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Obama National Prayer Breakfast Speech Video 2010

Shallow Nation — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:04:01 +0000

Here is the 2010 Obama National Prayer Breakfast speech video and transcript from Thurs. Feb. 4, 2010. President Barack Obama addressed the gathering at the Washington Hilton, in DC; an annual tradition of U.S. Presidents dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s. Full video below.

During the address President Obama evoked the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “”Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” He called for more civility in political discourse, as he characterized Washington politics as a “tower of babble” that “can lose the sound of God’s voice.” He went on to say: “Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith…Or for that matter my citizenship,” a line which drew applause.

Addressing additional contentious issues he said of health care reform: “We may disagree about the best way to reform our health care system, but surely we can agree no one ought to go broke when they get sick.” And of gay and lesbian rights and the proposed anti-gay law in Uganda that carries the death penalty he said: “We may disagree about gay marriage, but we can agree its unconscionable to target gays and lesbians — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”

Here is the full Obama National Prayer Breakfast speech transcript text from Feb. 4, 2010.

The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by a nonpartisan Christian organization, The Fellowship, which is also known as The Family. President Obama’s presence at the breakfast has drawn controversy. For more on the story, see:

YouTube Link

Obama National Prayer Breakfast Speech Video 2010 2-4-10

Video & Photos: Barack Obama Faith Based Initiatives Speech 7-1-08

Shallow Nation — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:06:30 +0000

Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama delivered a speech in Zanesville, Ohio on July 1, 2008, outlining his proposed faith based initiatives program.

Senator Barack Obama said Tuesday that if elected president he would expand the delivery of social services through churches and other religious organizations, vowing to achieve a goal he said President Bush had fallen short on during his two terms.

“The challenges we face today — from saving our planet to ending poverty — are simply too big for government to solve alone,” Mr. Obama said outside a community center here. “We need an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

Some Democrats have previously backed similar efforts, but Mr. Bush’s version, a centerpiece of his first-term agenda, has been a lightning rod for criticism from those concerned about the separation of church and state and those who argued that Mr. Bush had used it to further a conservative political agenda.

In embracing the same general approach as Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama ran the political risk of alienating those of his supporters who would prefer that government keep its distance from religion.

But Mr. Obama’s plan pointedly departed from the Bush administration’s stance on one fundamental issue: whether religious organizations that get federal money for social services can take faith into account in their hiring. Mr. Bush has said yes. Mr. Obama said no.

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion,” Mr. Obama said. “Federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

Source: Obama Seeks Bigger Role for Religious Groups

Photo credit: Photos 1, 3, 4, Matthew Leasure/Zanesville Times Recorder; Photos 2, 5, 6, Jae C. Hong/AP

Barack Obama at the East Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio

Faith based initiatives have been controversial throughout the Bush administration, and Obama is being commended as much as he is being criticized for addressing the issue with his proposal, as the New York Times article goes on to point out.

Martha Minnow, a professor of law at Harvard University who has written about religion-based initiatives and has advised the Obama campaign on the issue, said Mr. Obama would move to “return the law to what it was before the current administration,” in other words barring the consideration of religion in hiring decisions for such programs that receive federal financing.

“I don’t think there’s anything too controversial about that,” said. “Any religious organization that does not want to comply with that requirement simply doesn’t have to take the money.”

But evangelical leaders said not allowing religious groups to hire based on their beliefs would strip them of the very basis for religion-based programs.

“If you can’t hire people within your faith community, then you’ve lost the distinctive that is the reason why faith-based programs exist in the first place,” said Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The idea of augmenting government delivery of social services through community and religious organizations has won varying degrees of support across the ideological spectrum. Although research on the effectiveness of religion-based organizations remains spotty, Mr. Obama said groups would be regularly evaluated on effectiveness.

Barack Obama at the East Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio

[...]

Mr. Obama’s proposal was met with praise from leaders like the Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent spokesman for more liberal evangelicals. Mr. Wallis applauded the fact that Mr. Obama, as a Democrat, was willing to talk about his Christian faith and “wants a faith-based program that’s even better than the Bush program.”

Several former Bush administration officials who had a hand in shaping the current policy, including John J. DiIulio Jr., director of Mr. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001, also applauded Mr. Obama’s proposal. Though the program is widely associated with Mr. Bush, similar ideas have been supported by Democrats.

