I walked into school yesterday and was greeted by a lady I love who quickly told me that Obama had just said, "We are not a Christian nation" to a bunch of Muslims. Really? I thought? Yikes. Quickly followed by a "Hmmm..."
...I looked it up. You know, I love this lady, and I don't know what source she gets her news. But I'm learning that there is usually some left out context when I hear snippets like that.
Obama was in Turkey. He was not speaking to a group of terrorists and telling them we are not Christian.
Here are his exact words:
"One of the great strengths of the United States is, although, as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation, we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." (I'm sure there is even more context which would add to the understanding of what he is saying, if we looked more into it.)
I am a Mormon, and we are Christians (as defined by "a person who believes in Jesus Christ as a divine Son of God and Redeemer of mankind through the Atonement", though not "Christian" as falling under the umbrella of traditional Christianity and breaking off of break-offs. We believe we have the original gospel through modern day divine revelation.)
I do not feel threatened by Obama's statement. How is it different from our 11th Article of Faith?:
"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience. We allow all men the same privilege."
Though, I do believe Obama could have better avoided the people who seem to need to take snippets and spread them out of context by saying, "Yes, we do consider ourselves a Christian nation. However, we also consider ourselves to be a Jewish nation, and a Muslim nation. We are a group of citizens who honor all rights to worship and what binds us together, despite our differences, is our commitment to ideals and values."
This would have seemed more unifying and would have complimented the strength of diversity that we celebrate in our country, and not have seemingly--to some--"abandoned" our Christian heritage.
BUT GET OVER IT! I mean, really.
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1 comment:
First of all... HI Venicia!! It's been a long LONG time. I found your blog through one of our mutual friends, Megan Armstrong. Seems like things are going very well for you! You're looking as gorgeous as ever! :)
Second, THANK YOU so much for this post. It is so frustrating when things are taken out of context and stated as absolute fact. I really appreciate and admire the fact that you take the time to go back to the source and find out the whole story. Very cool. I completely agree that we uphold the same respect for religious diversity. Oh... and I just missed Obama's trip to Turkey by a week. Bummer. Though I'm sure it would have been a lot more difficult to get around with all that security.
Love ya!
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