Obama is 'ramping up his God talk'

[rug]

Sep 17, 2011
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

President Obama is "ramping up his 'God talk' for the re-election campaign," says political scientist John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life.

But Green and two other experts who track religious rhetoric in presidential politics speculate this strategy to connect with evangelical voters may not work for Obama.

Green points out, "Obama didn't talk much about faith during his first two years in office and this has left 40% of Americans wondering just what, exactly, is his faith commitment. Now he is ramping up this kind of language and using it in the right kind of context."

Most recent examples: On Sunday, Obama recited Psalm 46 at the 9/11 memorial event in New York and quoted Psalm 30 that same night at a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington. In his televised national jobs bill speech, he declared, "We are one nation under God, we always have been and always will be."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/index

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I hate it when he talks like a preacher,

absolutely hate it.

[monmouth]

2. Amen...n/t

[ixion]

3. More Third Way triangulation BS

way to go, Obama. Not.

[darkstar3]

4. That 9/11 display was disgusting.

He's the president of everyone, regardless of faith, not the country's Pastor-in-Chief.

[NMMNG]

5. How else does he have hope of getting re-elected?

Nobody in this country can get elected to any high political office without proving how Christiany they are. "No religious test" my ass.

[msongs]

6. Jesus says occupy other countries and kill their inhabitants, nt

[Bluenorthwest]

7. He and his wife are huge, leaping hypocrites of the first order

They snit and sneer about how they oppose marriage equality because of all this 'sanctity' they have, according to Paul in the NT, who also teaches women to remain silent and subservient, tells slaves to obey their masters as if the master was God's proxy on earth and various other things that they clearly reject while they cling onto those 'anti gay' verses with a fury unseen in Democratic politics. Now, I can abide a person with a sincere faith, but someone who lashes out at others for not practicing a religion they themselves do not care to practice is just an nasty, self centered, anti-intellectual hypocrite. People need to stop accepting that bullshit.

[Donnachaidh]

8. meh.

This sort of nonsense should not be coming out of the mouth of a supposedly progressive president.

[SlimJimmy]

9. Are you saying that a progressive president should never reference

God or religion? I don't quite follow.

[onager]

10. Won't work. What I heard on Fundie Xian radio...

As noted before, I sometimes tune in to the local Fundie radio station here in Los Angeles. (A Salem Communications outlet.)

They have a hilarious afternoon drive-time show called "The Intersection of Faith & Reason." An intersection that does not exist, but it makes for entertaining listening.

The host is Frank Pastore, a former pro baseball player. This naturally makes him an expert on evolution (which he often rants against) and Sophisticated Modern Xian Theology.

To prove he's a hip modern Xian, Frank often interjects stuff like "Right ON, bro!" to his guests like D'ouche D'Soza.

One day, Pastore had finished his usual religious duties of blasting Dems in general and President Obama in particular.

Then - probably in a fit of temporary insanity - he opined that Obama had apparently done a good job of raising his kids, and that he and Mrs. Obama seemed to be excellent parents.

Whoo boy! The station switchboard lit up like a War-On-Xmas tree. The very first caller said indignantly that Obama was NOT a good parent because he was not a "real Bible-believing Xian." And furthermore, the whole Obama family was going STRAIGHT TO HELL - kids included.

Pastore seemed genuinely confused by the vitriol from his callers. Which confused me. His demographic includes the most hateful, backward, racist bunch of ignoramuses going. So why would their reaction surprise him?

And THESE are the people to whom Obama is trying to suck up? Yeah, good luck with that.

[Pterodactyl]

11. News flash: Obama is a Christian!

For those of you who do not like Obama's "God talk", get used to it. The guy is a Christian. No, he's not a Muslim, and not an atheist. He's a Christian, so his motivations and his rhetoric will of course be Christian.