Comment at end
This site asks - Does Obama have a problem with Christianity?: In preparation for a speech by President Obama on Tuesday at Georgetown University, White House staff apparently asked that a Christian symbol “IHS” be covered. The letters “IHS” were apparently engraved on the wooden archway above where President Obama was going to speak. Apparently a cross was also covered as were Georgetown University “signs and symbols behind the stage”
17th April, 2009
Obama In Turkey “We (USA) Do Not Consider Ourselves A Christian Nation”
Well, if YOU don’t, Mr President, no-one else will!
I beg to disagree with the President on these grounds:
America is THE land of full to bursting Christian churches on Sundays. The land where 76% STILL describe themselves as Christian.
If NOT a “Christian nation, what is America today?
The roots of America’s Christian heritage/religion/religiosity were planted in 1620 by the British Pilgrim Fathers. They came to America to practice their own distinct brand of informal Christianity away form the Angliocan Church. But they were STILL Christian. Not Jewish, nor Islamic, nor any other variety of religious belief.
Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers, is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled a volatile political environment in the East Midlands. The colony, established in 1620, became the second successful English settlement (after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607) in what was to become the United States of America. The Pilgrims’ story has become a central theme of the history and culture of the United States.
Although separatist non-conformists wishing to be apart from the puritan Church of England, the Pilgrims were nonetheless Christian.
Perhaps President Obama has a different take on this history.
RELATED
The American Constitution (with hyperlinks)
Pledge of Allegiance – “One Nation under God“. The pledge was no always “under God”. Prior to 1952, the words “under God” were not included. See here.
The Religious Heritage of America (RHA) Foundation was founded by W. Clement Stone as a national interfaith organization in the U.S. It was instrumental in getting the phrase, “one nation, under God”, added to the US Pledge of Allegiance.
March 2009 – ALL religious affiliation dropping in America – links to USA Today’s graphic charts. Muslims and Jews, it says, are undercounted. You bet! Expecially on the former! Watch this space.
Tags: america not christian, obama - we are not a christian nation, obama in turkey
April 17, 2009 at 5:43 pm |
Any describing our nation’s churces as “bursting” on Sunday mornings is sleeping in.
April 17, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Well, I stand corrected. As I understood it, Steve, many American Churches are VERY full, unlike ours here in Britain.
And when I have been to the states I have seen hundreds going to church, unlike here. ALL my American friends would never dream of missing.
April 17, 2009 at 6:28 pm |
There are many churches in America that still have large crowds on Sunday mornings, or Saturday if you are an Adventist. Granted many of our young people here claim not to be religious, even tho they have been raised in Christian homes. This is a peculiar symptom of the Freedom aspect of our religious society. Many young people who have turned from the church and became more a part of the secular world realize, in later years, the shallowness and emptiness of a life without the fellowship and comfort of the church and return to their roots. My church, here in a small Central Valley town in California has four separate services which are, usually, attended by a great number of people of all types. One service is for the younger folks, a more traditional one for “The Old Foggies, and the other two are more contemporary. Our church facility, which holds nearly 2000 people is also packed to the walls on Sunday night when El Nuevo Pacto uses it for their worship in Spanish. We also have a Chinese church, Korean church, and Vietnamese church that use our facilities. We are a downtown church which has many services for the homeless and host an evening meal every Monday night for them. And our church is not unique. There are approximately five yellow pages listing churches in our area and many of them have programs for support and help for those in the community who need it. So, if America is no longer a Christian nation, as some claim, it doesn’t seem that that message has trickled down to Christians yet.
April 17, 2009 at 11:56 pm
WOW! 2000 people, Ray? Many churches here in Britain would be happy to get 20! Which religion or denomination is that? If it’s Christian, what is this exactly – El Nuevo Pacto? Catholic?
April 17, 2009 at 7:53 pm |
Sure sounds like Grundoon’s church is very active and open to all who want to know more about Jesus.
