Obama condemns those who seek to 'hijack religion'

[flowers]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150205/us--obama-prayer_breakfast-f3b989dcc5.html

i post this for this sentence.........

"We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion[/i] for their nihilistic ends,"

Our religion, which one? Did he slip?

[rangerrebew]

Obama condemns those who seek to 'hijack religion'


 
 

Feb 5, 11:11 AM (ET)

By NEDRA PICKLER
 
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned those who seek to use religion as a rationale for carrying out violence around the world, declaring that "no god condones terror."

"We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilistic ends," Obama said during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He singled out the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, calling the militants a "death cult," as well as those responsible for last month's terror attacks in Paris and deadly assault on a school in Pakistan.

Obama offered a special welcome to a "good friend," the Dalia Lama, seated at a table in front of the dais among the audience of 3,600. Earlier Obama, seated at the head table, pressed his hands together in a prayer-like position and bowed his head toward the Dalai Lama, then gave him a wave and a broad smile.

It was the first time the president and the Tibetan Buddhist leader attended the same public event, with China objecting to foreign leaders meeting with the Dalai Lama because of his quest for greater Tibetan autonomy from Beijing. Obama's three previous meetings with the Dalai Lama have been private because of the sensitivity of the situation.

But in a show of White House support for the Dalai Lama, he was seated at a table with top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Actor Richard Gere, a friend and follower of the Dalai Lama, was also nearby. Meanwhile, outside, hundreds of demonstrators banged drums and waved Tibetan flags under heavy police presence.

The Dalai Lama fled to exile in India after a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. Obama on Thursday called him "a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion and who inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings."

The president joked that it's a rare event that can bring together the Dalai Lama and NASCAR, after retired driver and commentator Darrell Waltrip gave the keynote address. Waltrip told how he had accepted Jesus Christ as his savoir after a 1993 crash left him wondering what would happen if he died.

"If you've never gotten on your knees and asked him to forgive you of your sins, you're just a pretty good guy or a pretty good gal? You're going to go to hell," Waltrip said.

Obama had a more non-denominational message for the audience that also included prominent leaders of non-Christian faiths. The president said that while religion is a source for good around the world, people of all faiths have been willing to "hijack religion for their own murderous ends."

 
"Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

"So it is not unique to one group or one religion," Obama said. "There is a tendency in us, a simple tendency that can pervert and distort our faith."

Obama called for all people of faiths to show humility about their beliefs and reject the idea that "God speaks only to us and doesn't speak to others."

Jordan's King Abdullah II canceled plans to attend the breakfast after Islamic State militants released a video this week showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned to death. In his place, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Wisc., offered prayers for Jordan and read the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan who saved a stranger who had been beaten and left for dead.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150205/us--obama-prayer_breakfast-f3b989dcc5.html

[rangerrebew]

Obama to Christians: Get Off Your High Horse

Posted on February 5, 2015, 11:02 am by Keith Koffler • 59 Comments


President Obama today said he and other Christians should not “get on our high horse” with respect to the ISIS rampages in the name of religion, suggesting that Christians had done similar things in the name of their religion during the crusades and with slavery in the United States.

Obama listed the many outrages throughout the world being carried out unjustly in the name of Islam. But then he added:

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2015/02/05/obama-christians-high-horse/
Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ . . .

So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.

Obama went on to describe how religious sects in India were attacking each other in ways “that would have shocked” Gandhi.

[rangerrebew]

Obama Attacks Free Speech at Prayer Breakfast

Posted on February 5, 2015, 11:32 am by Keith Koffler • 23 Comments


President Obama used the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning to undermine one of the Constitution’s most fundamental rights, suggesting those who demean Islam are abusing the use of free speech.

While acknowledging that Americans have “a legal right” to attack another’s religion, Obama said everyone should question those “who would insult others in the name of free speech,” indicating such insults were a misuse of the right. Similarly, Obama’s called for “civility” – a demand he has issued before but not always abided by himself – suggesting a desire that people censor their own speech.

As has been often said, the Founders’ free speech protections were not designed to safeguard polite conversation. They were exactly meant for speech that might offend.

Obama said:


There’s wisdom in our founders writing in those documents that help found this nation the notion of freedom of religion, because they understood the need for humility. They also understood the need to uphold freedom of speech, that there was a connection between freedom of speech and freedom of religion. For to infringe on one right under the pretext of protecting another is a betrayal of both.

