The more I ponder the President’s comment yesterday to religious leaders that we Americans are “neglecting to live out” the call to the”ethical and moral obligation [to] look out for one another,” the more it troubles me. It sounds more like the a preacher’s admonition to a wayward flock to mend their selfish ways lest they suffer fire and brimstone than of a President’s appeal to act in the national interest.
Victor Davis Hanson finds the invocation of at the “moral argument comes at the eleventh hour” somewhat “creepy,” asking, “isn’t the use of religion as a political tool precisely what Obama and others have objected to in the Christian Right?”
Indeed, Obama’s religious appeal doesn’t seem to trouble those ever ready to denounce his predecessor for letting his faith guide his politics and for hobnobbing with socially conserative religious leaders. Now, no one seems concerned that Obama is attempting to enlist more socially liberal religious leaders in his push for greater government control over the economy, even asking Reform rabbis to address the subject in their High Holy Day sermons.
It is this creepy mixing of religion and politics which really troubles me, a political leader defining a government program in religious terms, asking us to turn to government to fulfill our moral obligations to our fellows. And his presumption that we’re neglecting to act out of that obligation, effectively ignoring the abundant examples of charitable good works done everyday by citizens across the political spectrum and holding a variety of political beliefs.
UPDATE: Commenting on the same interview I reference above, Ann Althouse writes, Obama would like you to see government as religion (h/t Glenn).
Obama’s church in addition to saying G-D America is part of a tradition of the religous left. They ran ads on their tolerance of gays and outsiders and consider public universal health care a “Christian Mission”
“And his presumption that we’re neglecting to act out of that obligation,”
That is Obama projecting onto the rest of us *his* lack of voluntary giving.
He and Michelle were quite miserly in their charitable contributions, save a few grand given to Rev. Wright’s “church”.
Furthermore, when you consider how Barack Obama and the Obama Party don’t pay taxes, they’re really getting a good deal; free health care at the expense of everyone else.
So, it’s not only personal and economic responsibility that the left wants to shift to the state, but also ethical and moral responsibility?
What is left of an individual’s humanity when everything that makes us human has been shifted to a political and bureaucratic entity?
#4, did you ever see the movie the “Time Machine” by H.G. Wells or read the book by the same title? Remember the Morlocks and the Eloi? In answer to your question, I believe the Eloi is what one will become. Unable to do anything for them selves, completely reliant on their providers, even their food was gathered for them, just like a cow. Now, I realize that H.G. Wells was a socialist; however, maybe he was predicting the future after all. Interesting how science fiction seems to for-tell the future. Perhaps you all have discussed this before?
Since “ethics” is my field, I might point out that one can not “neglect ethical obligations.”
If one is acting in accord with the ethos of the society, one is not obligated, but ethical. If one is purposely acting against the ethos of the society, he is immoral. If one is acting without regard to the ethos of the society as a matter of convenience, he is amoral.
Certainly, Obama and his gang of righteous Obamanauts can hope and change the ethos of the society so that prevailing view of “the good” includes government control of health care. Canadians, generally, look to their government to give them health care. Apparently, most of them are happy enough with what they get. But, if a majority of citizens of the United States see government health care as a threat to their assumptions of heath care, that is not “unethical”. Nor is it immoral or even amoral.
I bristle when any politician wanders into bloviating about “ethics.” While I believe a whore can be raped, I do not believe that a politician can set the standard for the ethos of the society.
I’m pissed but not surprised that the prez had a teleconference with 1000 Reform Rabbis telling them they together they are partners with God.
So I guess they now have the topic of their High Holiday sermon – obamacare is god’s will.
I don’t go to a Reform Temple, but if this topic comes up in either of the Rabbi’s sermon, they will be hearing from me big time!!!
So President Bush’s conflagration of religion and politics in the eight years he was in office gets nary a comment on GayPatriot but suddenly Obama addressing religious leaders on health care reform as a “moral conviction” to help each other out is “troubling” and “creepy.”
Double standard much?
#8 – “President Bush’s conflagration of religion and politics in the eight years he was in office”
Sources, please.
Regards,
Peter H.
So President Bush’s conflagration of religion and politics in the eight years he was in office gets nary a comment on GayPatriot but suddenly Obama addressing religious leaders on health care reform as a “moral conviction” to help each other out is “troubling” and “creepy.”
Feel free to point out where President Bush ordered a group of religious leaders to go out and sell a bill he was pushing to their congregations.
Then, if you manage to dig something even remotely on that order up, be sure to look for what your fellow leftists were saying about it at that point in time.
Then compare to what you’re doing now for Obama, which is making excuses for and rationalizing his behavior.
Indeed, I thought left-liberals were supposed to be against theocracy.
