Liberals continue their hysteria over remarks made by Dr. Ben
Carson at the National Prayer Breakfast last week. Carson, a
prominent pediatric surgeon from Johns Hopkins University, dared to
weigh in on healthcare — something he knows something about, and
certainly knows better than Barack Obama. In the liberal mind,
Carson committed a grave transgression; he had dared to disagree
with Obama, and in Obama’s presence.
In a discussion of Carson’s moral effrontery, Candy Crowley,
host of CNN’s State of the Union, asked her panelists
whether they were offended by Carson’s comments. “He [Carson] was
talking about the idea of, you know, weaving the Bible into some
objections he appears to have with the president’s approach,”
said Crowley, as if the president would never likewise do
anything so outrageous. Count Democratic Congresswoman Jan
Schakowsky among the offended. She told Crowley: “I think it’s… not
really an appropriate place to make this kind of political speech
and to invoke God as his [Carson’s] support for that kind of point
of view.”
In truth, what the likes of Crowley and Schakowsky object to is
the mere fact that someone publicly disagreed with Obama on
healthcare, and especially in the context of faith. This was sheer
blasphemy. For liberal Democrats, conservative Republicans are
never permitted to use their faith to disagree; no, only liberal
Democrats enjoy such freedoms. I could give a thousand examples
illustrating the point; I’ve written entire books doing so. For
now, however, here are some particularly salient examples involving
Obama, liberals, and healthcare reform:
From the very first year of Obama’s presidency, the Religious
Left (Obama included) incessantly claimed God’s support for their
vision of healthcare reform. This was no surprise whatsoever, just
as it was no surprise that the liberal press was not only not
outraged but silently supportive. There was nary a whimper of
protest from liberal journalists, let alone their usual howls (when
a Republican cites his faith) of “separation of church and
state!”
For instance, in August 2009,
Obama addressed a “virtual gathering” of 140,000 Religious Left
individuals. It was a huge conference call to liberal Christians,
Jews, and other people of faith. Obama told them that he was “going
to need your help” in passing healthcare reform. Christ-like, Obama
penitently invoked a period of “40 Days,” a trial of deliverance
from conservative evildoers. He lifted up the brethren, assuring
them, “We are God’s partner in matters of life and death.”
Like a great commissioning, in the 40 Days that followed the
Religious Left was filled with the spirit, confidently spreading
the word, pushing for — among other things — abortion funding as
part of an eternally widening “social justice” agenda. A group
called the Religious Institute, which represented 4,800 clergy,
urged Congress to include abortion funding in “healthcare” reform.
To not help poor women secure their reproductive rights
was unjust, declared the progressive pastors. As the Rev. Debra
Hafner, executive director of the Religious Institute, complained,
federal policy already “unfairly prevents low-income women and
federal employees from receiving subsidized” abortions.
Here we see the Religious Left’s continued perversion of “social
justice.” Behold: social justice abortions.
Other Religious Left faithful joined Obama’s crusade.
A group of 59 leftist nuns sent Congress a letter urging passage
of Obamacare. This was in direct defiance of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, which insisted the bill “must be
opposed” because of its refusal to explicitly ban abortion funding.
The liberal media cheered on the nuns, gleefully exaggerating the
sisters’ influence. In a breathtaking display, the Los Angeles
Times beamed, “Nuns’ support for health-care bill shows
[Catholic] Church split.” Amazingly, the Times reported
that the nuns’ letter represented not 59 nuns but 59,000. Like
Jesus with the loaves, the Times (normally militantly
secular) had demonstrated miraculous powers of multiplication. Hey,
anything for Obama.
The nuns’ brazenness was matched by Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi, a Roman Catholic, who, in March 2010, invoked the Solemnity
of the Feast of St. Joseph on behalf of Obamacare. She urged
American Catholics to “pray to St. Joseph” — earthly guardian of
the unborn son of God.
All of that was prelude to what happened the evening of March
21, 2010, A.D., with a rare vote not merely on a Sunday — God’s day
— but the final Sunday in Lent, the week before Palm Sunday that
initiates the Lord’s Passion. Obama’s healthcare bill was passed by
his Democratic Congress. To Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and the
Religious Left faithful, Jesus had gotten his healthcare package,
and they had been his faithful handmaidens.
Amid that process, secular liberals in the press suddenly got
religion — modern-day Sauls on the road to Damascus. Their
political soul mates in the Democratic Party had spearheaded this
“change” in the name of Jesus Christ, and liberal journalists found
themselves moved to tears at the inspiring display. It was a rather
radical departure from the eight years they had just spent
scourging George W. Bush every time he merely confessed that he
prayed. At long last, there was room for Jesus in the inn, so long
as the Savior stood in “support” of the Democrats’ “progressive”
agenda.
If all of that seems hypocritical enough from liberals, in light
of their castigation of Dr. Ben Carson, consider this final glaring
double standard:
The coup de grâce from Obama came in no less than the
National Prayer Breakfast two years ago, February 3, 2011. Obama
stated: “But sometimes what I can do to try to improve the economy
or to curb foreclosures or to help deal with the healthcare system
— sometimes it seems so distant and so remote, so profoundly
inadequate to the enormity of the need. And it is my faith, then,
that biblical injunction to serve the least of these, that keeps me
going and that keeps me from being overwhelmed.”
Yes, Barack Obama, at the National Prayer Breakfast, had invoked
his faith and the Bible on behalf of healthcare reform — much like
he has done on behalf of gay marriage and a litany of other liberal
agenda items.
Question for Ms. Crowley and Rep. Schakowsky and liberals
everywhere: Was this appropriate? Are you offended? No, of course,
you aren’t.
But now, ladies and gentlemen, here comes a heretic, one Ben
Carson, pediatric surgeon, and a vile sinner. He disagreed with
Obama and the mass of liberal faithful. He did so on the issue of
healthcare, at a prayer breakfast. His price: political
excommunication and denunciation. In Alinsky fashion, he must now
be isolated and demonized. The Religious Left grabs its stones to
cast them at the good doctor.
How dare Ben Carson mention healthcare at the National Prayer
Breakfast! How dare he disagree with Obama!
Photo: UPI
