Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Do you see what I see???

Blogging, like giving public speeches can sometimes be damning, which is why I try to steer clear of making assertive statments such as, "You're not a good Christian if you...." One of the pitfalls of being quotable is that your words might come back to haunt you. A classic example of this is Barak Obama's June 28, 2006 uninformed tirade regarding Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in which he stated, "...a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."


Regarding same sex marriages, in a 2008 speech, Obama, who has consistently said that he opposes marriage equality, stated: "I don’t think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state. If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans."

Finally, in a sermon given at a Chicago, IL church on Father's Day 2008, Obama had this to say about the Sermon on the Mount: "At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes by saying, “Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.” " So which is it, I ask? Is the Sermon on the Mount too radical for modern day application as he claims in his initial message, or is it readily applicable when it suits his purpose as demonstrated in the latter two examples? So this brings me to the question of the day: What are the criteria by which you measure who you vote for as President of the worlds principal nation?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the "Sermon on the Mount" might be the only part of the Bible that his speach writer has read and obviously doesn't really know what it's all about but alas, the words do come out of his mouth. Seriously, when voting for a Prime Minister I vote for the one who is most likely to speak the truth and take the lumps regardless of how many votes it might offend.

Ash said...

education, humanitarian aid (over military policing) taxes and upholding the constitution are more important issues to me than what religion they are. it is the idea that church and state are seperate and i cannot, as an american, base my vote on whether or not they believe in the bible.

i will say that my biggest issue w/ obama is that he continuely gets his mouth in trouble...not just on the religious front, but on political matters as well- i don't know that i could support someone who will say something that will be taken the wrong way, by the wrong people and get our country blown out of the water. the fact that he is not careful about what comes out of his mouth could jepordize our country.

Joseph said...

Ashley, thanks for your comments. I will be posting my perspective on this issue before the week is out.

Joseph said...

Hope, I hear you. It's pretty sad to leave your religious convictions up to your speech writer though!!!