama in 2008, sparking hopes of a breakthrough for the Evangelical Left. But Romney, despite his Mormonism and mostly silence about social issues that energize many evangelicals, seems on his way to attaining the soaring 79% that Bush got in 2004.
Increased religious support for Republicans isn’t confined to evangelicals. Sixty percent of white Mainline Protestants told Pew they’re backing Romney, versus 35% percent for Obama. In 2008 Obama got about half of Mainliners, supposedly heralding an end to historic Mainline Republican preference. Fifty-four percent of white Catholics told Pew they favor Romney, compared to 40 percent for Obama. Weekly churchgoers of all races collectively favor Romney by 55% to 38%, continuing the “God Gap” favoring Republicans. Sixty-six percent of the now much discussed religiously unaffiliated back Obama.
The implosion of religious support for Obama is reflected in the minimal enthusiasm expressed for his campaign now versus the excitement of 4 years ago. Evangelical Left icon Jim Wallis of Sojourners had greeted Obama’s ascendancy almost messianically. “My prayers for decades have been answered in this minute,” he gushed at the inauguration. Once a shrill critic of America, Wallis then announced that with Obama in power America is “a better country than I thought it was.” And he boasted of ties to the new Administration. “This White House wants our advice,” he surmised early on. “Leaders from the faith community have been virtually inhabiting the offices of the Transition Team over the last weeks, with our advice being sought on global and domestic poverty, human rights, criminal justice, torture, faith-based offices, foreign policy, Gaza and the Middle East. A staffer joked one day, ‘We should have just gotten all of you bunks here.’”
In stark contrast, Wallis has been far more somber this election cycle. “Remember what was in the political air during the fall campaign for the 2008 presidential election — the feelings of hope and the possibility for real change?” he recently asked. “Doesn’t that seem like a very long time ago now?” Without directly criticizing Obama, Wallis has lamented the absence of rhetoric about the poor and the environment amid little regret over “unnecessary and wrong wars.” Boasts over killing Osama bin Laden must make Wallis, who is pacifist, cringe. With a tinge of ennui, Wallis has somewhat apathetically concluded: “It’s time to apply the lessons we have learned about not ultimately trusting in candidates, and certainly not in parties, for the changes we need.”
Others on the Evangelical and wider Religious Left seem to share Wallis’ ambivalence although doubtless still voting for Obama. Groups like “Nuns on the Bus” are happy to robustly denounce Paul Ryan and his ostensibly parsimonious budget plan without equal gusto for the Democratic alternative. Longtime chief of Evangelicals for Social Action Ron Sider, a patriarch of the Evangelical Left, admitted in his recent column about the election that both candidates fall short of his “completely pro-life agenda.” And he concluded: “So who does God want us to vote for? I honestly do not know.”
Tony Jones, a popular liberal evangelical blogger, recently reposted his endorsement of Obama from 4 years ago without offering a lot of fresh justification. “I still have faith in the president,” he added this time. “But I was sure that Hillary would have been too divisive, and now I’m not so sure…”
Many religious idealists on the Left hoped Obama would usher in a new post partisan age. But the culture wars continue, now joined by fierce strife over America’s economic future, amid the grim realization that the War on Terror, however named, goes on indefinitely. The religious electoral fault lines have largely returned to 2004, which is probably not good news for the president’s reelection.
About the Author
Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century. You can follow him on Twitter @markdtooley.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (68) | Leave a comment
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Jack in Wi| 11.1.12 @ 6:35AM
The trouble is are there enough religious people left? The culture has been so paganized that I don't see it coming back for a long time if ever. Without a good Christian culture what will this country look like?
SylviaInDaytona| 11.1.12 @ 9:54AM
The Christian Right is facist and violent and frightening.
The Christian Right is apocalyptic and believes that massive violence is going to cleanse and purge the world. And these are all fundamental beliefs of fascist governments.
The Christian Right believes only Christians should rule the US and the Bible should be the sole authority in matters of government.
The "Christian" Right is made up of angry, hateful, intolerant bigots who are anything but Christian, and many are daily readers of AmSpec.
