I guess I'm reneging on my promise to cover another subject but I definitely have to address the continuing assaul BY (yes, that's exactly what I mean) religion on our President. I know, I know the claim is that he is the one doing the assaulting but that's clearly not the truth and I would like to remind all those Christians who follow the Judaic 10 commandments that "bearing false witness against one's neighbor" is definitely STILL a sin. The recent lies are not only being told by ordinary, run of the mill politicians but their surrogate leaders (Christian ministers of the Gospel) in this attempt not only to besmirch the Presidents identity as a Christian but to accuse him of not behaving like a GOOD Christian.
Before you ask, yes....I was a Christian. I studied the bible on my own and with scholars who wrote about their research on both biblical history and the history of the Christian religion. I do not believe this makes me an expert by any means but I do believe that I know a great deal more about Christianity than the ordinary practitioner of the Christian faith. I will address what's going on here as what is both historically correct concerning the Christian movement as well as my personal belief that while Christians are much more accepting of each other than in any other time in history, there are still those who wish to make it clear that there are REAL Christians and and there are those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ while pursuing another, possibly a more sinful way. Those making the claims that Mr. Obama is not a true Christian are those who like to believe that they are TRUE and only those who believe as they do are REAL Christians.
Christianity, almost from the very beginning, began to TEST for who was a true follower or disciple of Jesus Christ. As the Church began to gain more secular power, these tests took on deadly consequences for those not true to what the Church had decided was the way of Christ. Most were called Heretics (which actually comes from the Greek meaning to see things differently). For those, determined to be heretics (by the leadership of the community), which ranged from Jews to other Christian groups, the punishment could be severe--banishment from the community or even death. Mr. Obama is being put to the test and it is a very true expression of the Christian movement. There are whole groups of believers that have gone into oblivion because of the Church's determination about their worthiness to the faith of Christ. While the Church no longer has that power, there are among certain believers and their ministers, the belief that these heretics must be rooted out because they are "dangerous" to the community of believers who ARE true. It is exactly why there are so many different denominations among Christians today. Each group splintered off another group because they believed there was a better way to BE Christian. Fortunately for most everyone else, this has kept them very busy for at least the last couple of centures and longer if you count the first successful splinter when the Eastern Orthodox split from the Roman Catholic around 1050.
Mr. Obama was first accused of being a Muslim by many Christians who realized that his name didn't sound very American--it sounded too much like the dictator we ousted in Iraq who was definitely not a Muslim even tho his name sounded like he was raised by Muslims. This assumption allowed them to bear false witness with impunity claiming that the birth certificate he released was not his true birth certificate. When many voices rose up to challenge this lie about the President, the Christian leaders kicked in their own problem by casting aspersions on his claim to be Christian. They assaulted his Health Care plan saying IT challenged the Catholic belief that artificial birth control should not and could not be practiced by good Catholics. Thus "forcing" a Church affiliated Hospital or School to comply with buying insurance which would give any employee (whether they were Catholic or not) access to its use; making it an assault on the Church's religious liberty. Are you still with me?
Christianity is not one set of rules for everyone, it is a different set of rules for each and every denomination so when Christian leaders attack the President's Christianity, they are really doing nothing out of the ordinary. In the very nature of the belief system is the need to pick out "those who see things differently" and condemn them. Thus preserving the sanctity of their particular set of dogmas and doctrines. As I said earlier, we are living in an era when Christians are more ecumenical (finding more ways to connect with one another) but it's clear, when you look at how they are dealing with the president, that they haven't forgotten their need to drive out the one who is perceived to be different. As a matter of fact, I am just old enough to remember another president who was attacked on the campaign trail by the some of the same groups of Christians because he was Catholic. They feared a Catholic president because they feared interference by the Pope in our internal affairs. It didn't matter that those days were long past, they "remembered" the Theocracy that drove them to seek out a place where they could practice their faith without fear of punishment or persecution. They railed against his Catholic upbringing, his Catholic beliefs, his Catholic wife and children and even his Catholic parents and brothers and sisters. But President Kennedy stepped over their fears as easily as a man steps over a crack in the sidewalk. And while the fear mongers among some Christian groups keep railing against him---others discovered that the Pope had no more influence over our internal affairs than a pesky nat!
But now the real meat of my argument lies in the Constitution of the United States of America. Perhaps the religious leaders don't realize what they are doing or perhaps they believe they can get away with it because "they are right"! But there are many political leaders who are allowing them to do their dirty work so THEY won't be accused of doing something that is patently UNconstitutional. What is that, you might ask? Well, my dears, pull out your copy of the constitution (if you don't have one, you can get one online or in any book store for just a few dollars--well worth the investment of time and or money) and open it to Article VI which says: ...."No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any Office or public trust under the United States". You might say that no religious test is being reequired but I say that while there is no official test of our President's religion--he is being tested by Christian leaders in the ultra-conservative media that has no problem skewing this man's Christian faith when they never challenged the idiotic claims that he was a secret Muslim or that he wasn't born in the United States (I guess they don't recognize Hawaii as a state). They let these false claims drag on and even contributed to them. But now it's time to stop. It's time to accept that whille no "official" religious test is being implemented, a very unofficial one is being used to drag him down. The official crowd stands back and watches with glee as the unofficial test grows. They can't be accused of anything but watching the people do what they know is unconstitutional. Maybe you saw them step around the questions about Obama's faith preferring to not step in it. But many of them are guilty of the sin of ommission--failing to counter the lies. Christians please don't allow yourselves to be used by these self-serving politicians who are leading you into "bearing false witness against your president".
Are you with me?
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