Last week, on Thanksgiving, President Obama delivered a message to the American people. It ran eleven paragraphs and 503 words. None of those words was God. Obama thanked the men and women who defend the country; he thanked volunteers at soup kitchens. All of that is well and good. Thanksgiving is about celebrating community. But more than anything, it’s about celebrating the benevolence of God.
At least that’s what George Washington said in declaring it a national holiday. The day of Thanksgiving, he stated, was to “be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation …”
Upon seeing Obama’s God-less message, I tweeted, “Unreal that Obama doesn’t mention God in Thanksgiving message. Militant atheist. To whom does he think we are giving thanks?”
The “militant atheist” part of the tweet was based not only on Obama’s omission from the Thanksgiving message. It was based on Obama’s long history of dislike for religion: his comment that small town Americans are bitter folks who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment”; his speeches in which he portrayed the Bible as out of touch and ridiculous, suggesting that the Sermon on the Mount would force the shutdown of the Defense Department; his support for radical Muslims at the expense of Coptic Christians in Egypt; the list goes on.
My tweet, needless to say, caused consternation on the left. Aside from the usual nutcases who cannot write anything without four-letter words, liberal outlets like Mediaite and Gawker suggested I was crazy for mentioning Obama’s comments.
This wasn’t just the Obama Defense Mechanism kicking in. This was something larger than mere politics.
On Sunday, I sat down to watch the Denver Broncos play the San Diego Chargers. I noticed the same sort of virulent anger as I had experienced after tweeting – only this time, it was directed at Denver QB Tim Tebow. Now, Tebow isn’t the world’s greatest quarterback. He’s not Aaron Rodgers or even Ben Roethlisberger. He’s a mediocre passer and a good runner; he’s a possession QB. He wins. And he’s always polite.
But the public division over Tebow is stunning. His fans love him; his enemies hate him.
They hate him because he’s a public advocate for Christianity. He bows in prayer before games. He leads prayers with members of the opposing team after games. He’s a religious class act. And this freaks members of the left out. In fact, people began tweeting me during the Broncos game about how much Tebow irritated them. “Tim Tebow sucks cuz he brings God into football,” wrote one poster. “Just throw the damn ball & shut up.”
That basically summed up the problem. The goal of the left is to make religion private and irreligion public. That’s why we have a president who is considered urbane for leaving God out of a day specifically dedicated to God, and a famous quarterback considered controversial for openly mentioning Jesus.
If the left has its way on this, America is in serious trouble. Religion has always been the basis for our republic; as John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Rejecting religion leaves us adrift from our principles. In fact, it leaves us in Obamaland.
In one interview prior to his election, Obama was asked by a reporter whether he believed in sin. He said yes. What, the reporter asked, did sin mean to him? “Being out of alignment with my values,” he said.
Such narcissism is dangerous and troubling. And that’s why it was worth mentioning. That’s also why I root for Tim Tebow now, much more ardently than I did before. We need more Tim Tebows for our country to recover its sense of balance– and far fewer Barack Obamas.
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