Posted on 02/12/2012 5:14:32 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
First lady Michelle Obama Saturday visited the Florida megachurch where one of President Obama's spiritual advisers is the pastor. She encouraged faith-based groups to join her campaign against obesity, saying "your bodies are temples given to you by God." "Sometimes folks won't do it if it wasn't said right here," she said, speaking to about 3,000 people from more than 120 congregations and organizations, representing over 15 faiths and denominations, at Northland, A Church Distributed in central Florida.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and who serves as senior pastor of the Northland church, introduced Mrs. Obama as a "talented, caring, a very physically fit first lady" who is most proud of being "Malia and Sasha's mom." She was in Orlando on the last day of her three-day tour to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move!" initiative to fight childhood obesity.
"You serve as a beacon for those who are lost, a refuge for those who've been forgotten," she told religious individuals and groups. "And our faith communities don't tend only to folks' spiritual health but to their emotional and their physical health as well," she said. "Think for a moment about the scripture that tells us that your bodies are temples given to you by God. That is a core teaching of so many of our faiths a teaching that calls us to honor and nourish the bodies we've been blessed with, and to help others do the same."
She said one-third of children in America are overweight or obese and therefore at risk for serious conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease "that undermine their health, that diminish their prospects, and they cost our economy billions of dollars each year."
While Michelle Obama might like to keep her campaign separate from politics, her tour, which comes months before the presidential election, boosts the president's image. Reporters asked her about her husband's re-election bid while she was touring in Dallas on Friday, to which she replied, "I want him to be my president for another four years." She added that her approach to campaigning is, "This is the time that I have to give to the campaign and whatever you do with that time is up to you, but when it's over, don't even look at me... No calls. No anything."
While Obama's talk at the church on Saturday drew a lot of cheering and laughter, her arrival at the church campus was marked by anti-abortion protests. Activists held up placards declaring abortion as murder, but didn't mention her husband's administration by name.
The first lady praised Pastor Hunter's megachurch, which has a congregation of 15,000. It's no accident, she said, that the Northland church hosts classes to "help folks lead healthier lives."
"It's no accident that, long before we ever started 'Let's Move,' so many congregations were already sponsoring health ministries and fitness classes, hosting food pantries and summer nutrition programs for our kids."
Obama also mentioned the National Council of Churches, which she said had joined with Ample Harvest, an organization that helps gardeners donate fresh produce to 4,700 of their local food pantries. "The National Baptist Convention is aiming to have health ambassadors at all of their nearly 10,000 churches by September," she added. "And some of their churches have already created "no fry" zones in their congregations."
She said all faith communities were promoting a healthy lifestyle. "Muslim community leaders are hosting sports tournaments to encourage young people to get active," she said. "The Jewish Community Centers Association is working with JCCs around the country to grow gardens, and to get fresh food into underserved areas, and they're [creating] early child wellness programs."
She told the crowd that members of Let's Move Faith and Communities, which was created to partner with faith-based groups, had sponsored more than 1,000 summer nutrition sites providing millions of healthy meals for children in need. "So just imagine what we could achieve if every single organization and every single congregation in America got involved in this way Imagine how many children we could feed Imagine how many lives would be transformed."
The first lady recalled the days when she was growing up, saying, "You might not even understand how life was back then. Most of us led reasonably healthy lives. We walked to and from school every day rain or shine." But the times have changed. "How many of us find ourselves looking forward to that fried chicken and mac and cheese, pound cake, after church on Sunday?" she asked. "Some people come to church just for the fried chicken."
She also underlined the need to revive the tradition of cooking and eating in the kitchen. "We still do that at the White House. It's a little, bitty kitchen big, old house, everybody sitting in the kitchen. No matter where you're sitting in the kitchen. I'm not cooking, but but we still like the kitchen. Dirtying every pot, cooking everyone's favorite dishes, talking, laughing, sharing stories late into the night. That's family."
Obama said the government doesn't have all the answers. "There's no one-size-fits-all program or policy that will solve this problem. Every family and every community is different. Each of us needs to make the changes that fit with our budgets, our beliefs, and our tastes."
What is the sacrifice of your "religion", Mo?
Preaching/cheerleading from this self-righteous hypocrite got old fast.
Ill say it right now.
Any church that starts spouting Michelle Obama propaganda, would find no longer donating. I go to church for Church, not propaganda from big brother and the food police.
That would end any relationship I had with any church that tried it.
“She encouraged faith-based groups to join her campaign against obesity, saying “your bodies are temples given to you by God.”
These people are completely tone deaf. Completely.
...-some were asking, What would Jackie do? While I cant say for sure, I feel confident that her idea of a sack dress was slightly different from Lady Ms.
“What goes into a person’s mouth doesn’t make him unclean. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes a person unclean.”
...Matthew 15:11
Moochelle needs to look in the mirror. The “rear-view” mirror.
Keep raising the taxes, sharing the wealth, borrowing money and spitting at Jesus this country will be skinnier than an Ethiopian drought or the Sudan, any fourth world nation. When she loses forty pounds I’ll start laughing. Until then WE EAT!
WOOF!!!
Look Ma! No hands!!!
Their bodies may be fat, but their souls are starving if this is the extremely week gruel ladled out at this “mega church.”
Any group that lets a political figure set up a photo op by talking about obesity instead of what Jesus has done to save sinners from an eternity in Hell is not a “church” at all. Otherwise, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers should apply to the IRS for tax exemptions as “churches.”
Her visit to the "church" is listed under:
POLITICAL EVENTS Around Central Florida in the Orlando Sentinel
However, of all the photos posted in the fawning Slantinel, there were none showing the anti-abortion protestors.