But part of humility is also recognizing in modern, complicated, diverse societies, the functioning of these rights, the concern for the protection of these rights calls for each of us to exercise civility and restraint and judgment. And if, in fact, we defend the legal right of a person to insult another’s religion, we’re equally obligated to use our free speech to condemn such insults — (applause) — and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with religious communities, particularly religious minorities who are the targets of such attacks.

Just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t question those who would insult others in the name of free speech. Because we know that our nations are stronger when people of all faiths feel that they are welcome, that they, too, are full and equal members of our countries.

For Obama to lump himself in with other citizens who might criticize anti-islamist speech is also a dangerous precedent. Obama isn’t just any other citizen. He is the president of the United States, with vast law enforcement resources at his disposal, and his attacks on the speech of others, however offensive the speech is, can have a chilling effect on the right of free expression.

The remarks castigating those who attack Islam also are an indirect criticism of cartoonists at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, who drew caricatures of Mohammed and were killed for it.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2015/02/05/obama-attacks-free-speech-prayer-breakfast/

[mountaineer]

Welcome to Bizarro World.

[240B]

The point is that we are all ISIS.
What he is saying is that all "religion", as he calls it, is bad.
Christianity is the same as Islam. They Yazidis are the same as ISIS. They have been beheading and raping children for centuries.

Look. In all reality (if that still exists anymore), Obama is mentally deranged. He is not normal. He has so much 'hate' that he cannot swallow it all.

It is my humble opinion, that if Obama was not President, and not too stoned, he would join with ISIS along with them. That seems to be where his preferences lie.

I mean, I'm just saying, he seems to be a very passionate Islamist. And I am only going by what he says and does, day by day.

[ArneFufkin]

The guy in the most powerful political office in the world seems truly incapable of either discerning, or acknowledging, good from evil.   Truth from lie.

He's a sociopath.

[Bigun]

The guy in the most powerful political office in the world seems truly incapable of either discerning, or acknowledging, good from evil.   Truth from lie.

He's a sociopath.

Yeah! We noticed!

[mountaineer]

Here's an interesting perspective from the head of a conservative Presbyterian organization:

Did you catch what the President did not say?
by Carmen Fowler LaBerge
The Layman online



Like you, I’ve heard what the President said at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. But did you hear what he didn’t say?

Yes, speaking about the barbaric hideous murderous violence that man perpetrates against man, the President said: “Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

Was this a jab at Christians? Maybe, but maybe not.  The President did not say that “Christians” had committed terrible deeds nor justified slavery. He said that terrible deeds and slavery had been justified “in the name of Christ.”  The President’s words are carefully chosen and his speeches carefully crafted and he would not have delivered those barbs without forethought.

So, parsing out what he said from what he didn’t say–what’s the difference?

The President consistently rejects that terrorist groups like ISIS and Boko-Haram are Muslim. He continually seeks to segregate them from what he perceives to be the majority Muslim faith. If you understand that, you can easily connect the dots to what he was trying to communicate at the Prayer Breakfast.

Were the Crusades and the Inquisition “Christian” or were they “done in the name of Christ” while perverting the Way of Christ?

Are ISIS and Boko-Haram “Muslim” or are they doing what they are doing “in the name of Allah” while perverting the way of Islam?

Serious debate surrounds the answer to that question but you can see the parallel that the President was seeking to draw. Maybe he could have said it better, but let us not say that he said something he didn’t say. Remember, words matter.

Now, to read an excellent assessment of why the President should not have said what he chose to say, read this from Front Page.

[240B]

Every time I listen to anything Obama, or any Democrat really, says, my IQ drops by 2 points.

[mountaineer]

Every time I listen to anything Obama, or any Democrat really, says, my IQ drops by 2 points.

That, and my blood pressure goes up by at least 30.

[Bigun]

Every time I listen to anything Obama, or any Democrat really, says, my IQ drops by 2 points.

And the fact that you know what they are going to say before they say it makes it extremely tedious as well.

[Fishrrman]

240b wrote above:
[[ Every time I listen to anything Obama, or any Democrat really, says, my IQ drops by 2 points ]]

My IQ ain't so good to begin with, so I don't bother to listen.
I don't want it droppin' any lower!

But I'm glad you're listenin' for me!

[olde north church]

Actually, he surprised me.  I was certain he would have used the term "deity", rather than god.  Like some knuckle-head Star Trek fan.  Well, deity or "belief system".

[mountaineer]

Watch this 5-minute video from Dr. Bill Warner comparing and contrasting jihad and the Crusades. A little truth for Obama, perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_To-cV94Bo