Archie| 11.1.12 @ 10:04AM
Here, I fixed it for you...
The Muslims are facist and violent and frightening.
The Muslims are apocalyptic and believe that massive violence is going to cleanse and purge the world. And these are all fundamental beliefs of fascist governments.
The Muslims believe only Muslims should rule the world and the koran should be the sole authority in matters of government, society and culture.
The Muslims are made up of angry, hateful, intolerant bigots who are anything but believers in Christian ideals.
TLP| 11.1.12 @ 6:40PM
Contest, tomorrow Archie.
Look for it.
SylviaInDaytona| 11.1.12 @ 10:07AM
As for the readers of AmSpec, I don't see any evidence that any of you are Chrisian or even have the slightest grasp of ethical behavior. How you have railed against Obama's health plan.
You readers strike me as Ayn Rand Christians, never touched by the spirit of the Christ whose ministry was emphatically defined from the start by his compassion for the sick and for his healing of the multitudes who came to him with all manner of diseases. Jesus did not seem to think that it was taking anything away from the already-healthy to restore the health of the physically and psychologically afflicted.
Shame on you for not supporting Obama's health plan. I prefer the morality of pagans to you Right-Wing Christians anyday. But I have great admiration for Progressive Christians; they are doing much-needed good in our world.
Ryan| 11.1.12 @ 10:31AM
You're missing several items.
Christ defined His mission as "seeking to save that which was lost," and to "give His life as a Ransom for many."
The ransom was because of our sin. All the rest was to prove He Is Who He said He Is.
Attaching Obama's health plan to Christ's mission is bad theology. Christ endorsed no government, no government plans, and general Christian ethics are voluntary charity, not forced.
David T.| 11.1.12 @ 10:32AM
How right you are, SylviaInDaytona about the fundamentalist Christians. I am a devout progressive Christian myself, and here's a quote from a book I read recently by Bishop John Shelby Spong--the new voice of compassionate, loving Christianity.
"A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically. Bishop John Shelby Spong
Whew! What a breath of fresh air Bishop Spong has brought us!
C. Vernon Crisler | 11.1.12 @ 10:44AM
David T. Where is the fresh air? This is just the same old irreligious attitude we've been getting for years -- you know from the people who wanted to keep God out of their political platform.
David T| 11.1.12 @ 11:04AM
David T.
I, too, am David T and I've been commenting here for 2-3 years.
Let me state categorically that John Shelby Spong is a fool and an apostate. You need to examine your conscience if you call yourself a Christian and believe any of the rot that spews forth from the mouth of that whited sepulcher.
Please contact AmSpec and change your login credentials.
spike59| 11.1.12 @ 1:01PM
spong is an idiot who has no problem with the killing of the innocent in the womb; he's as much a Christian as Ray Charles is a painter
TLP| 11.1.12 @ 6:41PM
Contest, tomorrow.
Look for it.
ejp| 11.1.12 @ 3:20PM
Spong? This the moron who doesn't even believe in one of the central tenets of Christian theology 101, the Virgin Birth, which makes him the ultmate phony when it comes to calling oneself a "Christian"?
It's amusing to me how left-wing Christians are almost exclusively comprised of people who if they had been posed the question Christ put to His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" would have been among those saying, "Some say John The Baptist, others say like Elijah or one of the prophets" instead of echoing Peter's, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
soljerblue| 11.2.12 @ 3:50AM
Spong rejected the divinity of Christ, stating his belief that Jesus was not (a) of virgin birth, or (b) resurrected. And what he is basically saying is that anyone who doesn't accept his relativist view is therefore stupid and ignorant. Thanks, but I take the opposite view and will leave the final judgement of who's right to God -- not Spong, not liberal evangelicals, not Democrats, and most assuredly not to you.
Gerald| 11.1.12 @ 11:38AM
So you support murdering babies in the womb and actually think God approves of you? You are a reprobate incapable of knowing right from wrong. You are now the animal you have seek to become, detached from your creator.