“His plan reminds me of much that was best in both then-Vice President Al Gore’s and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s respective first speeches on the subject in 1999,” Mr. DiIulio said.

Source: Obama Seeks Bigger Role for Religious Groups

Video & Photos: Barack Obama Faith Based Initiatives Speech 7-1-08

Video & Photos: Barack Obama’s Speech on Father’s Day 6-15-08

Shallow Nation — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:02:57 +0000

Barack Obama delivered a speech on Father’s Day at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago on June 15, 2008, both deeply personal and hard hitting on the urgency of fathers to assume responsibility.

Addressing a packed congregation at one of the city’s largest black churches, Senator Barack Obama on Sunday invoked his own absent father to deliver a sharp message to black men, saying “we need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception.”

In an address that was striking for its bluntness and where he chose to give it, Mr. Obama directly addressed one of the most delicate topics confronting black leaders: how much responsibility absent fathers bear for some of the intractable problems afflicting black Americans. Mr. Obama noted that “more than half of all black children live in single-parent households,” a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood.

“Too many fathers are M.I.A., too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes,” Mr. Obama said to a chorus of approving murmurs from the audience. “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

Accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who sat in the front pew, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, laid out his case in stark terms that would be difficult for a white candidate to make, telling the mostly black audience not to “just sit in the house watching ‘SportsCenter,’ ” and to stop praising themselves for mediocre accomplishments.

“Don’t get carried away with that eighth-grade graduation,” he said, bringing many members of the congregation to their feet, applauding. “You’re supposed to graduate from eighth grade.”

His themes have also been sounded by the comedian Bill Cosby, who has stirred debate among black Americans by bluntly speaking about an epidemic of fatherlessness in African-American families while suggesting that some blacks use racism as a crutch to explain the lack of economic progress.

Mr. Obama did not take his Father’s Day message to Trinity United Church of Christ, where he resigned as a member in May after a series of disputes over controversial remarks by the church’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Instead, he chose the 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God, a vast brick structure on the South Side near Lake Michigan. The church’s pastor, Byron Brazier, is an Obama supporter.

Source: Obama Sharply Assails Absent Black Fathers

Obama Resigns from His Church: Video of Entire Press Conference 5-31-08

Shallow Nation — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:03:58 +0000

The unprecedented series of controversies at Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago have lead to Obama’s inevitable announcement that he and his wife Michelle Obama are resigning from their 20 year membership to the church.

“We don’t want to have to answer for everything that’s stated in the church,” the Democratic front-runner said. “We also don’t want the church subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes.”

Obama said he was resigning “with some sadness.”

“This is not a decision I come to lightly,” he said.

The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama’s Democratic rival during a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.

In the sermon, Pfleger wipes his eyes with a handkerchief and suggests that Sen. Hillary Clinton wept because she thought that as a white person and the wife of a former president, she was entitled to the presidency.

Pfleger is a Catholic priest at St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago’s southwest side. He is also a friend of Trinity’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, from whom Obama distanced himself in April.

Source: Obama quits church, citing controversies

Time will tell if this puts an end to the controversies. Critics may always look back upon and unearth further controversial sermons and question why Obama stayed for 20 years or, criticize his departure as politically expedient. A no win situation.

Obama noted that church members have suffered and had worship disrupted.

Obama told reporters he didn’t want his “church experience to be a political circus — I think most American people will understand that, and wouldn’t want to subject their church to that, either.” He said it has been “months” since he has attended Trinity.

At a news conference in Aberdeen, S.D., after the news emerged on the blog of a black journalist in Chicago, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, had notified the church in a letter Friday that they “were withdrawing as members of Trinity,” in part because of “a cultural and a stylistic gap.”

Obama said he also regrets “all the attention that my campaign has visited on” the church.

“We had reporters grabbing church bulletins and calling up the sick and the shut-in,” he said. “That’s just not how people should have to operate in their church.

Source: Obama quits Trinity

Rev. Michael Pfleger and the “Entitled” Hillary Clinton Controversy (Video)

Shallow Nation — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:01:30 +0000

Has Father Michael Pfleger, Catholic priest and pastor of Saint Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, succeeded in outdoing Rev. Jeremiah Wright in generating controversy?

