PrintSeptember 24, 2008
Obama's Faith, Family and Variable Values Tour
Senator Obama apparently is beaming a guiding light for the faithful ones seeking the "epiphany" he promised his followers at Dartmouth College last January:
"[A] light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack."
The faithful are called to follow the beam to Obama's "Faith, Family and Values Tour" beginning this week. For those already blinded by the beam, "fleecing the sheep" seems more apropos.
Obama's "faith" journey
For openers, no one who contradicts Jesus Christ on the subject of salvation should be directing Christian traffic at the intersection of faith and politics. That's a lot of cheek to turn. Maybe audacity should be added to the list of deadly sins.
Obama told Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Cathleen Falsani, that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition, and that "there are many paths to the same place." Falsani found it an "unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus." Obama told her it depends "on how a particular verse from the Gospel of John, where Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me,' is heard."
Those seeking further illumination about Obama's Christian beliefs, beyond his 20-year indoctrination by the most left, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright and Rev. Michael Pfleger, might mull over Newsweek's cover story, "Finding His Faith," with a Bible in hand. I also offer for consideration my own musings in "Sermon from Mt. Obama Raises Big Questions."
The 2004 Democratic Platform mentions God seven times. Obama's book of political revelation, otherwise known as the 2008 Democratic Platform, mentions God but once in reference to "God-given potential." The Obama flock isn't really into "He must increase, but I must decrease."
Obama's family tour excludes unborn members
Obama's policies will increase the number of abortions. On April 13 at CNN's Compassion Forum, Jon Meacham asked Obama if he believes that life begins at conception. Obama said he didn't know. But the man who claims a "scientific bent of mind," thinks "potential life" is exceptionally potent:
This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question. What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates.
Two months later, The New York Times, reported:
[he]invoked his own absent father to deliver a sharp message to black men, saying we need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception."We need families to raise our children. We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception. That doesn't just make you a father. What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."
Has Obama seen the light? Does he finally understand that life begins at conception? Maybe he experienced his own epiphany.
But alas, just two months later, the light faded -- the circuit shorted -- the bulb blew when Rick Warren asked Obama at the Saddleback Forum: "At what point does a baby get human rights?" Obama's dim response, "It's above my pay grade."
"I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade," Obama added. He said he's inserted into the Democratic Party platform a way to reduce the number of abortions. When Warren asked, "Have you ever voted to limit or reduce abortions?" Obama dodged the question because he's never voted for anything that he thinks would limit abortion.
Consider. The 2004 Democratic Platform states: "Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." Obama had "rare" deleted from the 2008 Platform. It states:
"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right."
If Obama intends to reduce abortions, he wouldn't be a co-sponsor of the "Freedom of Choice Act," but he is. On July 17, 2007, Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." The Act would nullify state pro-life laws, including waiting periods, informed consent, parental notification, and a host of others.
Obama isn't committed to marriage as ordained by God
Asked by Rick Warren to define marriage, Obama said:
"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian -- for me -- for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God's in the mix."
He then rejected a constitutional amendment "because historically, we have not defined marriage in our constitution. It's been a matter of state law. That has been our tradition."
Obama wants to remove federal support for the right of states to define marriage. His claim, that he is "not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage," is highly suspect, to say the least.
During his race for Senate in 2004, Obama denounced the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton, as "an abhorrent law," and promised to seek its repeal. He wants both sections of DOMA repealed. He doesn't want federal law to limit marriage to a man and a woman, and he doesn't want federal law to protect the right of the states to decide for themselves. It remains his position.
Obama recently sent a letter to a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender group stating:
"the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union or a civil marriage."
Under Obama's leadership, the 2008 Democratic Platform now calls for DOMA's repeal:
"We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us."
If Obama doesn't understand that DOMA reinforces the right of states to "decide" how to define marriage, how is he competent to be president? If he does understand, he is intentionally misleading the American people about federal law and his true position on marriage.
Read Obama's words in the above-referenced letter again. He is a promoter of homosexual marriage, contrary to what he led Rick Warren and millions of viewers to believe.
Obama's policies would likely increase the number of fatherless homes
In his Chicago sermon "Mr. Obama spoke of the burden that single parenthood placed on his mother, who raised him with the help of his maternal grandparents." He said:
"I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house. The hole in your heart when you don't have a male figure in the home who can guide you and lead you. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle - that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my children."
Obama had a male figure in his grandfather, but he still felt a hole in his heart only a father can fill.
The 2008 Democratic Platform expounds upon the toll on children without fathers:
"Too many fathers are missing-missing from too many lives and too many homes. Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and are more likely to commit crime, drop out of school, abuse drugs, and end up in prison. We need more fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to understand that what makes a man is not the ability to have a child -- it's the courage to raise one."
According to the 2008 National Fatherhood Initiative, "the federal government spends $99.8 billion dollars every year on programs -- such as child support enforcement and anti-poverty efforts -- that support father-absent homes."
Why does a man who recognizes the grave and costly consequences of absentee fathers support lesbian marriage? Why does he support "marriage" between two men, which deprives children of a mother? And why do Obama and his wife support adoption by homosexuals and lesbians?
Obama says his support of state-sanctioned legal rights for homosexual unions comes from the "Sermon on the Mount." He finds it "more central than an obscure passage in Romans."
This beam of light emanates from a different mountain and "another Jesus" that Paul warned about in 2 Corinthians 11:4.
Jan LaRue served as Chief Counsel at Concerned Women for America, Director of Legal Studies at Family Research Council, and Senior Counsel at the National Law Center for Children and Families. She is currently a member of the Board of Advisors of the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center.
