Today Yesterday President Obama had a conference call with leaders within the religious left. The call was initiated by 40 Days For Health Reform which is “an effort from the faith community to make clear to Congress that quality, affordable health care for every American family is a moral priority for millions of people of faith.” You can see the different sponsors of the call here.
He accuses those who disagree with him as “bearing false witness.”
HT: Breitbart.tv
I take issue with his statement for a couple of different reasons. 1. Accusing those who have criticized the House bill as “bearing false witness,” is incredibly inappropriate. President Obama could be accused of that himself. He isn’t the only one making that charge, it is a meme on the left.
Many people have scoured over HR 3200 and have been alarmed by what they have read. In particular the section 1233 of HR3200 (which President Obama “bore false witness” regarding the dissent) that has been brought up – the “end of life consultations” has even been criticized (even earlier than Sarah Palin) by a Democratic New York State Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz. Senator Diaz said the following in a letter to Congressman Henry Waxman:
Section 1233 of House Resolution 3200 puts our senior citizens on a slippery slope and may diminish respect for the inherent dignity of each of their lives. Each life must be cherished and regarded with reverence. This pending legislation does not necessarily provide for that guideline, and needs to be carefully reviewed with a full and open public debate.
It is egregious to consider that any senior citizen who resides in New York State or anywhere in the United States of America should be placed in a situation where he or she would feel pressured to save the government money by dying a little sooner than he or she otherwise would, be required to be counseled about the supposed benefits of killing oneself, or be encouraged to sign any end of life directives that they would not otherwise sign.
Now it’s been dropped in order to avoid unintended consequences. No one is saying that President Obama or House Democrats intend these things to happen, but that they could happen due to the language in the bill. Also abortion is an issue based on what the bill doesn’t say, not because of what it actually says – so open for (mis)interpretation and misuse/abuse (check out pages 25-27). President Obama again is “bearing false witness” of the dissent of those concerned about abortion.
So what I would encourage you to do, something your Representative or Senator may not have even done, is read the bill. Here are some items of dissent with page numbers, and here is the bill. Here are some instructions on how to read a bill. Go for it. Drink lots of coffee for it isn’t riveting reading.
The next item is when he said, “now I’ve said this before and I want to repeat it so that every member of your congregation understands it.” He later on says, “I need you to knock on doors, talk to your neighbors. I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth.” He’s asking pastors to promote his agenda from their pulpits. Not only that on this healthcare issue he hasn’t really been open to meeting with those of different ideological bents. This was with sponsored by the religious left. He had a similar conference call with liberal bloggers awhile back. President Bush when he met with clergy he met with those on the right and left.
Rick Moore at HolyCoast.com raises an excellent point about the nature of this conference call.
Can you imagine the reaction from the media and the left if President Bush had urged evangelical pastors to promote his political goals from the pulpit? Any church that did would have been subject to an IRS investigation at the prompting of various anti-religious groups, such as the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
I’m awaiting the organization’s statement condemning Obama’s call for political preaching.
*crickets*
He made a similar conference call with a 1000 rabbis nationwide, sponsored by the Religion Action Center of Reform Judaism (not a conservative group on social issues) where he was quoted as saying, “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.” Weekly Standard asks, “So if Obama’s on God’s team, which team is the other 54 percent of Americans on?”
Hmmm… this type of action doesn’t seem Presidential. I guess he’s doing the only two things he really knows how to do – community organizing and campaigning. That governing and leading thing… eh.
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