Wednesday September 29, 2010
Obama Says Teachings of Jesus Christ 'Spoke to Me,' then Defends Abortion
By Kathleen Gilbert
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, September 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following reports of widespread skepticism over his professed Christianity, President Obama on Tuesday invoked the teachings of Jesus Christ as the inspiration for his public agenda, which he called part of an "effort to express my Christian faith" - and in his next breath defended the legalized killing of unborn children.
When a teacher's assistant asked him why he was a Christian during a townhall Q&A in Albuquerque, the president answered, “I’m a Christian by choice.”
The president admitted that his parents “weren’t folks who went to church every week" and that his mother "didn’t raise me in the church.” "I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead - being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me," he said.
Obama continued: "And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.
“That’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith," he said.
But the president then jumped to defend the legal killing of unborn children when the same woman asked about regulating the procedure.
"Now, with respect to the abortion issue, I actually think - I mean, there are laws both federal, state and constitutional that are in place," he said. "And I think that this is an area where I think Bill Clinton had the right formulation a couple of decades ago, which is abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."
Obama exhorted the audience to "recognize" killing unborn children as "a difficult, oftentimes tragic situation that families are wrestling with." "I think the families and the women involved are the ones who should make the decisions, not the government," he said, adding: "I do think actually that there are a whole host of laws on the books that after a certain period, the interests shift such that you can have some restrictions, for example, on late-term abortions, and appropriately so."
As an Illinois and U.S. senator, Obama never once voted in favor of an abortion restriction, supporting even the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure and voting against a state law to protect infants born alive during an abortion.
Since ascending to the White House, he has solidified his 100% pro-abortion record by pursuing greater funding for abortion groups both overseas and at home. In crafting the federal health care reform, Obama's administration worked closely with abortion giant Planned Parenthood, whom he promised in 2007 that reproductive health would be "at the center, the heart" of his health care plans.
Obama's devotion to abortion is not the only aspect of a public agenda in plain conflict with the Christian worldview.
Obama has taken an increasingly aggressive stance against Christian values on marriage and the family by courting the homosexualist lobby, and has pushed for an end to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the repeal of the U.S. military's ban on open homosexuality, and gay adoption. Obama also successfully championed the inclusion of "sexual orientation" as a federally protected trait alongside race and religion in federal "hate crimes" legislation.
A survey by the Pew Research Center in August found that nearly one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, and only one in three believe he is an adherent of the faith he claims; 43 percent said they were unsure. The White House shot back at the polls, claiming that right-wing "misinformation campaigns" had produced the results.
Yet skeptics likely remained unmoved when, after the Pew results were collected, Obama vouched for a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. The president announced his support at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim fast of Ramadan.
Christian leaders have expressed frustration at Obama's claim to Christianity despite failing to attend church services regularly since winning the 2008 presidential election, including Christmas Day 2008 and 2009.