Maybe it will take this time, maybe he really will…
I thought that Dan Barker would sue Barack Obama and sue George Washington but he did not, he comes close but not too close.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation was established in the USA, a country premised on the concept of freedom of religious expression. Presidents such as Thomas Jefferson, deist or not, attended Christina worship services in the Capitol Building. The Declaration of Independence affirms that our right are given to us by our “Creator…nature’s God” and that the government protects our God given rights.
Yet, a-historically minded atheists continue to confuse “separation of church and state” with the USA Constitution’s Establishment Clause and this leads them to virtually file lawsuits if someone says, “God bless you” after someone sneezes on government property.
Well, Hillary Clinton is sure to be the next target of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s tireless efforts to make a living by filing lawsuits in order to claim martyr victimhood status and beg for donations.
On February 4, 2010 AD she gave the Keynote Address at the 58th National Prayer Breakfast.
She referred to herself as “a person of faith,” reviewed her “faith journey” urged other to “living out your faith” and stated, “my spirit has been lifted by the musicians and the singers who have shared their gifts in praising the Lord with us.”
Setting aside the possibility of political machinations let us listen to her without prejudice and consider some of the interesting, touching and odd things she stated.
She asked the classic question, “who defines good?” (something that I explored, in part, in the essay “A Good Person”). This is something with which she has apparently wrestled as she retells of building an orphanage at the urging of Mother Teresa even whilst supporting the brutal and painful dismembering murder of healthy, beautiful, innocent and defenseless human babies with every vote.
She notes:
When I traveled to Goma, I saw in a single day the best and the worst of humanity. I met with women who had been savaged and brutalized physically and emotionally, victims of gender and sexual-based violence in a place where law, custom, and even faith did little to protect them.
But I also saw courageous women who, by faith, went back into the bush to find those who, like them, had been violently attacked. I saw the doctors and the nurses who were helping to heal the wounds, and I saw so many who were there because their faith led them to it…As we look at the world today and we reflect on the overwhelming response of outpouring of generosity to what happened in Haiti, I’m reminded of the story of Elijah. After he goes to Mount Horeb, we read that he faced “a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence – a still small voice.” It was then that Elijah heard the voice of the Lord. It is often when we are only quiet enough to listen that we do as well. It’s something we can do at any time, without a disaster or a catastrophe provoking it. It shouldn’t take that.
She also stated:
But the teachings of every religion call us to care for the poor, tell us to visit the orphans and widows, to be generous and charitable, to alleviate suffering. All religions have their version of the Golden Rule and direct us to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner. But how often in the midst of our own lives do we respond to that? All of these holy texts, all of this religious wisdom from these very different faiths call on us to act out of love.
This is commonly stated yet one would certainly like to see quotations and citations as evidence. For example, there is only one Golden Rule and it is unique in that it is proactive and not passive as are the so called others.
In politics, we sometimes talk about message discipline – making sure everyone uses the same set of talking points. Well, whoever was in charge of message discipline on these issues for every religion certainly knew what they were doing.
Indeed, and that was God who leaves no one unguided; having written His law in our hearts which is then administered via our consciences.
Note the words of one time atheist, the late-C. S. Lewis:
If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake.
If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race has always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.
She also took “religion” to task. Something with which one many levels I agree (as I elucidated in The Most Anti-Religion Book Ever Published):
all too often it is religion that is the force that drives and sustains division rather than being the healing balm…
across the world, we see organized religion standing in the way of faith, perverting love, undermining that message…religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples. From Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan to Nigeria and the Middle East, religion is used a club to deny the human rights of girls and women, from the Gulf to Africa to Asia, and to discriminate, even advocating the execution of gays and lesbians. Religion is used to enshrine in law intolerance of free expression and peaceful protest. Iran is now detaining and executing people under a new crime – waging war against God…
So in the Obama Administration…[is] following up on the President’s historic speech at Cairo with outreach efforts to Muslims..
We are…speaking up about the perversion of religion, and in particularly the use of it to promote and justify terrorism, but also seeking to find common ground. We are working with Muslim nations to come up with an appropriate way of demonstrating criticism of religious intolerance without stepping over into the area of freedom of religion or non-religion and expression.
Again, much truth here, much rightful condemnation of “religion” much. It is interesting that 99% of the time, she should have been saying “Islam” or even “radical Islam” or “extremist Islam” rather than generically referencing “religion” or “organized religion.”
FYI: The Encyclopedia of Wars (New York: Facts on File, 2005) was compiled by nine history professors who specifically conducted research for the text for a decade in order to chronicle 1,763 wars. The survey of wars covers a time span from 8000 BC to 2003 AD. From over 10,000 years of war 123, which is 6.98 percent, are considered to have been religious.
On an inspiring note, she also stated:
Scripture urges us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up.” Even in places where God’s presence and promise seems fleeting and unfulfilled or completely absent, the power of one person’s faith and the determination to act can help lead a nation out of darkness…
looking at some of our pictures from the disaster [in Haiti]…I also saw men and women helping one another, digging through the rubble, dancing and singing in the makeshift communities that they were building up. And I thought again that as the scripture reminds us, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed”…
let us pray that we can sustain the force and the feeling that we find in our hearts and in our faith in the aftermath of such tragedies. Let us pray that we will all continue to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Let us pray that amid our differences, we can continue to see the power of faith not only to make us whole as individuals, to provide personal salvation, but to make us a greater whole and a greater force for good on behalf of all creation…
God bless you. (Applause.)
She is sooooooo busted, this is Freedom From Religion Foundation fodder. Your governmental reference to “faith” “God” and “prayer” is their bread and butter:
“it’s like butter, baby, it’s like butter, it’s like butter, baby, it’s like butter, it’s like butter, baby, not Parkay, no margine, strictly butter baby”—Tribe Called Quest