NickyK
2010-04-22 14:24:43 UTC
The president without a country:
"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June
2007
" America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama
"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President
Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack
Obama, Egypt 2009
Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears
the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's
president of.
In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man
without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands
condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under
the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to
say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly
exclaims, "Damn the United States ! I wish I might never hear of the
United States again!"
The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a
long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have
just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United
States again... I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea,
on one or another of this country's naval vessels - under strict
orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you
have just cursed."
And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years
at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue
about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's
dying hours in his small stateroom - now turned into a shrine to the
country he fore swore - never fail to bring me to tears. And I find
my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed
and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.
But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man
who was recently elected our president - a young black man living the
impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present,
black and white - I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think
you're president of?"
You surely can't be referring to the United States of America , can
you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its
inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as
Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were
framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and
is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical
principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being
elected her president.
You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional
law in Chicago ? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the
first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark
"Federalist Papers": "Providence has given to our people the choice of
their rulers - and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and
interest of our Christian nation - to select and prefer Christians for
their rulers"?
In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme
Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be
based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is
impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this
extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically
Christian."
Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions
right up till the mid 1900's that echoed and reinforced these views
and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence
only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas
Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was
used to deny some specific religious expression - contrary to
Jefferson ' s intent with that statement?
Or, wait a minute . were your ideas about America 's Christianity
formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United
Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you
got the idea that " America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this
where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the
belief that " America has been arrogant"?
Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your
country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military
officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered
by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you
come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be
"considered a Muslim nation"?
Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here,
trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300
million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any
rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?
Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a
"Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in
America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is
a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's
actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution -
and the success of our Revolution and founding - owe a deep debt to
our Jewish brothers.
Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like?
Have you ever really spent much time in Iran ? Even in Egypt ? You,
having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in
Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can
surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-
Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do
recall Muhammad's directives [Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and
"kill the infidel"?
It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more
influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most
suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are
"no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who
"have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" - you are
president of a country most Americans don't recognize.
Could it be you are a president without a country?
"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June
2007
" America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama
"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President
Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack
Obama, Egypt 2009
Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears
the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's
president of.
In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man
without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands
condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under
the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to
say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly
exclaims, "Damn the United States ! I wish I might never hear of the
United States again!"
The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a
long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have
just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United
States again... I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea,
on one or another of this country's naval vessels - under strict
orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you
have just cursed."
And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years
at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue
about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's
dying hours in his small stateroom - now turned into a shrine to the
country he fore swore - never fail to bring me to tears. And I find
my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed
and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.
But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man
who was recently elected our president - a young black man living the
impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present,
black and white - I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think
you're president of?"
You surely can't be referring to the United States of America , can
you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its
inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as
Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were
framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and
is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical
principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being
elected her president.
You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional
law in Chicago ? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the
first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark
"Federalist Papers": "Providence has given to our people the choice of
their rulers - and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and
interest of our Christian nation - to select and prefer Christians for
their rulers"?
In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme
Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be
based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is
impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this
extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically
Christian."
Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions
right up till the mid 1900's that echoed and reinforced these views
and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence
only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas
Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was
used to deny some specific religious expression - contrary to
Jefferson ' s intent with that statement?
Or, wait a minute . were your ideas about America 's Christianity
formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United
Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you
got the idea that " America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this
where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the
belief that " America has been arrogant"?
Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your
country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military
officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered
by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you
come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be
"considered a Muslim nation"?
Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here,
trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300
million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any
rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?
Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a
"Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in
America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is
a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's
actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution -
and the success of our Revolution and founding - owe a deep debt to
our Jewish brothers.
Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like?
Have you ever really spent much time in Iran ? Even in Egypt ? You,
having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in
Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can
surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-
Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do
recall Muhammad's directives [Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and
"kill the infidel"?
It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more
influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most
suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are
"no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who
"have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" - you are
president of a country most Americans don't recognize.
Could it be you are a president without a country?