Carry on...
SUBVET| 11.1.12 @ 12:47PM
Sylvia....AKA...Margaret Sanger: Incarnet Evil
spike59| 11.1.12 @ 1:04PM
'Progressive Christians' makes about as much sense as 'jumbio shrimp' or 'liberal tolerance'
JmsA| 11.1.12 @ 3:28PM
Your rants aren't working, so stop wasting your time and ours.
Al Adab| 11.1.12 @ 6:24PM
Sylvia,
The length and confusion of this thread may prevent you from seeing this post. You should remember that the command to Love one another is a personal obligation on the believer. From that charity follows. Government may not impose it (unless of course you expect a theocratic government when it suits your preferences) and certainly you would agree that charity under compulsion is not charity at all.
djn1313| 11.1.12 @ 10:25AM
It sounds like you are the violent and angry idiot? Let me refresh your progressive/liberal damaged brain cell. It is obama's muslim followers that are killing innocent people. You are the one filled with hatred and violence.
Ryan| 11.1.12 @ 10:33AM
What does "fascist" mean?
SylviaInDaytona| 11.1.12 @ 11:02AM
Do not expect me to respond to any of your poorly-constructed and inadequately-prepared questions.
Unlike so many of you who sit here all day "expressing" your socio/political (or should I say poolitical) views, I state my case and move on.
I have far many more important and fulfilling ways to occupy my time.
Bye bye, birdies
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.1.12 @ 11:34AM
"Unlike so many of you who sit here all day "expressing" your socio/political (or should I say poolitical) views, I state my case and move on.
I have far many more important and fulfilling ways to occupy my time."
So you write, but I am afraid I don't believe you. You will be back, if not as Sylvia, under another name, claiming that you are for civility and against hate, while demonstrating none of the former and doing all that you can to spread the latter.
Best wishes in your pursuit of important and fulfilling ways to occupy your time. Thank you for your visit here, so that you can remind us of your socio/ political views, lest any of us dare to forget.
Al Adab| 11.1.12 @ 6:30PM
Apparently Albert, Sylvia prefers the obedience of the herd to the boistrous sea of liberty. Her choice, but she should avoid imposing it by force on the rest of us.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.1.12 @ 7:07PM
I am more inclined to believe that Sylvia is a troll provocateur. Everytime Anna K. from Emory U. and her brood descend on the site, they promise that they are going away never to return, but they always manage to come back (sometimes under the names they first posted under, but more frequently under a new one).
Ryan| 11.1.12 @ 1:47PM
Actually, it's an honest question that many people have different definitions for. I challenge some of the more modern ones, particularly as they are attempted to attach to Christians.
ejp| 11.1.12 @ 3:20PM
If you have more important ways to occupy your time, then why were you trolling around with your bigotry here? Obviously you're too cowardly to deal with responses and challenges to your bigotry.
SUBVET| 11.1.12 @ 8:08PM
Sylvia.........to hot in the kitchen ?
C. Vernon Crisler | 11.1.12 @ 10:42AM
Fascism was the European version of Progressivism. It rejected both individualism and socialism in favor of a middle way. Nothing outside the state, according to fascists. The so-called Christian Right is opposed to statism and fascism. Since statism is the operating principle of your leftwing view of politics, it is really you and your ilk who are better described as fascists.
Ryan| 11.1.12 @ 1:49PM
I think the other part of it is something that people don't realize - corporatism - the favoring of specific corporations (or control by corporations) by government.
Cases in point: Solyndra, GM, Chrysler, TARP, QE1, QE2, QE3, ANY targeted tax breaks (rather than an overall low rate), etc....
Buck Ofama| 11.1.12 @ 1:41PM
Answer: that islam pig shit.
spike59| 11.1.12 @ 6:41AM
this is emblematic of the entire ObaMao 2012 effort; he has lost ground (vs 2008) with EVERY voting demographic, and the falling off in voter enthusiasm for him, vs voter enthusiasm for Romney, spell disaster on Nov 6 for his campaign
Appleby| 11.1.12 @ 6:56AM
If there's anybody out there who thinks Obama is "religious", doubtless he or she thinks Zero is a Muslim. By the wa y, Washington National Cathedral has been very silent vis-a-vis the deaths of our four citizens in Bengazi. Hands up who thinks if President Bush were still in office, there would have been a solemn mass for these people? And anybody hear anything about ditto for the victims of Superstorm Sandy? All I hear is crickets.