Pfleger, the outspoken activist pastor of St. Sabina in Auburn-Gresham, spoke at Trinity last Sunday night, and his videotaped comments about Clinton started to ricochet around the Internet. Introduced by Wright’s successor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, Pfleger starts talking of the need to expose ”white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head” in the the clip on YouTube.

Pfleger continues, referring to Clinton’s tearing up just before the New Hampshire primary — which may have helped her win.

”Rev. Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on,” Pfleger says from the pulpit. ”I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine! I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate.’ And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,’ and she said, ‘Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’ ”

Pfleger then pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. “She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying.”

As he wrapped up, Pfleger must have sensed he went too far. ”Sorry . . . don’t want to get you into any more trouble,” he said, a reference to the controversial Wright, whom Obama cut ties with April 30, following what he called Wright’s ”rants” during a press conference at the National Press Club here. Moss, back on the pulpit, said, “We thank God for the message and we thank God for the messenger.”

Source: Pfleger warned about pulpit politics. Pfleger stepped down from “Catholics for Obama.”

Here is the controversial video of Rev. Michael Pfleger’s “white entitlement” and “white supremacy” remarks.

” Obama’s Church: Why Hillary Cried – Father Michael Pfleger”

He could have avoided much of the controversy by sticking to the “Clinton entitlement” for which there is plenty of evidence, such as Hillary Clinton’s “Why I Continue to Run” editorial in the New York Daily News or Hillary Clinton’s controversial Robert F. Kennedy assassination comments.

Call it “entitlement” with or without adjectives, Clinton has made it clear that she is not quitting. Nor will pundits, politicians or preachers cease to interpret her motives. See the LA Times story: Clinton faces new pressure on 2 fronts.

Barack Obama has apologized. (He must wonder sometimes if he is running for President or just on a long apology tour.) In turn, The Rev. Michael Pfleger also apologized.

Obama, in a statement, said, ”As I have traveled this country, I’ve been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us. That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn’t reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.”

Pfleger, a passionate advocate for the down-and-out, immediately issued an apology: ”I regret the words I chose on Sunday. These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them.”

Source: Pfleger warned about pulpit politics. Pfleger stepped down from “Catholics for Obama.”

See also:

And the beat goes on, another day in the neverending (but should have ended) Democratic Presidential primary campaign.

See also related posts:

Rev. Michael Pfleger and the Hillary Clinton “Entitlement” (Video)

Video: Pastor James David Manning and “The Trinity of Hell”

Shallow Nation — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:46:02 +0000

Pastor James David Manning has made headlines for his condemnation of Barack Obama as a “Mack Daddy” and his allegation that Obama’s success was due to the Obama Girl and the “54 Double D.” Now Pastor Manning, head of of ATLAH World Ministries (which has a YouTube channel) is back with more outrageous allegations. “The Trinity of Hell” is Obama, Oprah and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “The Trinity of Hell” may sound like a movie trailer parody, but James D. Manning is serious; it’s not parody and it’s not a movie, it is a sermon.

Video: Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club 4/28/08

Shallow Nation — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:10:12 +0000

Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. addressed the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Watch the entire speech and the Q&A session here. Freed from the strictures of sound bites and YouTube, Rev. Wright, recently retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago discusses Black Liberation Theology and much more, and responds to questions in an appearance sure to fuel the ongoing controversy his views and remarks have already provoked.

In a defiant appearance before the Washington media, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church and rejected those who have labeled him unpatriotic.

“I served six years in the military,” Barack Obama’s longtime pastor said. “Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?”

Wright spoke at the National Press Club before the Washington media and a supportive audience of black church leaders beginning a two-day symposium.

He said the black church tradition is not bombastic or controversial, but different and misunderstood by the “dominant culture” in the United States.

He said his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has a long history of liberating the oppressed by feeding the hungry, supporting recovery for the addicted and helping senior citizens in need. He said congregants have fought in the military, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“My goddaughter’s unit just arrived in Iraq this week while those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to avoid military service while sending over 4,000 American boys and girls to die over a lie,” he said.

Wright said he hopes the controversy will have a positive outcome and spark an honest dialogue about race in America. Wright says black church traditions are still “invisible” to many Americans, as they have been throughout the country’s history.

He said he hopes “the most recent attack on the black church — it is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright — it’s an attack on the black church,” he said to applause, “just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible.”

Source: Wright Says Criticism Is Attack on Black Church

The Q&A Session begins with this video