-By Rev Michael Bresciani
There is little doubt what tone Mr. Obama has desired to set for the nation. His song has been about bailouts, spending, class warfare, circumventing the Congress with executive orders, abortion rights and the LGBT.
The President has stated his view quite clearly for all Americans to hear and ponder. In a succinct and clearly stated single proclamation, the Obama doctrine for America, as it pertains to the worldwide tensions, believed to be caused by Muslims, is clear. In a 2009 speech in Cairo he said the tension “has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
No one would argue that we need to seek peace with all our neighbors in the world community, but now the president has stated that we must ignore the universal cry for jihad coming from the Muslim world and tone down the rhetoric. Perhaps he’s right. Toning down the rhetoric might calm things a bit, but toning down the resistance to a universal, worldwide Muslim caliphate can never be abated or abandoned.
Muslims are doing more to create tension and a bad rap than the next dozen Cairo speeches could ever smooth over. Jihad is not a trend, a tendency or a hula hoop mentality among the Muslims. It is a way of life, a teaching of the Koran and a commitment made by almost all of the worlds 1.2 billion Muslims. These are not my facts, these are our facts, and they belong to anyone in a modern world who owns a TV, has a connection to the internet or can afford to buy even an occasional edition of a reputable daily newspaper.
Much more than policy the president of this nation also sets the tone for the general population. America grew deeply involved with its own spectacular natural resources when Teddy Roosevelt held office. The Gipper brought humor to new heights in Washington during his administration, not to mention a new interest in old movies.
More than all else, he may have left in his legacy the bravery, iron will and patriotism of George Washington that drew out the best in every American, in his day. That was something without which America would not have been sustained during her fledgling years.
Is it any different today? I tend to cringe when angry bloggers resort to making up nasty names for Barack Obama because I believe that their message is compromised or completely lost when it is biased, with nothing but anger. The messages may be all true and needful to be written or spoken, but when embellished with mean spirited appellations they tend to curve down and are all but lost.
Some of them may be true, others the president has earned and yet others are perfectly fitting in the broader scope of his entire affectation of the nation. Some call him Barry because his name in former times was indeed Barry Soetoro. Apart from all birther assertions that Mr. Obama may not have been born in the U.S. the use of the name and when it was changed is still a mystery. That’s one earned by the president.
Some liken his administration to the Capone era in Chicago’s prohibition days. With completely un-vetted and highly mysterious connections to Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Acorn and an Attorney General who seems to be waging war against the states, we might want to withhold, but there is more. Adding to that, Holder’s mishandling of Fast and Furious and now what we have is another case of something well earned by the president. Does it look like the mobster days? You will have to answer that for yourself and I will not remind you of the adage about, if it looks like a duck.
These kinds of unknowns, or known, but doubtful, masked and spurious bits and pieces, work the same kind of influence. In between the lines it can be seen by the remarks of the best bloggers, pundits, writers and correspondents that they are not merely scolding Obama sycophants or simply making fun of them. Rather, they are calling for the attention of our citizens; they are offering a wakeup call, a chance at a moment of truth and some real enlightenment instead of more gushing and worship.
It might be like trying to convince your teenage daughter that the creepy guy next door is not really a knight in shining armor that has arrived to sweep her away from the humble abode you are now providing for her. It does seem hopeless, but Americans can only be fooled for so long if we believe Abraham Lincoln, you know; the some of the people, all of the people thing.
We want to see what the president has done that, after all, may be positive for the nation. There is one thing that Barack Obama has forwarded during his administration that no other has ever even attempted. He single handedly has advanced the cause and purpose of the gay agenda beyond all expectation. Sad to say, that this has also divided a nation in which over half of the citizens still see all that as just plain old fashioned perversion, rather than the new 60s style freedom movement.
The admixture of truth and prevarication, falsehood and fabrication has served to produce a mode or set the tone. What is the tone? The easiest way to explain that, would be to look at what has crawled out of the woodwork with rising intensity and frequency. Every activist judge who wants to assert a radical new ruling, every Hollywood icon that has long lost every vestige of morality and decency, every politician that ever learned to lie to his or her constituents is now grandstanding and showing their true colors.
Slippery business practices, wasting tax payer’s money and government waste in general have become just more of the same. Occupy Wall Street is a prime example of what happens when the ‘get something for nothing crowd’ decide to organize and labor unions using thug tactics railing and twisting to effect public policy is stepping in time to bring up the rear.
It is the frenzy of a free for all in a nation that was founded on integrity, honor, freedom and better principles. Our founders being true realists and anything but starry eyed idealists, would indeed turn in their graves at the thought of all this, but it is we, who are saddled with the thought of it all. Who would have thought!
As we approach the Christmas season for 2011 it is heartening to see a bit more of the true American spirit re-emerging in various parts of the country. One such place is the little Texas town of Athens in East Texas where upwards of 5,000 residents from that town and the surrounding area have gathered to keep the Christmas nativity display open to the public for the season. County Judge Richard Sanders, has ruled, that the residents are in compliance with the law.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation may be in a state of disbelief about the overwhelming support of the locals and it seems, to many Americans around the nation, judging from bloggers and news reports, that they are in full support of the Texas folks who want the nativity left in place and respected.
Here is a case of a leader setting the tone. Rick Perry, who only a few months ago led a crowd of 30,000 Christians in a prayer rally at Houston’s Reliant Stadium, is an outspoken Christian who holds nothing back about his belief that the nation needs to continue in the Christian faith that so many of the founders once openly professed. This is a strong example of how one leader can set the tone for an entire state.
Part of the renewed interest in conservative candidates goes beyond their records, previous accomplishments and performances at public debates. America still needs matriarchal or patriarchal figures to look up to and set the tone for the nation. It is something that speaks to the very spirituality of the nation and the very best of our collective humanity. This is not naiveté from the past, but it is a dire need of the present. The shift in trends seem to indicate that we are once again pursuing something transcendent, and far more fulfilling in our national experience.
Christianity is more than just the predominant religious leaning of America, but it is part of our heritage. It is a part we apparently are not going to forget or set aside because of the dark tone set by one U.S. president. Americans still don’t want a preacher for a president, but they’re always up for a president who got some of his best stuff from some of our best preachers.
Stories abound about some memo circulating within a government office that forbids the seasonal greeting, “Merry Christmas.” Now it’s the Congress that has been warned against the dreaded seasonal salutation. Have we gone from being a nation of laws to a nation of silly notions and politically correct contrivances?
Have our leaders forgotten that it wasn’t King George who drove our forefathers to America all by himself. The pilgrims and founders came here because long before George became tyrannical they had discovered a new freedom within. They had their sins and guilt lifted at Calvary and discovered that without that inner freedom it really doesn’t matter where they lived.
They believed Christ when he declared that he could make them free once and for all, starting deep within, even if they were sitting in one of George’s prisons. Jesus said “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8: 36)
It was that freedom which gave them a hunger for even more freedom for their families, aspirations and hope of a better life. It was that first freedom that birthed all other freedom and subsequently this very nation. It is still that same freedom that Americans see in the depictions of Christ’s birth in quaint and simple nativity scenes. It is the freedom they reflect back to each other with a simple act of good will and the declaration that they wish for you and your family a very, Merry Christmas.
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Rev. Michael Bresciani is the chief steward of http://www.americanprophet.org. The website has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.