DTOM| 11.1.12 @ 9:45AM
Look at the Obama picture at the column's head. You just need to get a closeup of that ring on his finger. Apparently he wore it on that finger ten years before he married Moochelle. According to Jerry Corsi, it has the phrase: "There is no god but Allah." as its design. This statement is basically the first of the five pillars of Islam. Sort of like the First Commandment, only for Muslims.
Don't listen to me - listen to the Harvard PhD. Here's a link to his article. www.wnd.com/2012/10/obamas-rin.....but-allah/
Get it now? The littlest President is a devout Muslim who is intent on destroying this Judeo-Christian Great Satan of a country.
What do you need beyond Egypt being handed to the Muslim Brotherhood, Benghazi to Al Qaeda, at the bloody hands of Barack O and Hillary Clinton with her Chief of Staff Huma Aboudin Weiner who is the daughter of the wife of a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Too complicated for you? You better figure this out and damn fast, or you will learn the laws of dhimmitude at the end of an AK-47, a sword, or a bunch of rocks.
It's morning in America - are you up yet?
DON'T TREAD ON ME!!!
PS Not sure about the little President's Muslim leanings? Maybe you missed this:
/www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/obamas_taqqiya_unravels.html
Buck Ofama| 11.1.12 @ 1:42PM
Agree. This bowing, groveling, apologing arab-cock sucking muslim rat bastard MUST GO.
TLP| 11.1.12 @ 7:00AM
Can I have this guy's slot?
Seriously.
Is he really this STUPID? Or is he even STUPIDER?
When will the Mark Tooley's of this Country, stop giving this MFer the benefit of the doubt? He's not a Christian. He was BORN to a Muslim and an Atheist. He was Adopted by a Muslim, and Raised in Muslim Indonesia's Muslim Schools and Mosques until the age of 11.
He has been Surrounded by Evil, his ENTIRE LIFE.
Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Maoism, Anarchists and Terrorists. And, you want us to believe that he is "Returning to His Religion"?
Those ISMs and ISTs ARE HIS RELIGION!
"The future should not belong to those who slander THE PROPHET - Mohammed."
You wanna take a Sh*t on the Virgin Mary? Go right ahead. He couldn't care F-ing Less.
And these Moron Megachurch Pastors. Have they no Eyes? Do they not know that "There are none so Blind, as those who WILL NOT SEE"?
Look around yourself Tooley. What do you see?
Cause I see Armageddon, if this Unholy end result of the Union between two Godless Jackals is allowed to continue.
You must have a Bible. Go re-read what John of Patmos has written, and then look at the world, today.
The Final War is not just Inevitable.
It's already begun.
spike59| 11.1.12 @ 9:05AM
the difference between the Messiah and ObaMao is that the Messiah doesn't think He's ObaMao
DTOM| 11.1.12 @ 9:47AM
TLP - check out his ring!!!!
www.wnd.com/2012/10/obamas-rin.....but-allah/
It is a world class DOH!
DTOM
Imogene| 11.1.12 @ 11:36AM
Fools.
TLP, a "Christian," expresses his religious views in the vilest language imagnable:
"motherfucker"
"shit on the Virgin Mary"
"fucking"
President Obama, a dignified, refined gentleman, and a Christian, would NEVER stoop to the violent, unspeakably obscene language of the sewer.
But AmSpec's readers give TLP an A+ for being a good "Christian" man, and condemn Sylvia and David T.
And you expect respect? You will not get my respect. You Christians on this site are toxic to the bone.
Anna K. from Emory U.| 11.1.12 @ 11:49AM
Imogene,
A noted psychiatrist here in Atlanta has been analysing The American Spectator's posts on religion. I was speaking with him at a university function last month, and he told me that he finds many of the comments disturbing.
