Undeniable Proof that Obama is a Secret Atheist

[LAGC]

How could have I missed this little gem?

Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), along with 42 bipartisan Members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, today sent a letter to President Barack Obama calling on him to issue a correction to a speech he gave in Jakarta, Indonesia, in which he inaccurately referred to our national motto as being “E Pluribus unum.” The official national motto is “In God We Trust.”

“For the President of the United States to incorrectly state something as foundational as our national motto in another country is unacceptable. The President is the primary representative of our nation to the world, and whether mistake or intention, his actions cast aside an integral part of American society,” said Forbes. “President Reagan once warned that 'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’”

In his speech on November 10, 2010 at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, President Obama said “But I believe that the history of both America and Indonesia should give us hope. It is a story written into our national mottos. In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum - out of many one...our nations show that hundreds of millions who hold different beliefs can be united in freedom under one flag.”

“In God We Trust” has been a foundational phrase used throughout our nation’s history, from Presidential proclamations, to engravings in both the House and Senate chambers, to the oath taken by all federal employees. In 1956, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed into law establishing “In God We Trust” as the official national motto of the United States. The motto is referred to in the national anthem and is engraved on U.S. coins and currency.

In addition, on October 18, during a fundraiser, President Obama 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.” This was the third time in over a month that the President omitted the word “Creator” from the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence specifically recognizes God, the Creator, as the source of inalienable rights.

“Once may be a mistake. But twice is a pattern. These omissions and inaccuracies are a part of a larger pattern we are seeing with the President where he is inaccurately reflecting America and undercutting important parts of our nation’s history,” said Forbes. “Trust in God is embedded into the fabric of society and history in the United States. If we allow these threads to be pulled, we will begin to unravel the very freedoms that birthed America.”

In the letter, the members asked that the President issue a correction to the speech he gave in Jakarta and expressed their willingness to meet with him to discuss the issue further. A copy of the letter is available here.

The Congressional Prayer Caucus is a bipartisan group of Members of Congress dedicated to preserving America's religious heritage and protecting religious liberties. The Prayer Caucus successfully led efforts to ensure that “In God We Trust” was included in the newly constructed Capitol Visitor Center after it had been removed and the national motto incorrectly noted as “E Pluribus unum.” Congressman Forbes is founder and chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus.

http://www.forbes.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=216891

Interesting that even Congresscritter Forbes (R-VA) admits that the inclusion of "In God We Trust" on currency and "One Nation Under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance wasn't added until the McCarthyite 1950s. I wonder how we survived as a nation without God clear from 1776 until 1956?

[Tunkamerica]

1. Paraphrasing is the domain of the Athiest.

Why don't Christians quote the whole bible each time they want to quote a specific line or phrase? Answer: Secret Athiests.

[jobycom]

2. The only mention of "God" in the Declaration is in the phrase "Nature's God"

which was Jefferson's rather obvious attempt to sidestep the whole issue of God. The exact phrasing was "...and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them," clearly meaning that rights and powers come from natural sources rather than the King or Britain. Jefferson went out of his way to not say God or Jesus, or to define specifically what was the source of the power.

The phrase that Obama omitted and Forbes quoted wrongly was "endowed by their Creator." Notice the "their" there. Again Jefferson was deliberately and obviously avoiding the whole issue of God, basically saying "Whoever or whatever you see as your Creator, that's who gave you your rights, rather than the King or Britain."

The whole document means that people had rights that transcended the laws of the King or of any specific government, and those rights came from a higher source that could be described as God, Nature, or whatever one believed it to be.

If our Founders were as Christian as fools like Forbes want to believe, they wouldn't have waffled with vague phrases, they'd have just said "Our Lord Jesus Christ" or some other specifically Christian phrase. Instead, they used the agnostic language of the educated, with language like "Divine Providence," "Nature's God," "Laws of Nature," and "their Creator."

The omission of specifically Christian language was every bit as deliberate and every bit for the same purpose as Obama's careful phrasing.

Oh, and about "E Pluribus Unum..." It is on the national seal, on our coins, on many official symbols, plaques, and landmarks, and was considered the national motto until the traitorous McCarthy Congress threw the Constitution into the latrine and voted "In God We Trust" as the national motto. For many of us, especially anyone who considers the First Amendment as a law rather than a guideline, "E Pluribus Unum" still is the motto, since the other is such a clear violation of our charter document that it is completely invalid.

[JDPriestly]

3. Nature's God is a deist concept in my view.

Jefferson valued Christian ethics but did not value the mythology of Christianity. People should read the Jefferson Bible which reflects Jefferson's understanding of Christianity.

[jobycom]

4. yeah, same thing I was saying.

Deists believed that some God must have started things and created rules that should be followed for the best behavior of humankind, but that God was long gone in practical terms. Some believed strongly in a God that Reason could detect, others--like Jefferson--downplayed the question of God altogether, and even questioned his existence.

Once the God part is removed, Christianity resembles the ethical systems of many other religions and philosophies. It is certainly one of the more complete moral systems, and one of the most humanitarian, based on love and charity and forgiveness. Jefferson had no problem embracing those ideals, but the whole concept of a God clearly bothered him. That, and the diversity of beliefs of the Founders, and the Deistic beliefs of the philosophers Jefferson was most influence by, are why he used the terminology he did.

To my mind, Deism was part of the path to secular humanism and agnosticism. Science could not yet answer questions about the origins of the world, and people had been so conditioned to believe in an ordered, precision-functioning universe that they couldn't yet imagine how such a complex world could exist without a clockmaker somewhere. So they used God to explain creation and to authorize a proper moral code, but abandoned the idea of a divine being who could intervene in the world. With the scientific theories of the 19th and 20th century, the need for the clockmaker fell away (for some), and the same impetus that created Deism led to a more secular, agnostic view of the world. It was an evolution away from what Einstein called a "personal God" who could intervene for his followers to the idea that morals and ethics could exist without a God to enforce them, as they did in many Eastern religions.

People try to put Jefferson and the other Founders in an absolute context based on our modern ideas, but Jefferson, like most people, reflects an evolution from the ideas of his youth to the ideas of his later life, and the evolution of common ideas of his era, and beyond.

[JDPriestly]

12. So true. The correspondence between Jefferson and Adams is very revealing

in so far as their attempts to deal with religion are concerned.

[sarge43]

5. Sigh, one more time.

USC, Article VI (3) strictly forbids a religious test for any public office.

[jobycom]

8. Not sure how that's related, but... yippee?

:shrug:

[sarge43]

9. Oh I don't know. Maybe an office holder's religion or faith is irrelevant?

S/he can believe in Dog or in no super natural being. Faith or lack of it is not a qualification for public office.

:eyes:

[jobycom]

10. Yes, obviously, but what did that have to do with my post?

:shrug:

[bluedave]

6. Guess What?

I couldn't care less!

[qb]

7. The bold text should include the phrase, "in response to anti-Communist hysteria"

Also, stating that the phrase that has been on our currency since the 1950's is proof of our country's religious nature is a circular argument. It is evidence only of the religious nature of the politicians who set the policy.

[skepticscott]

11. Apparently Forbes missed the

"pattern" in the Constitution (which is the supreme law of the land, while the DOI is a legal nothing) of God, Jesus Christ, the Creator or any other deity not being mentioned. Not in the Preamble, not in Article I, Article II, Article III, etc., and not in any of the first 10 Amendments. By the same reasoning he uses here, he should conclude that our Founding Fathers were all atheists, and that the nation and its overriding law were NOT founded on the Christian (or any other) religion.