The following blog is from the Fourth of July weekend, 2009.
I mentioned in the previous edition that things have certainly not changed since the inaugeration of President Barack Obama, when it comes to the endless fight against the takeover of the Evangelical Right (Wrong). Therefore, I decided to dedicate today's Unchecked and Unbalanced: A Moral Minority Report to the president and his pandering toward a group that is still coming in from the fringe at an alarming rate. I feel the need to raise the mirror once again to the country which surrounds me. Well, I guess the mirror would be pointed at our leaders as I scour the society around me asking the question, "Hey, where does this look familiar?"
I mentioned in the previous edition that things have certainly not changed since the inaugeration of President Barack Obama, when it comes to the endless fight against the takeover of the Evangelical Right (Wrong). Therefore, I decided to dedicate today's Unchecked and Unbalanced: A Moral Minority Report to the president and his pandering toward a group that is still coming in from the fringe at an alarming rate. I feel the need to raise the mirror once again to the country which surrounds me. Well, I guess the mirror would be pointed at our leaders as I scour the society around me asking the question, "Hey, where does this look familiar?"
Now watch this drive!!!
If you don't find it disturbing that only one week after Barack Obama delivered a press conference regarding his inaction with such promised motives as Don't Ask Don't Tell, and DOMA, he's out golfing with before the Independence Day BBQ. Yeah, it's the fourth of July, I get that, but this has been every weekend. And there's something about the president addressing the media while practicing his drive that just sends me back a few years into a sheer state of panic.
What I'm asking today on Unchecked and Unbalanced is, "Where's the outrage?" or better, "What change?" I ask this question with the best intentions. Look, I know that I’m about to alienate a wide, vast portion of my demographic, but we were promised change, and personally, the only changes that I’ve seen have been most antithetic to what I would refer to as, “in the best interest of our country.”
Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20th of this year. The world watched and the world waited to hear what this extremely well orator was going to say next. We all wanted to know what his plan was to make the United States a new paradise on Earth. Well, some of us did. Personally, after working on his campaign indirectly and single-handedly raising almost 30 million dollars for him, I was a little sick of hearing him talk. I was ready for action. But what I saw disturbed me greatly. I saw Rick Warren give the opening “incantation” at the ceremony. Personally, I’m hard pressed to name any person who shouldn’t be disturbed by this.
Pastor Rick Warren has been a long time opponent of civil liberties as well as choice. Warren was the founder of the southern evangelical Mega-church called the Saddleback Church. Since founding the sixth largest church in the United States, Warren has also written many best sellers, such as his most popular A Purpose Driven Church. While a person could greatly commend Warren for his encouragement of churches around the country to increase charity work and philanthropy, Warren has also been much the controversial figure in certain lights, namely choice and liberty.
Warren is famous for comparing gay marriage to incest, and has recently called abortion, “The Nazi holocaust for children.” Warren showed his disdain for choice in shelling out millions of dollars to get the California bill, Prop 8, passed, a bill that he called necessary. His exact quote is, “I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to having an older guy be with a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.” Warren compared gay marriage to incest, pedophelia and poligymy, and this was only years after comparing abortion to one of the biggest atrocities in years.
There are have been other rumors regarding Warren, but these are all just rumors and therefore
cannot be confirmed, but from what I know, I don’t doubt them a bit.
Barack Obama made the decision, even after the criticism from his own party for having Warren, and I didn’t think that boded well for him after the revelations of his long-time reverend, Jeremiah Write, who was a greatly outspoken conspiracy theorist as well as a zealot of the highest regards. However, I, like many, kept the faith, but in June of 2009, yet another factor came about telling us that we’re not out of the woods of religious zealotry in public office, in fact, the woods are closing in on us.
On the morning of June 4th, 2009, Barack Obama made the decision to appoint Alexia Kelley as the Director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services. I’m not going to ramble on about just how many ways the Faith-Based initiative is unconstitutional and irresponsible, but I will mention the fact that the person who fills that seat has a lot of power in regards to access to birth control as well as abortion. What’s scary about that, you ask? It’s because Alexia Kelley has been a long time opponent of birth control, abortion, and even gay rights.