He, in fact, told me that he suspects some of the more fanatical posters to be "disturbed individuals, maybe psychotic."
The subject of religion, unfortunately, often brings out the worst in us--especially if we are mentally unstable-- as evidenced by TLP's post.
When the results of his study are published, I will post the findings on here.
Shalom.
A Grin without a Cat| 11.1.12 @ 12:32PM
I don't endorse TLP's coarse language, but you destroy your credibility in calling Mr. Obama "a dignified, refined gentleman, and a Christian". His actions have made it abundantly clear that he is none of those things.
spike59| 11.1.12 @ 1:06PM
"When the results of this ficticious study by this imaginary 'noted psychiatrist' are published in my mind, I will post the findings on here."
there, fixed it for ya-you're welcome
Archie| 11.1.12 @ 12:25PM
You're sitting on a pretty high horse there. Fools, toxic, these are your words. And you give Sylvia a free pass on her 9:54 a.m. post.
RCV| 11.1.12 @ 12:25PM
At least Mark Tooley doesn't believe, as TLP does, that Hitler was God's chosen "Huntsman" sent to punish and "cleanse" the Jews with the Holocaust!
TLP is a foul-mouthed lunatic, and anyone who would look to him for guidance on what the Bible has to teach us is following a satanic fool.
A Grin without a Cat| 11.1.12 @ 12:37PM
I often disagree with TLP, but I've never known him to post anything even remotely anti-semitic.
RCV| 11.1.12 @ 12:54PM
He posted exactly what I said here. He has a very weird Biblical interpretation streak.
JmsA| 11.1.12 @ 4:11PM
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
I've read much from TLP, and others posting herein, but I did not see that which you cite and purport to TLP, regarding Hitler and the Jews. That said, the following quote from Joseph Goebbels, comes to mind: “If the day should ever come when we must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that the universe will shake and mankind will stand back in stupefaction..”
Absent Hitler, the Nazis, and thus that terrible calamity which befell the Jews of Europe and many others, the World would more than likely not ceased in its almost universal disdain, if not outright hatred of the Jews, and allowed them to return to their homeland.
You're interesting dichotomy, RCV. You manifest a great sense of humanity, while at the same defending those who follow and promulgate that which will make slaves of us all.
JmsA| 11.1.12 @ 4:12PM
Oops, meant to write: an interesting...
TLP| 11.1.12 @ 6:58PM
I did write it.
I believe that Jeremiah says that God will send a Hunter to Punish the Jewish People. And, only then, will they be allowed to return to Israel.
WWII ended in 1945.
The Jews returned to Israel in 1948.
Why is this so hard to believe?
God sent the Philistines, the Babylonians, and the Persians to decimate the Israelites. Read the Book of Esther.
Why is it so hard to comprehend that He would send The Huns?
Look it up, in The Bible.
Jeremiah.
WWII ended in 1945, and the Jews returned to Israel TWO YEARS LATER.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
RCV is a Leftist Punk, with The Muslim's dick in his mouth.
And, remember what God has said: MY ways are not your ways.
I stand by my Theory.
You got a problem with that?
I couldn't care less.
Prove me wrong.
Or, STFU.
TLP| 11.1.12 @ 7:11PM
There's nothing Anti-Semitic about it.
Unlike RCV's Boy sitting in a Jew Hater's Church for 20 Years, and his 20 Year FRIENDSHIP with Jew Hater - Louis Farrakhan. Or, the PLO Terrorist Recruiter - Khalid Rashidi. Or, the fact that Hamas believes that Obama is The Deliveror. Or, that he had The Muslim Brotherhood over to The White House, after Bitchslapping Benjamin Netanyahu, and making him leave by the side door, where he keeps his Garbage Cans.
Get the picture?
SUBVET| 11.1.12 @ 8:17PM
Tim.....all of a sudden we have a ship load of trolls and they have stalled here on TAS.
