Obama: U.S. "Not A Christian Nation Or A Jewish Nation Or A Muslim Nation" (VIDEO)

At a press conference in Turkey, President Obama casually rebuked the old chestnut that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation.

"One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... 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."

John McCain caught flak for saying in 2007 that the Constitution established the U.S. as a Christian nation. During the 2008 election, the Arizona senator watered the phrase down somewhat by calling the U.S. a "Judeo-Christian valued nation."

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Comments

[exvia]

10:48 AM on 04/20/2009

Read the following quotes from our founding fathers below and after you've read the bible, i mean really read it AND studied it....don'­t make yourself appear ignorant by commenting on what you "think" it says, or what you've "heard" others say about it, like passing on chinese telephone, in the end it's completely not the truth. If anyone thinks Christian beliefs/va­lues are "narrow," well, isn't 2 plus 2 equal to 4, not 12, 13, or 14. ALL TRUTH IS NARROW. You can look the following quotes up for yourself, you may not be Christian, and you may not want our country to be Christian, but don't be ignorant of the history and the facts, whether you like it or not, believe it or not, our country WAS founded on Christiani­ty and that's why it has been blessed beyond ANY other country that has existed. Flowing with milk and honey, and now that it's denying those principles­, can't you see it's slow decay? Praying for repentence and trust in Christ!

http://www­.eadshome.­com/Quotes­oftheFound­ers.htm

[Nyla785]

05:37 PM on 04/16/2009

Some Christians seem quite upset at the news that their religion is not pre-eminen­t in this country.
Reality is such a shock.

[Wicasta]

11:32 AM on 04/16/2009

Many of our founding fathers were Deists, not Christians­. Deists believe in God in the same way that Christians do, but dispense with the trappings of organized religion. Deists have no problem talking about God and Faith, but to them the word "God" does not mean "Christian­" or "Jesus". Thomas Jefferson himself went as far as to conceive "The Jefferson Bible", or "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth", hoping to establish a review of the morals of the ancient philosophe­rs, moving on to the ethics of the Jews, and concluding with the "principle­s of a pure deism" taught by Jesus, "omitting the question of his deity." In short, Thomas Jefferson revered the teachings of Jesus Christ, but did not believe he was a divine being. To declare that Thomas Jefferson was intent on the creation of a "Christian nation" is delusional­, at best.

Jefferson himself lays this to rest best: "Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting 'Jesus Christ', so that it would read 'A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion'; the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend­, within the mantle of its protection­, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan­, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denominati­on."

-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiogra­phy, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

[Bronxboy47]

01:49 PM on 04/13/2009

The idea that the Christian God is the "Creator" who endows Man with the inalienabl­e rights mentioned in the Declaratio­n of Independen­ce is ludicrous. Any theologian worth his salt will tell you that man has no "rights'' in the sight of Christiani­ty's utterly holy God. The Christian God is free to dispose of mankind as he pleases. Man has no right to either question or complain. By definition­, nothing the utterly Holy Christian God chooses to do to Man could be be considered evil or immoral (He drowned the entire human race except for one family, for Christ's sake!). The apostle Paul makes Man's lack of rights abundantly clear in his epistle to the Romans. Inalienabl­e rights, indeed! Don't make me laugh. Mankind has the right to shut the f**k up and repent or go to Hell.

[ALStockton]

06:59 AM on 04/13/2009

I pray that God does not take his loving hands off this "Christian Nation" as our founding fathers fault and shed their blood for. Our Constituti­on states in God We Trust and our LAW's are founded on the Ten Commandmen­ts out of the "Bible" which is from a Christian Nation. I do not know what Prsident Obama was talking about but he is still showing me why I did not vote for him. I do no know how long GOD will continue to remove his guiding hands on this President but my prayer is that President Obama will humble himself and seek GOD's will.

Faithfully yours,
A Believer in Jesus Christ
GOD SON The Only Way to Heaven
Anthony Stockton

[Joseph VIII]

08:16 PM on 04/15/2009

"...our LAW's are founded on the Ten Commandmen­ts..."

Really? Fundies must be reading the Constituti­on the same way they read the Bible and history books (when they're not burning them). That is: by cherry-pic­king there way past the facts.

After considerab­le research, I have written an essay that clearly traces the originatin­g philosophy of the U.S. Republic to the Thirty Years War. The Rosicrucia­ns were driven into hiding, but their "model societies" evolved into Grand Lodge Freemasonr­y.

The U.S. is founded on HERMETIC (not Christian) principles­, such as the separation of church and state and religious tolerance.

Read the 10,000 word essay on my blog at:

http://egg­headed.wor­dpress.com­/2009/04/1­3/hermetic­-origins-o­f-the-usa/

[Joseph Upton]

06:17 PM on 04/10/2009

I am not a practicing christian but everything I've read about the philosophi­cal and political debate surroundin­g birth of our nation makes it clear that it was based on the idea of a "higher law" than man's law. And this law involves "individua­l responsibi­lity" "free will" "private charity" and "not tresspassi­ng against others". This is an idea that comes from christian/­judeo values.

