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Over at The New Republic, Amy Sullivan takes up a theme I have commented on as well, the religious right's penchant for perceiving something dark and menacing in President Obama's sometimes use of the phrase "freedom of worship" rather than "freedom of religion." She notes that President George W. Bush used the phrase "freedom of worship" too, did so frequently, and there was no outcry. To be sure, the HHS mandate does highlight the distinction between the two ideas, but to impute a nefarious agenda to a rhetorical device is misleading. And, she thoroughly debunks the idea that Obama purposefully leaves out the phrase "by our Creator" when he quotes the Declaration of Independence, complete with a video of Obama saying the phrase repeatedly.