We need to take up a collection to buy a couple of outboards so they will "move a long".
jb| 11.1.12 @ 7:41AM
Christians should certainly pray for Mr. Obama and all of those elected to represent us. However, when these pastors never notice how Obama gives place to Islam, and that he says he never heard Jeremiah Wright curse America, these pastors just don't get it.
The Apostle Paul said men should work with their hands. This President and the democrats in Congress are doing everything they to keep the economy in a hole and people who want to work from finding jobs. This is not Christianity. These so-called evangelicals need to wake up.
Al Adab| 11.1.12 @ 9:32AM
Let us all pray that Mr. Obama, out of office in private life, does discover the good news and comes to an understanding of the Truth. He, like so many of our fellow Americans, has followed the wrong path so long and done much harm, but grace can restore him.
DTOM| 11.1.12 @ 9:49AM
Al;
The littlest president knows the truth - It is Allah and Allah wants you Muslim or dead. Really - it explains everything.
DTOM
PS Notice how the littlest President has been working to make the US economy look just like, say Egypt's economy? He MEANS to do it. It is INTENTIONAL. Smell that coffee, please. DTOM
Al Adab| 11.1.12 @ 3:25PM
Just one of his many errors DTOM. Just as we prayed for the conversion of USSR (and backed it up with action) so we should pray that this president come to know and understand The Truth. We should back that up with action on Nov. 6 as well.
c. j. acworth| 11.1.12 @ 8:36AM
"In God we trust" not politicians. I remember some of my classmates at the Christian college I attended getting all excited about voting for a "real Christian". His name was Jimmy Carter. 'Nuff said.
Derek Leaberry| 11.1.12 @ 10:52AM
Although Christians are flocking to vote for Romney, I wouldn't expect political gratitude or reciprocity from a President Romney. He switched his position on abortion just to win the Republican nomination. And Romney is still very strongly pro-homosexual and even defended homosexuals as Scoutmasters this summer. Which causes one to ask- what kind of parent would allow his son to camp out in the woods with a homosexual? Would Mr. Romney? Or is it that Romney has surrendered on the culture war? I bet it is the latter.
C Smith | 11.1.12 @ 11:27AM
To All Americans in the World,
There was a day when General Sam Houston "ordered" that the Alamo Mission be torched. Yet the remnant of the “First Company of Texas Volunteers” under an azure blue flag emblazoned with the words “God and Liberty” would not "STAND DOWN." In the days that followed 26-year-old Lt. Col. William Barret Travis with a nondescript contingency of 20 Army Regulars, cast his lot with those preferring to "die in these ditches than give up to the enemy."
On February 24, 1836, William Barret Travis Lt. Col. Comdt. of the Alamo mission pleads:
"To the People of Texas and All Americans in the world"
"I am besieged, by a thousand.... The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword.... I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid.... If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country − Victory or Death."
P.S. The Lord is on our side....
C Smith | 11.1.12 @ 11:28AM
On March 3, 1836 in his final communiqué, Travis writes "... if my countrymen do not rally to my relief, I am determined to perish in the defense of this place, and my bones shall reproach my country for her neglect.... All the citizens of this place that have not joined us are with the enemy fighting against us. Let the government declare them public enemies...."
On September 11, 2012 retired U.S. Navy SEAL Senior Chief Petty Officer Tyrone Woods like Lt. Col Travis in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, came to the aid of his compatriots in the Benghazi mission. He would not "STAND DOWN." When his countrymen would not rally to his relief, he perished, his bones reproaching his country for her neglect.
The words and the acts of the righteous have a legacy:
At dawn on the first of March, responding to Travis' plea, Lt. George C. Kimble with his "Immortal 32" fought their way into the beleaguered mission, never to leave. Unbeknown to the besieged defenders, that night in Washington-on-the-Brazos, delegates were frantically preparing the final draft of The Texas Declaration of Independence. The following day declared, "Here a Nation was born." Four days later at dawn, the Alamo's defenders ratified it with their blood.
