If you’re offended by religious language, then feel free to skip this one. I think it is important to counter the notion that President is the Muslim jihadist that the birthers make him out to be. The following is from the ELCA News Service:
April 20, 2011
Obama Prayer Breakfast ‘Powerful,’ Says ELCA Presiding Bishop
11-057-JBCHICAGO (ELCA) — President Barack Obama spoke movingly of his Christian faith at a White House prayer breakfast April 19, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), who was in attendance.
Hanson was grateful for how clearly the president highlighted the centrality of God’s “magnificent, expansive, ‘Amazing Grace'” in his life, and the gift of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection.
Obama spoke to 150 religious leaders, including Hanson, at the Easter Prayer Breakfast. The ELCA presiding bishop was recently appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
“It is very powerful to hear the president declare what unites us Christians with such clarity and passion,” Hanson said. “He really did center his comments in Holy Week and walked through the central part of our faith.”
Hanson said he greeted Obama, telling him that ELCA members continue to pray for him. As Obama and others negotiate on the federal budget, he asked the president to remember people living in poverty and not let budget reductions disproportionately affect them. Hanson had raised a similar concern in a meeting with Obama in Washington last November.
Later, Hanson and the religious leaders attended a briefing by staff of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The briefing included topics such as energy and climate, immigration reform, fatherhood and healthy families, international development and human trafficking. Among other things, the religious leaders said the current immigration system is not working and spoke strongly in favor of reform legislation, Hanson added.
At the prayer breakfast, Obama’s remarks highlighted the meaning of Holy Week for Christians. “I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason — because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection — something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective,” Obama said.
Obama told his guests that he knows each of them has considerable responsibilities amidst busy schedules. “But then comes Holy Week,” he said. “The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross.”
“And we’re reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world — past, present and future — and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection,” the president said.
Obama continued, “This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this ‘Amazing Grace’ calls me to reflect. And it calls me to pray. It calls me to ask God for forgiveness for the times that I’ve not shown grace to others, those times that I’ve fallen short. It calls me to praise God for the gift of our son — his Son and our Savior.”
In addition to the president’s remarks, there were gospel youth choir performances and prayers. Hanson said many people in attendance commented afterward about how moving and spiritual the prayer breakfast was.
Obama’s entire remarks are available at the Obama White House archive.
But wait- I thought Obama wasn’t a Christian and never talks about his Christian faith!
Could this mean that other things Birthers say are wrong too?
No no – this will just prove to the birthers that he’s Muslim and covering it up by pretending to be Christian.
Exactly, the right wing will actually quote sections of the Koran that give Muslims permission to lie in order to defend the faith.
I have no idea whether the Koran says any such thing.
I point out to them that a born again Christian named George W. Bush appointed a Muslim, Dr. Zalmay Khalilzaid to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations and they say that Bush is a flawed Christian.
I think there is a group of Christians who will never accept the President’s declaration of fatih. These same people will tell you that only God knows the heart. In other words they talk the talk of Christianity but at least in part walk the walk of right wing politics. I am blessed with a great pastor who will have none of it. Yet he manages all of this with an attitiude of grace and love. He is an example to me. More Christians who are silent need to speak up being mindful of their attitude when doing so. I know there are folks who are very uncomfortable with the invasion of the church by politics. For my fellow believers, Christ has risen! He has risen indeed!.
I never understood why so many people think that Islam and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible when Jesus and Mary are in the Koran.
Article from Politico:
I think Ann might appreciate a little help against Puzo1 on this site: http://thedailypen.blogspot.com/2011/04/final-report-obamas-birth-announcements.html?showComment=1303691392617#c3240602333748305521
I dropped in to slap the birthers around a bit. That place is a cesspool though.
I see that you deleted my comment on this thread. What’s the matter? Can’t manage to come up with an argument that has enough merit to defeat it?
I smell fear, Mr. Davidson. The tide is turning and you know it. You can smell it too.
[Yeah, I did delete that one because of the obscenity at the end, not something I would allow on my site. Doc.]
“The tide is turning and you know it.”
sure any day now silly goose
Like many others I do not like to be bothered by multiple incessant theories. I like evidence, facts, documents. The COLB does not at all prove that the birthers are correct. Many COLBs have gone out to people who were previously the recipients of photo-copies of “birth certificates.” I read once that no other document in history has ever been scrutinized as much as this one. The claim is untrue. I am trained as a historian. The process of scrutiny that has gone on concerning the COLB is not in the least unusal. Such messes have occurred countless times before. Certainly the McCain controversy died down quickly after Congress demanded his docs and he provided them. People ask me what I “believe” in regard to the eligibility controversy and I answer: “It would be meaningless for me to formulate a belief. I will just look at the evidence and the facts.” So, far the evidence and facts are radically incomplete. We have several fake BCs and one inconclusive, and perhaps questionable, COLB which has been frequently, and continues to be, deceptively called a BC. Available evidence from family is wildly contradictory, available documentation is inconclusive. Lots of stonewalling so far and it continues. Theories are boring. Facts are interesting — even if it takes another century for them to be revealed.
Link please.
Is this the Kenya birth certificate you are looking for:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-kenyan-birth-certificate.html
You call fake birth certificates “facts?”
Every single one of them saying he was born in Hawai’i is “wildly contradictory”?
To my knowledge, McCain never presented his documents to Congress. The Senate resolution was passed without him presenting them.
All breathlessly declared genuine by birthers with no validation whatsoever.
… by the Hawai’in Department of Health. Who’s responsibility it is to validate and issue such documents. Somehow I think the the people that issue Birth Certificates might have an idea about what a Birth Certificate is.
Good, then you should have no problem waiting until Aug. 4, 2036 to see a photocopy of Obama’s so-called long form birth certificate. That’s the date it becomes public record.
There is no question that the COLB is legal proof of birth in that state. It’s stated right on the certificate, and 338.13 states:
(b) Copies of the contents of any certificate on file in the department, certified by the department shall be considered for all purposes the same as the original, subject to the requirements of sections 338-16, 338-17, and 338-18.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol06_Ch0321-0344/HRS0338/HRS_0338-0013.htm
Moreover, as was shown in last night’s CNN investigation, the COLB is the one and only document they issue to prove birth in that state.
Brilliant! You preen yourself as an admirer of “evidence, facts and documents” and then proceed to throw yourself head first into support of the myth that McCain was ever asked for his documents by Congress or provided them and immediately follow it up with another whopper of a myth about the COLB in question not being a birth certificate!
It would be hard to write a script for a West End farce which would display a faster, funnier or more blatant abuse of evidence, facts and documents.