Strangeness of the
Month Club
with your host, Kent B. True*
It’s the later and lesser "Super Tuesday" of the presidential primaries. It is a rather sad time, really. The Republican Party seems to have its nominee. Please don’t make me say anything about him just now. The Democrat Party is locked in a struggle between a screeching woman in bright clothing, and this new guy with an odd name. In fact, he seems to have a middle name that no one is allowed to speak aloud, something like the ancient Jewish approach to the very name of God. So today, before we know the outcome of these primaries, I thought the club might have a look at that unknown man whose name must not be spoken . . .
Mr. Obama Goes to Washington - and
church, too!
WTAP News (Parkersburg, WV) Coverage
March 4, 2008
On this primary Tuesday, Mr. Obama, who might go to Washington, is campaigning in Ohio, and he’s talking about religion. What better way to know what someone thinks than to get it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So let’s look in on Mr. Obama’s speech.
Since environmentalism is something of a religious view these days, let’s begin with that. Mr. Obama, if he gets to Washington, wants to strictly limit our emission of that essential part of the cycle of life, the benign and even helpful gas carbon dioxide. But Mr. Obama, being the honest man that he is, admits:
"That will boost electricity prices in the short term. So I try to be very honest with folks about this. It will mean higher electricity prices and some of the money that we generate from charging those who are emitting carbon, we're going to have to plow back to ensure that low-income people, people on fixed incomes, are protected from these spikes over cost."
What an ingenious plan! We will sacrifice the innocent, life-giving gas carbon dioxide on the alter of the gods of environmentalism. But this will make electricity more expensive, which might harm low-income people. But not to worry. He-whose-middle-name-must-not-be-spoken will simply have the government pay the electricity bills of people who need help with them.
The part he didn’t tell is this: we are all going to need help with those bills. We will be saved by THE STATE. Now there is a very interesting religious view. But wait, there’s more.
Mr. Obama is going to give us the straight scoop on his religious views:
"I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years. Pray to Jesus every night and try to go to church as much as I can when they're not working me. Used to go quite often. These days, you know, we haven't been to the home church, I haven't been home on Sunday for several months now. So my faith is important to me."
I’m sure that when one is on the campaign trail, it’s hard to find time for the assembly of the saints, even for "a devout Christian." After all what is really more important to a devout Christian: being a devout Christian or being President? As someone once said, "Choose this day." But, as long as Mr. Obama "prays to Jesus every night" . . .
Mr. Obama has a personal philosophy of his Christian faith:
It's not something that I try to push on other people. But it's something that helps to guide my life and my values.
I wonder if his faith helped guide him into the mis-guided religion of environmentalism? If his "faith" guides his values, and his values include things like government-enforced environmentalism, health-care, etc., then they certainly ARE things he tries to push on other people. And if you say you don’t push your faith on other people, when in fact you do, then you are a . . . Barack (must not say the middle name) Obama.
Mr. Obama was willing to reveal intimate details of his spiritual life:
"I don't think my church is particularly controversial. It's a member of the United Church of Christ. It's got a choir. We read scriptures. You would feel at home if you were there."
The "United Church of Christ" - a quick visit to their website reveals that while it might be "united" it is definitely not a church belonging to Christ. It is, rather, a place where, to use their own words, they are "Listening to the Still-Speaking God." It is a "church" which proudly ordained its first homosexual minister way back in 1972. It’s a "church" with a whole division devoted to "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Ministries" where they celebrate things like a "Day of Transgender Remembrance." There are, indeed, many lovely things at the United ‘Church of Christ.’
So yes, I suppose they do have a choir. Does their choir sing of the joys of the transgendered? And they (mis)read scriptures - in a twisted way that approves of the practice of homosexuality. Wouldn’t you feel right at home there? Well, perhaps - if you are a moral reprobate.
But Mr. Obama is known for his rhetorical skills, vacuous though the content of his speaking may be. So he is now going to explain why his morally bankrupt ‘faith’ is really a good thing after all:
"I will tell you that I don't believe in gay marriage. . . I believe in civil unions that allow a same-sex couple to visit each other in the hospital or transfer property to each other. I don't think that it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state."
It has feathers and webbed feet, it quacks, and it waddles - but it’s not a duck. In logic, we call this a "distinction without a difference." In the political season, we call this a lie. Clyde Barrow could have said he didn’t believe in robbing banks - he just liked to walk into banks with a loaded gun and demand money. And Mr. Obama can say he doesn’t believe in gay marriage.
But the silver tongue of he-whose-middle-name-must-not-be-spoken has more to say this primary day. Referring to his views on homosexual "couples" he continues:
"If people find that controversial, then I would refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think, you know, is in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans. That's my view. But we can have a respectful disagreement on that."
We scramble to the Sermon on the Mount to find that, while it does have something to say about false prophets, it has - let’s see here - NOTHING to say about homosexual marriage. But Romans chapter one - that is a very obscure part of the Bible. It’s hardly worth mentioning, I’m sure. I reminds me of the time when Howard Dean, while running for President, told a reporter his favorite part of the New Testament was the Book of Job.
For his grande finale regarding his religious views, candidate Obama had this to say:
"And on the issue of abortion . . . I think that in the past, we've made some mistakes, I think, people who are pro-choice, in not focusing on the fact that there's a real moral element to that. I think it's always tragic and we should prevent it as much as possible . . . But in the end, I think women in consultation with their pastors and their doctors and their families are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington."
The ultimate moral irony of Obama and his political kin is this: they gladly appoint thousands of bureaucrats to regulate the most minute details of your life, but they wouldn’t dare interfere with anyone who decides to kill an unborn baby. "Pastors" can certainly help women know when best to kill their unborn.
If Mr. Obama truly thinks there is "a real moral element to that" it would be nice if he could stop prattling platitudes about "hope" long enough to explain what that moral element is. It’s that "moral element" informing us to kill this baby, but perhaps not that one. There really isn’t all that much hope when you happen to be that first baby.
Finally, says he-whose-middle-name-must-not-be-spoken:
"That's my view. Again, I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don't think it makes me less Christian."
If Mr. Obama is a Christian, he is a completely ignorant one, because he has mistaken theological liberalism for the Christian faith.
The primaries of today are drawing to a close. It will be interesting to see what happens. In the spirit of equal time, we should remember that Mrs. Clinton pretends to be a Methodist.
* Kent B. True is the alter ego of one Harold N. Orndorff, Jr. He is campus minister for the Christian Student Fellowship at Northern Kentucky University, and has taught college and seminary courses in the fields of apologetics, philosophy, ethics, and logic. Contact him to compliment or complain at hnoii@hotmail.com.