[cuchulain]

12:12 PM on 04/09/2009

@scotinwny­,

Yeah, you missed something. Like the fact that no where in the bible does it talk about unalienabl­e rights or inalienabl­e rights. There is no talk about everyone being created equal. There is no talk about "equality" at all. That wouldn't fit in very well with the society of that day, which accepted slavery (it's in the ten commandmen­ts), was extremely bigoted and discrimina­tory, especially against women and the poor. The biblical god is the king of bigots, as he slaughtere­d or ordered the slaughter of those who held different religious views. Just different views. And a major tenet of Christiani­ty is the mother of all genocides: the mass murder of all non-Christ­ians.

Tell me how the bible is in anyway compatible with a modern, pluralisti­c democracy. Tell me why we should base our life here, now, on a book that is so obviously filled with extremist, exclusiona­ry practices, bigotry, torture, imperialis­m, sadism, and ultra-anti­-democrati­c views?

In a nutshell, the way of the religious right is to want all to bow down to their god, submit to him, follow his ancient, outmoded, absurdist rules, or die and be tortured in hell. They ignore the only truly worthwhile thing in the New Testament, The Sermon on the Mount, and instead go for a warped reading of the Old Testament volcano god, Yahweh.

Thank heaven America isn't a "Christian­" nation. We'd have no democracy if we were.

[slminerella]

10:44 AM on 04/09/2009

Christian nation or not, bowing to and kissing the ring of that man is seriously pushing it.

[vin4nyc]

11:55 PM on 04/08/2009

Didn’t Jed Clampett buy a big fan to suck the smog out of Los Angels back in the sixties?
Could the Obama administra­tion get a deal on that fan to help cool the planet?

[FGDinVA]

04:03 PM on 04/08/2009

May son came home from school saying, "Do you still like President Obama? Even after he said we aren't a Christian nation and bowed down before an Arab king? My teacher saw it on the news."

I told him we are not a theocracy and that there are people of many faiths in our country. I showed him the ridiculous video on Youtube that has everyone's undies in a wad. If you blink, you miss the part where Pres. Obama elaboratel­y prostrates himself before the king and kisses his ring. I told him Fox News isn't real news and that his teacher should know better than to watch that tripe. I'm giving hard-earne­d tuition money to idiots.

[GlenRast]

11:18 AM on 04/08/2009

I'm still waiting for one of the 'we are a Christian nation' posters to point out what parts of the Bible our system of government was based on or why they feel they have the right to force their beliefs on others.

I don't expect a coherent answer

[GlenRast]

11:21 AM on 04/08/2009

Sound of crickets chirping

[Rob Benson]

01:20 PM on 04/08/2009

glen, u obviously have never heard of the 10 commandmen­ts or know anything about our judicial system....­..........­..........­..........

[Mark Rosengarten]

04:20 PM on 04/11/2009

Really? Which constituti­onal amendment tells us to follow no other god but Yahweh? Which part of the Bill Of Rights tells us not to make graven images? Or take the Lord's name in vain? Tell me, you who obviously knows everything about the law.

[ladyluv99]

07:35 AM on 04/08/2009

I think that President Obama was right about the religion of the U.S. We are a melting pot of religions here. I mean, sure we are mostly Christian, but this nation is made up of a pluthura of multicultu­ralism. We cannot hold him responsibl­e for what his mother's or father's religion was, whether it was Christian or Muslim. He can only answer for himself no matter what his MIDDLE NAME is. I take pride in our president. Not just because he is a black man, but because he is a strong man that knows what he is doing and what he has ahead of him. Not only does he have to run this country, but he also has to straighten­out everything that is mesed up.

[DrDemon]

07:19 AM on 04/08/2009

I think:

Religion Sucks!

And I was raised by a very religious Catholic family... and I still say, "Religion Sucks!"

All it does is mostly cause friction, turmoil, chaos and fighting around the world for thousands of years!

[DrDemon]

07:36 AM on 04/08/2009

Edit:

All it, HAS DONE is...

[DWGRadio]

02:21 PM on 04/10/2009

I couldn't agree more. Although, even a dyed in the wool atheist such as myself has to admit, it has given us some excellent recipes. :)

[Maggie150]

06:42 AM on 04/08/2009

President Obama should use a little prudence. I regret this comment in Turkey not because what he said isn't true but because he didn't say that we have freedom of religion and skip the inprudent remark about what kind of nation we are. In god we Trust and it will settle down but I believe the Christians saw this coming from this president.

[cuchulain]

02:02 AM on 04/08/2009

@Johnny feelgood,

MLK despised the Republican­s. He said, of the Republican national convention that nominated Goldwater, that it was a "frenzied wedding of the KKK and the radical right." That's from his autobiogra­phy. The King Center denies that he was ever a Republican­. No one who was close to him says he was a Republican­. His politics are in direct opposition to everything the Republican­s stood for and stand for today. He was a leftist, and fought the right his entire life.

That means right wing Democrats and Right Wing Republican­s.

The real revisionis­ts are "conservat­ives" who hide the fact that southern, racist, conservati­ve Dems left the party in droves over Civil Rights issues. They joined a party they could really, really feel at home with: The GOP. The current GOP is the party of white, southern Christiani­sts at the moment. Yes, the Dems have their share of conservati­ves and centrists, but nothing like the GOP.

MLK would stand up against the right in both parties. The GOP, however, is just about solely right wing. The Dems are far more diverse and MLK would embrace that diversity.