Posted on 07/22/2014 11:39:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dear Mr. President, I write to you today as a concerned citizen of our great nation, standing as a witness against your historic actions on the morning of July 21, 2014, actions which I hope you will one day repudiate with deep remorse and regret.
I am referring, of course, to your signing an executive order Monday banning “discrimination” by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.
This was an outrageous act of discrimination against religion in the name of anti-discrimination, an act of bullying people of faith in the name of the prevention of bullying.
How can you, as a man who professes to be a person of faith and a follower of Jesus, throw religious Americans, in particular Christians, under the bus?
How can you attempt to force Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others, to violate fundamental aspects of their moral codes in order to appease a small but powerful special interest group, one that is not, in fact, suffering daily economic hardship by being fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or expression?
Have you forgotten entirely that our nation was founded on the concept of religious freedom?
It was unfortunate that you did not reflect on the recent Supreme Court decisions that made clear that you and your administration have consistently overstepped your bounds. Instead, once again, you bypassed the will of the people, as reflected in their elected officials, and simply made a decision affecting millions of Americans.
Worse still, you ignored the appeals of trusted religious leaders, some of whom campaigned for you in the past and others of whom have been among your trusted advisors, deciding instead to side with radical LGBT activism.
These leaders made a righteous and reasonable appeal to you, writing, “Mr. President, you have spoken eloquently of your commitment to protecting religious liberty, our nation’s first freedom. As you seek to promote the rights of LGBT persons, please also protect the rights of faith-based organizations that simply desire to utilize staffing practices consistent with their deep religious convictions as they partner with the federal government via contracting or subcontracting.”
In response, you mocked these “deep religious convictions,” and there are no words you can say to minimize the seriousness of your actions.
Mr. President, what was wrong with letting Congress make an informed decision on ENDA? Do you scorn the political process so much that you bypass it entirely?
You stated that, “I’m going to do what I can, with the authority I have, to act,” but the implications of your actions are massive.
An organization like Prison Reform, which utilizes federal funds to help transform the lives of inmates, would suffer dramatic financial setbacks should they simply refuse to hire individuals who violate their time-proven, biblically-based code of conduct.
Children supported by World Vision, with the help of federal funds, would be deprived of food and shelter unless World Vision leaders compromised their Christian convictions. (After much soul searching this year, they have made clear that they will not compromise).
Fine Christian universities, which provide important academic and ethical training for the next generation of leaders and which are also the recipients of federal funding, could suffer a massive blow unless they forsake the faith on which their institutions were built.
Mr. President, must you now even take the place of God and tell Christians what they can and cannot actively practice?
I concur with Peter Sprigg who wrote that, “This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior. This order gives activists a license to challenge their employers and, expose those employers to threats of costly legal proceedings and the potential of jeopardizing future contracts.”
In truth, this is not a Civil Rights issue, as if gay were the new black. As Catholic leader Austin Ruse observed, “the LGBTs are the most powerful aggrieved minority the world has ever known,” while, in contrast, “Black Americans really were aggrieved: enslaved, not allowed to vote, discriminated against in housing, banking, and much else, hunted down and lynched.”
As our nation’s first African American president, you must surely see the difference. Or is it true, as your critics claim, that you really intend to declare war on religion in America?
It is one thing to treat all people fairly, be they male or female, gay or straight, young or old. It is another thing to trample religious freedoms under foot and to attempt to coerce, with the full force of the government, men and women of deep religious faith and commitment.
Mr. President, there are millions of Americans who pray for you on a regular basis, and I have often called on my radio listeners to pray that you would be the greatest president in American history.
Despite those prayers, you took it upon yourself to enact an order which declares that, in the workplace, sexual rights trump religious rights. What a terrible, tragic shame.
I do pray for you, sir, as my president, that God would grant you the humility to recognize the error of your ways. At the same time, I assure you that there are countless thousands of Christian leaders and people of faith who will neither abandon their convictions nor be silenced from articulating those convictions.
And so, perhaps, in God’s providence, what you intended as a religious restriction will become the impetus for a religious awakening.
After all, you might well be the most powerful human being on the planet, but we will all bow down one day before the throne of God, and He will have the final say.
If you saw the interview with Janet Reno following Waco, you saw the same mindset.
It was absolutely unfathomable, outrageous, and frankly enraging to Janet Reno that anyone would violently resist agents of the government.
I’m sure King George had the same outrage after the Boston Tea Party.
*Catholic* Charities do without govt money? Ha!
They’ve (and will likely continue to) received MILLIONS of US Taxpayer $$ via “grants”. Grants that have been given (at least) since 2010 to set up the transportation and housing of these *suddenly unexpected* flood of illegal “children” (majority are between ages 16 - 24).
Profit over principle. Government contractors would rather make a buck than buck the powers that be.
When is lightning going to strike the undocumented alien pretender?
