Obama tells church faith 'keeps me calm'

Someone call the IRS! This church must have it's tax-exempt status revoked immediately. The President gave the sermon and violated our freedom from religion. He spoke about "baptist issues" like civil rights!

Don't you love the liberal double-standards? The president talks about civil rights at a Protestant church and it's praised by NCR. A bishop speaks out against the murder of children and it's a violation of the separation of church and state to the NCR.

This President is a shameless opportunist. He says whatever people want to hear even if his statements contradict each other. Utterly incredible that some people still don't see through his hypocrisy.

Obviously several of these commenters have no experience of a sermon in an African American church, and the rancor and bitterness of some of them have little to do with a loving God. And I wonder how many of them actually listened to the entire sermon. Instead of castigating the President and calling him a hypocrite-with some outlandish, unproven sentences, Castellina, why don't you listen to our Lord Jesus a little more closely. We are the Joshua generation, as the President has so correctly observed, whether in the field of civil rights, or women's rights, or a right to health care, and it is our duty to take the faith those who went ahead of us, and suffered so much-the Moses generation, and make this country better for all Americans. That is the legacy of Dr. King, and why he is honored. Bitterness and hatred had no place in his heart. He lived as a follower of Jesus, and attemped to make the world a better place. Don't you think it's time more of us found a way to live that very difficult life of love for God and love for neighbor? Live it, not just cry Lord, Lord.

Peace and blessings

Moments of inspiration are to be treasured these days because they will almost immediately be followed by something snarky. Sad. I was glad to watch the broadcast of the President's address, and I'm glad our community had the chance to listen to and be energized by Rev. Joseph Lowery on MLK Day and to reflect on his statement that, "Love always embraces justice." I guess it comes down to, "Take what you can use..."

Societal weather winds are driven by high/low pressures of religion and politics. In order to assess direction and misdirection we need to discern foul winds from fair and judge responsibly. The integrity of religious sense is indicative of civil/ political sense.

I believe in the authenticity of President Obama. He will wake up to the misdirection of his Administration and the Congress. It isn't easy to work out of status-quo politics. He will step up when reversals happen. His faith enliightens his sensibilities.

The will of the people is everywhere pressured by political expectations of entitlement, and is marinated in religious insensibility. Political indecision roots in the pull of entitlement-expectations and the vacuum of religious insensitivity. Driven by profit expectations, the pharmaceutical industry pressures the public to believe that every physical frailty has a medical or drug remedy. The endless prolongation of life is held out as an entitlement, but at what a price?

We all age, diminish in vitality, and give way to future generations. This process is nature’s "way of symbiosis" and divinity’s "expectation of Eucharist." We are religiously wanting in our willingness to embrace Eucharist (expending self for the wellbeing of other) and suppress unreal expectations of entitlement. The conspiracy of religious and political unreality is causing the collapse of natural resources and the accumulation of debt burdens in excess of realistic recovery. And in all honesty, the role of gratuitous violence and wars of-choice cannot be overlooked or condoned.

Perhaps above it all, the excited public greed appetites for nostrums to cure each least discomfort blinds us to better judgment in balancing the needs of Eucharist against the corporate interests of profiteering. It’s easier for politicians to give in to the clamor for entitlements than it is to advocate for religious sensibility and resist empty palliatives. Religions are rightly expected to be principled in motivating the public to graces of Eucharist rather than falling for the deceits of corporate lures.

Faith in religion is deceived when religions become co-conspirators with politicians in defeating religious sense and sensitivity. The crisis of our times is a right-to-life crisis; it is a pro-life crisis. The elephant in the sanctuary of churches is mindlessness toward the crises of nature, the abortion of natural ecologies that results from human excesses of entitlement and failed sensitivity for Eucharistic.

I'd like to shed a little light on Milbo's comment: "People do not lack access to health care, sweetie. Hospitals are obligated to treat whoever comes in." Hospitals may be obligated to treat whoever comes in, but research shows that if a seriously injured person comes in and is coded as a "problem payor" (i.e., has no insurance), that person is more likely to die in the hospital from his injuries. The care and attention you get in the hospital is greater when you have the status of having insurance, just as it is when you are a celebrity or wealthy. Health care is a right, not a privilege. Insuring that right is more the goal of health care reform than access, unless we mean by the word access to quality of care.

And, why not fund abortions when the health of the mother is in danger? The government may rightly choose not to support elective abortions.

Okay....he proclaims to be a Muslim, yet he quotes from the Bible. Isn't that being hypocritical? He did not participate in World Prayer, yet he quotes scripture. He did not go to church on Christmas, yet he is a spiritual man. Satan quoted scripture.