Now, about Obama’s comment that “we are not a Christian nation”.
1 – I wonder who he thinks settled this country and upon what rules/basis the constitution was based on. I believe it was on Christianity~ read all thefounding texts and also the iniscriptions on many, many of the statues and monuments in Washington and you will find references to God all over the place.
2 – In the article referenced in the main article above, (All religious affiliation dropping in America ~ March 2009), they divide all the numbers by denomination and not religions. I say that Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Mormanism are all CHRISTIANS. They belive in Jesus Christ as their savior so they are not to be individually separated but counted together in this kind of survey.
In doing so, the data in the article would say that the religious breakdown in the United States is 0.6% Muslim, 1.2% Jewish, 15% No Religion, and 83.2% Christian.
Now, if this breakdown plus the history of the basis of our constitution does not say to Obama that we are a Christian nation, he is blind to facts.
I believe and hope that he is pandering to the Italians since they are an Islamic country. If he was not, we better hope that our Congress has the guts to stand up for the constitution on many things that may be coming down the road.
April 18, 2009 at 12:10 am
Yes, your breakdown sounds more accurate, Dennis.
Obama was speaking in Turkey – an Islamic nation which presently is torn between secularism/Islamism in its government. I believe the Islam side won recently!!
Italy is still very Roman Catholic, btw. Although most families have one (spoiled, they say) child who they dress in Armani outfits! Says a lot about Catholics’ approach to birth control, eh? Wonder what the Pope makes of that?)
There is still some disagreement over whether or not Turkey should join the EU. I know Tony Blair thought it was a good idea – his big umbrella, I suppose – to nullify Islam on our eastern borders. But many others in the EU – notably Geert Wilders – do not agree.
I would be VERY surprised if Americans don’t speak out about the president’s words on your country “not being Christian”. I believe he also said America is “not Muslim, not Jewish”.
But that does not compensate for the fact that he has, with a few words, downgraded and all but discounted America’s Christian heritage.
I can’t see any British PM saying anything like that, and we are nothing like as religious as Americans!
I’d be furious if Blair had said this or if Brown ever does. And I’m not even religious!
April 17, 2009 at 8:09 pm |
KTBFPM,
The last poll numbers I saw on the percentage of Christians in the U.S. is 86%. I’ve read that attendance at church has actually increased over the past few years. Whether we use 76% or 86% it is still a huge portion of the country. It is just one more misconception President Obama has about the American people he is supposed to represent. Perhaps he has simply chosen to ignore what his arrogance will not allow him to admit. What is so terrible about stating that Christianity is the backbone of our country, our values, our morals and our principals?
Why would we want to fix something that is not broken? With Obama’s bow to the Saudi prince and this announcement that the U.S. is secular, the President weakens the very foundations of our country; to say nothing of distorting our history. He seems to kowtow to anyone and everyone he meets outside the U.S. in order to put on a show of unification. While he persists in this phony rhetoric around the world in the name of unification, he is dividing his own country.
April 18, 2009 at 12:18 am
Yes, Arlene – well, I am still waiting to be impressed by Big O.
Your numbers on the Christian majority are near to Dennis’s, and sound pretty accurate to me.
I sometimes wonder if Obama’s open-handed approach to all and sundry is step 1 in a strategy. Separating himself from Bush being the first concern.
Then, when THAT doesn’t work, and true colours are shown by those he “kowtows” to, he can stiffen his resolve and actually take on Bush’s firmer approach. He’ll then say he has tried to be friends but is now getting back to where Bush was years ago – recognising one’s enemies. (Of course he won’t SAY that Bush was actually in the right place! How COULD he?)
In the meantime, Americans need to watch this guy … IMHO.
June 4, 2009 at 12:13 am |
[...] this from Obama: “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation”. REALLY, Mr Obama? Really? America is NOT a Christian nation? You could have fooled [...]
December 7, 2009 at 1:51 am |
[...] April 2009: Obama: We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation [...]