There are many dark skinned persons from all over the world. I was often taken for a dark skinned person when I served in the Philippines in WWII. As a boy I tanned very easily. In Obama’s case an Indonesian guru named Subud supplied the male sperm for mama Stanley Ann ‘Whatever’. That part of the world has many dark skinned people. Check out Subud as to a look a like for Obama.
Will they be allowed to sing Village People songs during federal projects? Will the Indian be allowed to wear his costume or does that fall under the same loony laws that the anti-Redskin people are trying to gin up?
do what obama does to everything he doesn’t like. Refuse to follow his “executive actions” (dictatorial crap).
The problem for the church is that it is becoming another political charity. The tax breaks a church receives in essence is federal money. The government will eventually take 50 percent of everything in the US as they do in Europe, as a minimum. The government is involved in every aspect of life. Whether it is a renewable tax or even clean air, what we have remaining is less and less. Anyone or any institution that has money is subject to taxes; even if it is interest on savings, the government is going to take something. Worst still, if your organization is not an active DNC sanctioned contributor, your taxes are subject to being higher - it is ally political today - it is political war and nothing is exempt.
“gays don’t go to muslim groups looking for work.”
Why is that, I wonder?
Not that the Islamic power brokers do not engage in the behavior, it is the PERSPECTIVE with which they engage in the activity. The individual upon whom the submission is forced has to be inferior to the Noble Islamic Gentleman, and this is the way in which this superiority is expressed.
It is not sexual in nature, this is how dominance is asserted. Either that, or lop off the inferior’s head.
Just because the Noble Islamic Gentleman feels an enormous surge of - something, that does not mean that it is in any way sex.
I don’t have an objection to non-profits getting a tax break, because presumably they do work that is necessary and beneficial to society in one way or another but is not something that is likely to be taken on by the for-profit sector, and at the same time, not something that falls within the sphere of the government. (Yeah, I know - nowadays, everything falls within the sphere of the government.)
All non-profits (not just churches) receive that tax break, supposedly as long as they don’t engage in political advocacy. Of course, the problem is that many of them do in fact engage in political advocacy...for the Dems. When was the last time you heard of a black church getting its non-profit status yanked for campaigning openly for a Dem candidate, instructing its members how to vote, and even driving them to the polls with somebody to “assist” them in the voting booth? That’s ok by the IRS.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, is under the microscope, even though it is permissible to advocate for ideas as long as you don’t advocate for parties, individuals, etc. But I suspect even so at some point that the government will pull its tax exemption, probably over the gay “marriage” or even transsexual issue.
Mohammed Subud, Indonesian cult leader.
It wouldn't surprise me if Fuddy was still alive and kickin at the Subud compound in Indonesia. Especially since they had her demise on video!
The amount of money the Feds grant to the supposedly “"Baptist" charitable NGO,the BCHS” is at least ten times that number! HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS SO FAR THIS YEAR
I am neither Baptist nor Catholic.
(nor do I oppose them)
I have privately put this question of HHS federal grants to various real Baptist church members, and none of them appear to be in any way affiliated with the federally financed NGO, BCHS.
Kind of the same way Westboro Baptist Church is not a recognized church, nor is it affiliated with any existing USA Christian Baptist religious entity.
I don’t recall the interview, but I do recall that I saw the murders at Waco and elsewhere for what they were—an oppressive regime sending a message. The abuses of the Clinton years were what really woke me up to the the basic rottenness of a significant proportion of my “fellow Americans.” I’m afraid old George was far more benevolent than what the American Left has become.
Obama has absolutely no respect for the First Amendment (or the Second, Fourth, Ninth, or Tenth). I miss the rule of law.
sara...I am not trying to bash Catholics...never have, never will.
I’ve been reading (will try and find thread and other article links...FReepers may be able to help me, here)...that the Catholic Charities is set up similar to the BCFS ...the faux Baptist group that, like you said, has received hundreds of millions in fed grants.
I think the *Baptist* churches that are affiliated with the grant groups are (liberal) General Baptist, and not Southern Baptist. FWIW. FReepers can correct me on that.
Bingo - you nailed it and we must be drinking from the same cup. I completely agree.
Funding increases for Catholic organizations in recent years include the following:
An increase from $12.45 million (2008) to $57.89 million (2011) in USDA food assistance to Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
An increase from just over $440 million (2008) to more than $554 million (2010) to Catholic Charities USA
Increases in Dept. of Labor grants to Catholic organizations such as Catholic Charities of Kansas for ex-offender reintegration and other programs from $300,000 (2009) to more than $5 million (2011)
An increase of HHS funding for Catholic Medical Mission Board global health activities from $500,000 (2008) to $7 million (2011).
www.networklobby.org/news-media/federal-funding-catholic-organizations
The “American” Left doesn’t want us under their thumb so much, like King George - they want us dead. I’m serious.
Dear Mr. Brown & Ms. Kaslin,
I won.
Sincerely, The Obama
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