Thursday, February 5, 2009

With Friends of Religion Like This...

These words are good to hear coming from a Democratic President. At the National Prayer breakfast today, President Obama said,

No matter how much money we invest or how sensibly we design our policies, the change that Americans are looking for will not come from government alone. There is a force for good greater than government ("Obama Expands Faith-based Programs," New York Times, Feb. 5, 2009).

Before you start thinking that you had the guy all wrong, however, consider these questions.

Will religious groups be forced to hire homosexuals? “No matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate,” he said. In Democratese, those words have a very limited range of meaning.

Will Christian groups be forced to hire people from outside their faith? Will this disciple of Jeremiah Wright corral Evangelical groups into the social gospel step by step with the allure of "free money for good work?" Likely both. Last July, during the campaign, he spoke from what seemed to be firmly held principles, saying,

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion.”




Here is an interesting footnote, however. He also said, “There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.” Nonetheless, his religious conscience is clear in his support for partial birth abortion.

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