Instead, what they thought we should be restricted to seeing, were just some benign "down home" images of "The First Mom" having dinner with a local family that has embraced her Church/State "gospel of salvation by diet.":
ABOVE: First Lady Michelle Obama waves to reporters gathered near the dining room during dinner with the Halls family, at their home in Ocoee, Friday night.
First Lady Michelle Obama, in central Florida on a two-day trip promoting healthy living, visited an Ocoee family for dinner at their home, Friday night. A motorcade of security and press escorted the First Lady to the home of Kern and Patrice Halls, in the Westchester neighborhood, west of Orlando. The Halls, with their sons, Keian, 12, and Kamryn, 7, served Obama a meal of jerk chicken, brown rice and peas, sauteed zuchini and squash, and a salad. ..." Click here for more photos of First Lady Michelle Obama dining visit, Friday night.
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Michelle Obama speaks at Northland Church in Longwood
Meanwhile, I won't hold my breath waiting to see quotes from "Rev" Joel Hunter like this, published in the Slantinel:
Hunter: "Heres what I think the enemy is: the luxury of being simplistic, of not understanding how complex problems are and how much cooperation is required to solve them. Evangelicals went through a period where we formed homogeneous affinity groups. You cloister together and think everybody else is the enemy. One reason Im thrilled with Obamas presidency is that he likes a broad spectrum of perspectives. Out of those he will glean a practical solution good for everyone. Hes got the intellectual capacity to handle the job. Ive been in conversations with organizations our government cant even talk to like Hezbollah. The enemy is never as scary or threatening up close."
Excerpt From The New Evangelicals: Expanding the Vision of the Common Good
IE: The "Social Justice" mantra of the Left:
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009):
Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.
Pope Benedict agrees:
[Some] are involved in a disastrous confusion between the poor of Scripture and the proletariat of Marx.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- What Would Jesus ... Deduct?
President Obama offered a new line of reasoning for hiking taxes on the rich on Thursday, saying at the National Prayer Breakfast that his policy proposals are shaped by his religious beliefs. ...[snip]
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Joel Hunter - "Social Justice" apologist for Obama:
Obama Ties Public Policy Decisions to Faith at Prayer Breakfast
By Michelle A. Vu , Christian Post Reporter February 2, 2012|11:54 am
WASHINGTON President Obama took a markedly more political tone in his address at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning than he did at the same event last year.
In contrast to last year's personal faith stories, attendees of the 60th National Prayer Breakfast which takes place 10 months before the presidential election were treated to Obama's attempt to make a biblical case for his contentious economic policies........
Pastor Joel C. Hunter, President Obama's spiritual adviser, commented to The Christian Post after the event on the president's decision to tie politics and his faith together in the speech.
"He (Obama) made several comments that this not only makes economic sense, but it makes moral sense," Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed near Orlando, said.
"Then he made sure that we understood that it was an extension of his own Christian faith."
"I do think that the president was trying to say that this is a part of my own Christian faith, and what informs my policies," he continued.
"He is trying to make connections between what is actually happening in the decision-making realm of politics and faith. So he is saying, that these policies we are making isn't just a matter of affairs, but also a matter of what our faith have told us to do."
But for Dr. Richard D. Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Obama's speech was too political for the prayer breakfast, which emphasizes removing political labels and partisan divides to come together in prayer and worship.
"I thought it was the most political speech that I heard a president give at the prayer breakfast and I've been to several prayer breakfasts," said Land to CP. "And I thought it was by far the most political speech."
Land said he had some people share with him afterwards that they thought President Obama's speech was "unfortunate.".......
Interestingly, while Obama cited a few Bible verses, he seemed to go out of his way to acknowledge other religious faiths. He mentioned the words "Islam" or "Islamic" three times, "Judaism" or "Jewish" three times, and "Hinduism" once."
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However, The Gospel was powerfully and beautifully preached to President Obama, the First Lady, some 4,000 guests from all over the world attending the National Prayer Breakfast, and to the nation via C-SPAN
"God as He REALLY is"..."Jesus is the enemy of DEAD RELIGION"....Jesus' enemies "quoted Scripture" to Him. ....The truth of the Scriptures were communicated clearly and with humor by New York Times best-selling author Eric Metaxas, author of of the acclaimed recent biography of Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was murdered by the Nazis for standing up for the Jews.
His address starts at 34 minutes in watch the VIDEO
Eric Metaxas (paraphrased): "Apart from God, we cannot see "HOW" to help the poor, not "whether" to help the poor (etc.) Apart from God, we cannot see that the unborn are "persons" / human beings. Bonhoeffer: Whoever does not stand with the Jews is [a German phrase] If you have a biblical view of sexuality you will be demonized by the other side as "bigots". However, we are commanded to love our enemies who do not yet see these, and other biblical principles. This includes our "political" enemies. (Sings "Amazing Grace") ("Was blind, but now I see")
A powerful indictment against the Marxist "Scripture quoters" bttt
But, but, I thought a woman should feel free to do whatever she wants to do to her body.
ML/NJ
” an optional food stamp package that would only be for unprocessed food (vegetables, whole grains, seeds and nuts, and raw meat foul and fish), plus a modest amount for soap . . . “
Yeah — I think you actually meant something like “fowl” instead of “foul”? Anyway that’s a great idea; only I wouldn’t say “optional” - should be mandatory. . . . Isn’t it something like 45 million people now on food stamps?
I would not listen to a preacher who is a “spiritual” advisor to obama.
The Nazis took over the German Lutheran and Catholic churches and installed their own leadership. History surely repeats itself.
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