Obama's Christianity

This past week, while discussing his budget which includes hiking the tax rate for those making over $250,000, President Obama invoked the words of Christ as spoken in the New Testament.  The implication?  That Christ would not only support taking more money from the wealthy, but that He was actually promoting it.  This issue itself is worthy of a detailed discussion which should not easily be forgotten or dismissed.  But beyond this specific issue, I wish to draw attention to some equally disturbing public events where President Obama made other direct references to our Creator, this time, by removing Him from a discussion of rights.

The comments recently where the President actually invoked the words of Christ were given on February 2 and are as follows:

"For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that, for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,’ he added, referencing verse 48 of chapter 12 in the Gospel of Luke. “To answer the responsibility we’re given in Proverbs to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,”

So when it comes to raising taxes, Christ is on board.  But where President Obama feels divnity shouldn't be meddling is in actually granting us our most basic rights as indicated by our nation's most important and founding document, the Declaration of Independence.  As most Americans know, the Declaration boldy declares and establishes that we have certain unalienable rights which we have been endowed with by our Creator--meaning, they existed before any government, and government's merely protect them, not provide them.  The actual wording of the Declaration is as follows:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Now read the following two quotations from our President, merely weeks apart, where he referenced and quoted the previous statement.  On September 15th, speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, President Obama removed :

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s what makes us unique. That’s what makes us strong."

Shortly after, the same omission was made, which is important because it indicates the first episode wasn't an accident (and even if it was, can our own President really not accurately quote one of the most well known and important sentence from our most important founding document?)  On October 18, 2010, President Obama said the following to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:

As wonderful as the land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Now in fairness there have been other Presidents, even Republicans, who have occasionally referred to this statement and done so in similarly general terms while omitting various phrases and words.  None, however, did this consistently, and the other statements were given within a context where it was not being implied that a direct quotation from the Declaration was being referenced.  Other words were omitted to indicate a paraphrase or general reference was being invoked, not a direct quotation.

So when it comes to the teachings of Christianity in President Obama's White House, the Creator is not the source of rights, but His Son promoted the idea of greater taxes for those with more money.  That the President can invoke Jesus Christ as a supporter of his political agenda yet deny His Father the credit of actually granting us our most basic human rights is aggregious, disturbing, and appalling.