"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President
Barack Obama, June 2009
" America has been arrogant." -
President BarackObama
"After 9/11, America didn't always
live up to her ideals."- President Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."
- President Barack Obama, Egypt
2009
Thinking about these and other statements
made by the man who wears the title of president.
I keep wondering what country
he believes he's president of.
In one of my very favorite stories,
EdwardEverett Hale's "The Man without
a Country," a young Army lieutenant
named Philip Nolan stands condemned
for treason during the Revolutionary
War, having come under the influence
of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks
him if he wishes to say anything before
sentence is passed, young Nolan
defiantly exclaims, "Damn the United
States ! I wish I might never hear of
the United States again!"
The stunned silence in the courtroom
is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause,
the judge soberly says to the angry
lieutenant: "You have just pronounced
your own sentence. You will never hear
of the United States again.. I sentence
you to spend the rest of your life at
sea, on one or another of this c
ountry's naval vessels - under strict
orders that no one will ever speak to
you again about the country you have
just cursed."
And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken
away and spent the next 40 years at
sea, never hearing anything but an
occasional slip of the tongue about
America.. The last few pages of
the story, recounting Nolan's dying
hours in his small stateroom - now
turned into a shrine to the country
he foreswore - never fail to bring
me to tears. And I find my own
love for this dream, this miracle
called America , refreshed and
renewed. I know how blessed and
unique we are.
But reading and hearing the audacious,
shocking statements of the man who
was recently elected our president
- a young black man living the
impossible dream of millions of young
Americans, past and present, black
and white - I want to ask him,
"Just what country do you think
you're president of?"
You surely can't be referring to
the United States of America ,
can you? America is emphatically
a Christian nation, and has been
from its inception! Seventy percent
of her citizens identify themselves
as Christian. The Declaration of
Independence and our Constitution
were framed, written and ratified
by Christians. It's because this
was, and is, a nation built on and
guided by Judeo-Christian biblical
principles that you, sir, have had
the inestimable privilege of being
elected her president.
You studied law at Harvard, didn't
you, sir? You taught constitutional
law in Chicago ? Did you not ever
read the statement of John Jay,
the first Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court and an author of
the landmark "Federalist Papers":
" Providence has given to our people
the choice of their rulers - and it
is the duty, as well as the privilege
and interest of our Christian nation
- to select and prefer Christians
for their rulers"?
In your studies, you surely must have
read the decision of the Supreme
Court in 1892: "Our lives and our
institutions must necessarily be
based upon and embody the teachings
of the Redeemer of mankind. It is
impossible that it should be
otherwise; and in this sense and to
this extent our civilization and our
institutions are emphatically Christian."
Did your professors have you skip
over all the high-court decisions
right up till the mid 1900's that
echoed and reinforced these views
and intentions? Did you pick up the
history of American jurisprudence
only in 1947, when for the first
time a phrase coined by Thomas
Jefferson about a "wall of separation
between church and state" was used
to deny some specific religious
expression -contrary to Jefferson's
intent with that statement?
Or, wait a minute: were your ideas
about America 's Christianity formed
during the 20 years you were a
member of the TrinityUnitedChurch
of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah
Wright? Is that where you got the i
dea that " America is no longer a
Christian nation"? Is this where you,
even as you came to call yourself
a Christian, formed the belief that
" America has been arrogant"?
Even if that's the understandable
explanation of your damning of
your country and accusing the whole
nation (not just a few military
officials trying their best to keep
more Americans from being murdered
by jihadists) of "not always living
up to her ideals," how did you come
up with the ridiculous, alarming
notion that we might be"considered
a Muslim nation"?
Is it because there are some 2
million or more Muslims living here,
trying to be good Americans? Out
of a current population of over 300
million, 70 percent of whom are
Christians? Does that make us, by
any rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?
Why are we not, then, a "Chinese
nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a
"Vietnamese nation"? There are even
more of these distinct groups in
America than Muslims. And if the
distinction you're trying to make is
a religious one, why is America not
"a Jewish nation"? There's actually
a case to be made for the latter,
because our Constitution - and the
success of our Revolution and founding
- owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.
Have you stopped to think what an
actual Muslim America would be like?
Have you ever really spent much time
in Iran ? Even in Egypt ? You, having
been instructed in Islam as a kid at
a Muslim school in Indonesia and
saying you still love the call to evening
prayers, can surely picture our nation
founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-
Christian Bible, and living under
Shariah law. Can't you? You do
recall Muhammad's directives
[Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross"
and "kill the infidel"?
It seems increasingly and painfully
obvious that you are more influenced
by your upbringing and questionable
education than most suspected. If you
consider yourself the president of a
people who are "no longer Christian,"
who have
"failed to live up to our ideals," who
"have
been arrogant," and might even be
"considered Muslim" - you are president
of a country most Americans don't
recognize.
Could it be you are a president without
a country?
All who love their Christian Beliefs and
their Country, Forward to all in your
