Friday, April 17, 2009

"No Longer a Christian Nation"


President Obama has repeatedly stated in his speeches that "America is no longer a Christian nation". That is an interesting phrase, no doubt. He has said it a little differently in his recent debate in Turkey ("We don't consider ourselves a Christian nation"), but it is essentially the same. What does he mean by this though? Looking at the context of the first statement, he says that we are a nation of Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and nonbelievers (though he did not specify what these nonbelievers do not believe in).

One question comes to mind though. Why does he say that we are no longer a Christian nation? Certainly there were other religions present before president Obama became president and
even before he was born. Unitarianism has been around since the 19th (or maybe even the 18th) century, which holds that all faiths are equal, which is very different from Christianity. Judaism has been around for quite a long time too. Anyone can see that there are a bunch of different religions existing in America today. So why would the president say this?

It seems to me that he is trying to be as inclusive as he can to other religions. Don't get me wrong, civility in the public square is important. We (particularly as Christians) must be quick to listen and slow to speak. We must also be patient and longsuffering. But just how far can one accept others ideas? More importantly, what kind of direction does the president want to go in?

It's interesting how he singles out Christians in his multiple addresses. I don't think that's just because other countries think of us as a Christian nation, though I'm sure that's part of it. Our country has Christian principles, and the president has vocally proven that he intends not to preserve or uphold them with the proposals he wants to make (and we should pray that he would do otherwise). In the most blatant sense, he has said that he wants to sign the FOCA, the Freedom Of Choice Act, which would effectively overturn any pro-life legislation in all 50 states, legalize partial-birth abortion, and force hospitals (including faith-based ones) to have their nurses and doctors perform abortions. He has also been going very far in his outreach to Muslims, bowing to the king of Sudan (which is not a small thing) and saying things like "The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam." (I will defer to Dr. Mohler's blog for anyone interested in a good analysis of this statement http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3579). And the proposed idea to socialize medicine will make for doctors getting paid much less and customers getting treated much worse (e.g. much longer waiting lists for surgeries).

The Constitution is currently set on Christian principles (and is quite exclusive): "We hold these truths to be Self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (excluding the principled belief of 'nonbelievers') with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life (excluding abortion), liberty (excluding Islam's fundamental principle of submission of all nations to Muslim law) and the pursuit of happiness (excluding socialism's forcing our happiness to be defined by the government, not the individual)." President Obama and even the American people at large can freely choose to change these Christian principles, but it may be the last free choice they make.

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