LIFE IN THE ASYLUM

OBAMA'S RELIGION

"The truth is that Barak Obama is
a committed and active Christian."

         Of what, if any, religious faith is our current President? This, unfortunately, is one of many questions about him to which the American people have no answers. For the first time in U.S. history, our people were asked to vote for, and now to vote a second time for, a man about whom less is known than any other president. Our disgrace of a “media” made sure of that, asking no question and reporting no item that might, in the most trivial way, derail the Hope and Change president from his destiny.

Unfortunately, the steady, moderate, electable John McCain did more than his share to keep us in the dark about Hope and Change. In 2008, believe it or not, McCain hired one Mark McKinnon as his “chief advertising strategist.” This in spite of the fact that McKinnon had told him he would not work against an Obama candidacy. McKinnon said that Mr. Obama’s election to the presidency “would send a great message to the country and the world.” McKinnon reportedly told McCain on more than one occasion that if McCain said anything disparaging about Obama, McKinnon would be “outta here.”

So why does Obama’s religious belief, if any, matter? That is, aside from the quaint notion that a free people should be entitled to have some information about the person they are asked to vote for? And aside from his recent demands that the Catholic Church violate its millennia-old religious beliefs and provide free condoms and abortifacients to all of its employees?  And aside from his self-described “spiritual mentor” having a propensity to rage from his pulpit that God should “damn America”?

Granted the Constitution explicitly prohibits a religious test for president. But nowhere in the document does it suggest a candidate has the right to cruise through one or more entire election processes without divulging anything whatsoever about his background or his personal beliefs. In fact, it presupposes a vigorous free press and a vigorous political opposition, neither of which seemed to be functioning in 2008.

Had the system functioned as it should, we might not have had to take the word of such as “Obama For America” about his “committed and active” Christianity. We would know a lot more about his religious, philosophical, and intellectual aspects had we learned how he presented himself on his applications to Occidental College, Columbia, and Harvard; what courses he took; what professors he preferred; what, if anything, he wrote; what grades he got; what he majored in. We learned none of that.

 But lets move on to 2012. Candidate Rick Santorum questioned the nature of Obama’s “faith” and the White House shrieked that Santorum went “well over the line.” Investors’ Business Daily has an excellent analysis of that exchange here. The "truth" from the opening quotation above might more accurately have read “. . . that Barack Obama is a committed and active Marxist.”

Afghan protesters burn Barak Obama in effigy, 2/22/12

At the least he seems to have a greater affinity for Islam than for Christianity. Recently he apologized to Afghanistan (and all of Islam) for the inadvertent burning of the Muslim Holy Book, proclaiming that those responsible will 
be “held accountable.” How we shall hold “accountable” Americans who carried out an admittedly “inadvertent” act should prove interesting. But several other 
things should also prove interesting:

1)  In the aftermath of the inadvertent act, many decidedly intentional acts took place, including an Afghan in military uniform walking up to and shooting to death two U.S. military personnel. Did we hear our Commander-in-Chief demand an apology from Hamid Karzai for those murder? Or demand that the Afghan shooter be “held accountable”?

2)  In the same aftermath the Taliban on Thursday called on Afghans to attack foreign troops, and their spokesman issued a statement ordering its commanders to embrace and protect the families of any Afghan policeman or soldier who turns his gun on foreign troops. "Call them heroes," he said. Shall we hold our breath waiting for our Commander-in-Chief to rethink his plan to negotiate with the Taliban?


3) Obviously the Taliban spokesman's statement was more powerful than our Commander-in-Chief's obsequious apology.  Today [2/25/12] two American officers were found dead of gunshot wounds deep inside the heavily fortified Afghan interior ministry.  "There is CCTV there and special locks.  The killer would have had to have the highest security (clearance) to get to the room where they were killed," a source told Reuters.  Perhaps our Commander-in-Chief will now want to fly there personally for a deep-body bow and some genuine groveling.


4)  In Afghanistan's recent past (2009), Bibles were intentionally burned by U.S. military personnel, under orders from higher up.  Did you miss our Commander-in-Chief's apology to Christians throughout the world?  Probably so.  You have in fact heard him refer often to the "Holy Quran."  Have you ever heard him refer to the "Holy Bible"?  Probably not.

There are two things we can still count on: we can bet that, whoever the Republican nominee is, his religious and philosophical beliefs will be microscopically examined, critiqued, and torn apart by our "media."  Obama?  Not at all.  Too personal.  "Over the line." And, for those who do believe in Christianity, we can still say "God help us."

MO Atty