But the “creepiness” is more fundamental than that. Obama proposes to enslave people. Obama proposes to use government force on people to make them finance ever-larger government bureaucracies, encompassing more and more of their lives. There is nothing moral about it. Indeed, it is immoral. The fact that Obama now wants to dress it up as alleged “morality” just shows how far our civil society has sunk, how much human language has been degraded and in how much danger we are.
Bush prayed “for the strength to do the Lord’s will” which included invading a country on specious claims, torturing people in secret black sites and leaving up to 100,000 civilians dead in Iraq.
Obama reminds religious leaders of our “ethical and moral obligation [to] look out for one another,” by supporting affordable health care for all American citizens.
Which of these things sound more Christian?
Which is a perfectly legitimate prayer, something that virtually every U.S. President says he does. Include all Democrats (ever careful to pretend they’re religious).
Fail, Countervail. If you are out to prove the GOP were theocratic, you’re going to have to do a lot better than that. Turning to the Lord for wisdom and strengthening in the will to do the right thing, isn’t theocracy. But telling the nation’s religious leaders that they are obligated to support you, sure is.
Oh and P.S. – your claims about Bush supposedly “invading a country on specious claims, torturing people in secret black sites and leaving up to 100,000 civilians dead in Iraq” were and are, of course, total bullsh*t. Fail again. (Hints: *Terrorists* left some 50,000, not 100,000 civilians dead in Iraq. Blame them. And the other two claims are just nutty.)
Humm…Countervail wants to talk Theocracy and would never dare to actually quote Scripture passages…the epitomy of hypocrisy!!! Let’s see…Obama doesnt actually care for his relative in Africa…Fact!!! You dont actually believe in the Bible…Fact!!! So, how do you actually justify resorting to using any type of Biblical Text as supporting your position???
Your lies about Bush aside since he never did any of those things (lying, by the way, is un-Christian, immoral and unethical), but having removed Saddam on valid and truthful claims, used methods that fall FAR short of torture to interrogate enemies and save American lives, and doing his damn best to protect the Iraqi people from insurgents, terrorists, Iranians and Baathists he never claimed ANY of it was God’s will. He only said that he asks God to guide him. A huge difference, and a very Christian behavior.
Obama wants no such thing! He wont even look out for his own brother who lives on $12/year in a shack in Africa, nor his grandmother (?), an illegal immigrant who lives in public housing.
Lying is very un-Christian. And that is exactly what he is doing. He doesn’t want us to look out for one another, he wants us to turn each other over to government so we dont HAVE to look after one another.
Thousands of senior citizens died in France during a heatwave a few years back. They died for no other reason than because it was hot and they were neglected. Why were they neglected? Because France has socialized health care and people have stopped looking out for eachother as they always do in socialized systems, and dumped that responsibility on government. Indeed, that is what socialized medicine is at its very core — an abdication of personal responsibility and responsibility to look out for one another. Socialism says you are entitled to everything and government, not you, not your employer, not your family, friends and neighbors, but government is responsible for providing it to you.
And what Jesus taught us was to render unto government that which is governments, but he spend his life teaching that charity and good works and ALL his lessons were NOT something we should render unto government but something we were personally responsible for.
The very idea that Jesus would teach us to turn our neighbors lives and liberty over to government or that we should schlep the needy off on government instead of helping them ourselves is antithetical to his teachings.
Maybe there is something to these “Obama is the anti-Christ” rumblings after all!
we Americans are “neglecting to live out” the call to the”ethical and moral obligation [to] look out for one another,”
I think we’re doing just that and he’s smearing us for it.
Bush prayed “for the strength to do the Lord’s will” which included invading a country on specious claims, torturing people in secret black sites and leaving up to 100,000 civilians dead in Iraq
Citation Needed.
Besides, I thought the study Soros paid for “found” 650,000 civilians dead. Why the low ball?
The funny part about Countervail’s blabbering is that Barack Obama’s church believes that Hamas is “doing the Lord’s will” when they kidnap, imprison, torture, and murder Jews, other Palestinians who disagree with them, and so forth. Heck, they even cite Hamas in their church newsletters as a model for social services.
Obama does not know Scripture since he claimed that the commandment is “to be my brother’s keeper” That is not correct.
In Genesis Cain asks God “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and that was the response after Cain had murdered Able… hmmm…
The 10 Commands are summed up as:
1. Love God
2. Love thy neighbour as thyself.
However, it does not say “be your brother’s keeper”.
These are the commandments that are supposed to lead to justice – to look after the widows and the orphans etc. Yet it is still not about being “thy brother’s keeper”.
Justice means not taking away from people and the fact is that the Obummer health proposal is meant to take away from one group of people. To be sure middle income earners will be scratching to make a living.
Still waiting for Counter-to-no-avail to provide sources for his diarrhea of the mouth.
Regards,
Peter H.