C Smith | 11.1.12 @ 11:29AM
Within four fortnights, the Texan militia came to the aid of their "fallen" brethren charging Santa Anna's far superior forces, to the rallying cry "Remember the Alamo!" The slaughter that hardly lasted twenty minutes was "frightful to behold", an overwhelming defeat for the merciless Santa Anna who was later found cowering among the multitude of prisoners. That evening peace had come to the commonwealth of Texas.
What is the legacy of Benghazi? In coming days that threaten to be the "Death" of America, will we "STAND UP" and shout the rallying cry "Remember Benghazi"? Taking no prisoners of those who make "lies" their refuge, and by their "silence" make a prisoner of Truth? This our only choice:
"Victory or Death."
http://in-the-name-of-truth.bl.....world.html
C Smith | 11.1.12 @ 11:31AM
"I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brother's and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me..." (President Barack Hussein Obama during a pre-election campaign stop in Albuquerque, N.M.).
Remember little red riding hood and that one particularly intense moment when she says: "Grandmother, what big teeth you have"? No matter how hard the big bad wolf tried, there are some things a wolf just can't fake.
Same with President Obama today. Even with an army of ghost writers scripting the answer for an obviously staged question, faking faith just isn't easy. Here are just a few of the words of Scripture Team Obama got woefully backwards:
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them..." (Matthew 7:12).
http://popularapostasy.blogspo.....st+writers
Tom Kyba| 11.1.12 @ 11:39AM
"His faith has been growing" and "He regularly prays with Obama"? Sure he does. Someone should remind "Pastor" Hunter(who apparently played Father John in The Enforcer) that after 20 years of "regular(haha good one) praying together, Mr. Obama may decide that he doesn't remember the Pastor saying any of those things.
ejp| 11.1.12 @ 3:23PM
Of course every time I see the name of Jim Wallis, I keep recalling the SDS, pro-Communist activist whose 'pacifism' did not extend to demanding CISPES lay down their arms in the name of pacifism.
John II| 11.1.12 @ 6:48PM
Well, I'm too busy grading exams right now, so I'll just post a quote from George Weigel, which Anna from Emory's "noted psychiatrist" (Occie--why didn't you respond to that piece of piffle?!) would doubtless find incomprehensible. Here's a Roman Cath0lic take:
"Catholics who are still pondering their presidential vote will have heard, endlessly, that no political party fully embodies the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. That is certainly true. And it is also largely irrelevant. For the choice in 2012 is not between two parties that, in relative degrees, inadequately embody the Catholic vision of the free and virtuous society. The choice is between a party that inadequately embodies that vision and a party that holds that vision in contempt, as it has made clear in everything from the 'HHS mandate' through the Charlotte convention votes against God to the Lolita ad. Catholics who do not like their Church, or their vote, or themselves to be held in contempt could make the decisive difference in 2012 — not so much as a 'Catholic vote' bloc, but as a community of American citizens determined to restore the decencies to public life and American culture."
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.1.12 @ 7:35PM
"Occie--why didn't you respond to that piece of piffle"
I was thinking the same thing when I first read the post. Then I recalled that previously, OT has indicated that for a psychiatrist to opine about or diagnose the condition of a patient that he has not met or interviewed is a breach of professional standards.
Which of course is why I again concur with your use of quotes.
John II| 11.1.12 @ 8:15PM
I wonder what Theodore Dalrymple would say. He's got that really cool pen name with which to hold forth on professional matters in the guise of a clever amateur.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.1.12 @ 9:41PM
His books on how everything went to hell in Great Britain have been quite instructive.
Rifleman| 11.2.12 @ 1:06AM
Jim Wallis is nothing more than a Democrat in minister's cloth. He was foolish to ever have believed that Obama could, and would, do the things he promised. The naivete of these people is amazing. Obama promised to "heal the planet" and "lower the tide". Just that kind of unbelievable gall should have prepared him for what was to come. A would-be king who sees himself as what we've all been waiting for...
spike59| 11.2.12 @ 5:46AM
ALWAYS entertaining to see the ProgLibDems 'get religion' whenever an election is coming up...