Obama’s Holy Rede?

President Obama, seeing what American support there was for his health insurance “reform” plan crumbling, has decided to branch out from pure politics and utilize religion to cajole or coerce we, the People into supporting his – or is it now “His” – agenda. He has now attempted to enlist the aid of America’s clergy in spreading the “Holy Rede” of ObamaCare to the masses.

Details, such as are available, from FOXNews:

Obama spoke to about 140,000 people of faith in a conference call and webcast Wednesday evening. He and a White House official discussed the moral dimension of health care, telling the mostly Christian audience that “this debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people.”

But earlier that day, Obama went much further, asking about 1,000 rabbis to preach his political agenda in their sermons on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year — one of the holiest days of the year.

The conversation was supposed to be off the record but was captured on the Twitter feeds and blogs of some rabbis who took part in the call, which was organized by the Union of Reform Judaism and included rabbis from other denominations.

“I am going to need your help in accomplishing necessary reform,” Obama said, according to Rabbi Jack Moline of Virginia, whose Twitter feed has since been scrubbed of the information.

Obama told the rabbis that “we are God’s partners in matters of life and death” and asked them to “tell the stories of health care dilemmas to illustrate what is a stake” in their sermons, Moline wrote.

This is of course a useful and utilitarian tactic by President Obama. Rebranding ObamaCare as a “moral imperative,” placing himself on par with Divine Will, and suborning the clergy to push his agenda to their congregations makes the utmost political sense if he can pull it off. It’s a tactic that has been used successfully by many politicians over the millennia. One cannot truly fault him for trying to use it.

One has to wonder though about the great lack of uproar from the Liberals over President Obama’s attempted use of the Church to spread his political agenda. Why are we not inundated by angry rhetoric about the Separation of Church and State. The Left was certainly never shy or retiring about waxing vehement over President Bush’s mere mention of religion.

During the past election I seem to remember a large number of Liberals ranting for various churches to lose their tax-exempt status for mixing with politics and endorsing a candidate’s agenda. But I guess it’s all relative, much like what passes for the Liberals’ morality…

It seems that, as long as it’s President Obama’s Holy Rede that is being spread as the new Gospel, the Liberals find no reason to complain about any possible infringement of the Constitution, the 1st Amendment, or the Separation of Church and State – because when Obama does something, it must be right, proper, and even “holy.”

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11 Responses to “Obama’s Holy Rede?”

  1. ichabod Says:

    Hi Jonolan;

    You hit the nail squarely on the head. Obama uses faith when he desires, and forgets Christ’s words when it applies to other matters in running a country.

    One comment I read recently put it in perspective, medicare for everyone.

    That, the left and right can understand.

    Obama is over his head and is grasping at straws. Appealing to the Judea Christian community and ignoring all the other citizens is not the job a president is elected to do.

    It is sad what is happening, as if the Christian/Jewish community is the only one capable of getting Obama what he wants, and it appears he doesn’t even know what he wants.

    You laid it out on the line earlier to me when you asked, “Define basic health care.” I understand your question and it is not an easy one to answer at times. Obama hasn’t answered the question, has he?

  2. jonolan Says:

    “Obama uses faith when he desires, and forgets Christ’s words when it applies to other matters in running a country.”

    Ichabod, I may have hit that nail on the head, but only by happenstance. I was striking at a related but different “nail.”

    That “nail” was that the Liberals only complain about a POTUS utilizing religion to further a political agenda when that politician is a Conservative. When Obama does it, very few of them seem to have a problem with it.

    Can you imagine what the outrage from the Left would have been if President. Bush had asked clergy to sermonize an agenda?

  3. ichabod Says:

    Hi Jonolan;

    If Bush would have done it, the Blog world would be on Fire.

    I really do not know if there is an easy solution, for it seems the Presidency changes people. Sometimes I wonder if Obama realizes he is president as he appears to be campaigning an awful lot. Like a salesman who got the order but is still selling it to the customer after he got the check.

    Sometimes it backfires and the order is lost. I see that happening now.

  4. jonolan Says:

    Obama never stopped campaigning, ichabod. In many ways I think that is because campaigning is ALL he knows about politics. It’s not like he had the time – or truly showed the inclination based upon his voting record – to develop experience in governance.

    Sometimes I wonder if this is because he’s Black. He may feel that he HAS to be a “great President” because he’s the 1st Black POTUS and failure, or even just status quo tenure, is something that wouldn’t leave enough of a legacy. Too Black to fail perhaps?

  5. ichabod Says:

    Hi Jonolan;

    I think your words may be truer than many would care to admit or agree to.

    You and I see it, and I think many are starting to see it as well. One person I communicated with lamented, “What other choice did we have, McCain?”

    I have nothing against McCain and he has shown he can be gracious, even when the war was over, but his abilities to lead a country are questionable too.

    This current Presidency may be the one that blows the system to shreds. Maybe not, but all the weak links are showing the strain.

  6. zhann Says:

    Religion has always been a tool of politicians. You will always see politicians playing on the religious. When this happens, the opposing parties will cry foul. However, they will quickly take up the gauntlet when it happens to suit their needs. This is case in point here, while there should be a separation, no doubt, the fact is that Obama is starting to loose support in this healthcare debate.

    This is actually mind blowing to me. I can’t even begin to rationalize how people can logically not want universal healthcare. The disinformation on both sides is meaningless … the entire civilized world outside the USA has universal healthcare, and not a single country exists that has any intention of ever getting rid of it. Where is the logic?

  7. stumdanger Says:

    I think you all are missing the larger picture at work here. The reason that there hasn’t been a large outcry is because this is the first time that Pres. Obama has appealed to the Christian and Jewish communities since he was elected. It’s refreshing to see him talking to us for a change instead of apologizing to Egypt or Syria. I mean, I have a warm fuzzy now that it’s the Christian thing to do to support public health care. And isn’t it so much nicer to see the Democrats acknowleging God’s existence instead of trying to remove Him from everything?

  8. jonolan Says:

    stumdanger,

    I was speaking of outcry from the Liberals. They’re not, in general, normally in favor of politicians mentioning the God(s), much less working with the clergy to achieve anything – except, apparently, when their pseudo-diety, Obama does it.

  9. J.D.F Says:

    Religion should remain a personal thing and not the tool of anyone. period.

  10. jonolan Says:

    I would not go quite so far as I think you would in that thought, J.D.F. because I believe that religion, with it concomitant normative social behavior and morality, should inform, though not set, public policy.

    I do however agree that it shouldn’t be used as tool by anyone.

  11. Obama’s Holy Rede? | Mizozo Says:

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