Kelley was the co-founder and former executive director for an anti-choice organization called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG). Jon O’Brian, the head of Catholics for Choice said on the morning of the appointment, “Ms. Kelley’s appointment would be a defeat for reason and logic and calls into question whether President Obama’s administration is serious about reducing the need for abortion. And, while it may not gain many headlines, the impact and significance of this appointment should not go unnoticed.” He later said in his speech, “If Ms. Kelley had been appointed to another position in the administration, there might be less reason for concern. However, the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for providing and expanding access to key sexual and reproductive health services.” He continued, “As such, we need those working in HHS to rely on evidence based methods to reduce the need for abortion. We need them to believe in men’s and woman’s capacity to make moral decisions about their own lives. Unfortunately, as see from her work at CACG, Ms. Kelley does not fit that bill.”
Kelley and her organization has supported consistently, every abortion and birth control access
Warren is famous for comparing gay marriage to incest, and has recently called abortion, “The Nazi holocaust for children.” Warren showed his disdain for choice in shelling out millions of dollars to get the California bill, Prop 8, passed, a bill that he called necessary. His exact quote is, “I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to having an older guy be with a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.” Warren compared gay marriage to incest, pedophelia and poligymy, and this was only years after comparing abortion to one of the biggest atrocities in years.
There are have been other rumors regarding Warren, but these are all just rumors and therefore
cannot be confirmed, but from what I know, I don’t doubt them a bit.
Barack Obama made the decision, even after the criticism from his own party for having Warren, and I didn’t think that boded well for him after the revelations of his long-time reverend, Jeremiah Write, who was a greatly outspoken conspiracy theorist as well as a zealot of the highest regards. However, I, like many, kept the faith, but in June of 2009, yet another factor came about telling us that we’re not out of the woods of religious zealotry in public office, in fact, the woods are closing in on us.
On the morning of June 4th, 2009, Barack Obama made the decision to appoint Alexia Kelley as the Director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services. I’m not going to ramble on about just how many ways the Faith-Based initiative is unconstitutional and irresponsible, but I will mention the fact that the person who fills that seat has a lot of power in regards to access to birth control as well as abortion. What’s scary about that, you ask? It’s because Alexia Kelley has been a long time opponent of birth control, abortion, and even gay rights.
Kelley was the co-founder and former executive director for an anti-choice organization called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG). Jon O’Brian, the head of Catholics for Choice said on the morning of the appointment, “Ms. Kelley’s appointment would be a defeat for reason and logic and calls into question whether President Obama’s administration is serious about reducing the need for abortion. And, while it may not gain many headlines, the impact and significance of this appointment should not go unnoticed.” He later said in his speech, “If Ms. Kelley had been appointed to another position in the administration, there might be less reason for concern. However, the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for providing and expanding access to key sexual and reproductive health services.” He continued, “As such, we need those working in HHS to rely on evidence based methods to reduce the need for abortion. We need them to believe in men’s and woman’s capacity to make moral decisions about their own lives. Unfortunately, as see from her work at CACG, Ms. Kelley does not fit that bill.”
Kelley and her organization has supported consistently, every abortion and birth control access
The positive results of a "Christian Nation."
restriction since its founding, and Kelley herself is a proud anti-choice public figure, as is shown by the smile on her face whenever she gains a new opportunity to oppose either choice or human rights. She, much like Pastor Warren, compares abortion to “torture and murder.”
While Obama continues to appoint people to his cabinet who have strong fundamentalist affiliations as well as radical intent, one must start to wonder about Obama’s real character. After all, what did he learn during his twenty some years of bowing to a radical in Chicago? After hearing about only three of his affiliations of religious radicals, is it any wonder that the Faith Based Initiative, DOMA and haven't been even addressed since Obama took office, and he claims to be "biting his time," with DADT? In this person's humble opinion, no.
Note: Since writing this blog, in fact, only days afterward, Dr. Francis Collins was appointed as the director of the NIH (National Institute of Health). Francis Collins is the scientist who is commonly misgiven the credit for mapping the human genome, when in fact, he directed the team of about 2,000 scientists who collectively mapped a small part of it. Collins, while a great director, is hardly a person who ought to be running a scientific cabinet of government in what is supposed to be a new and more science-friendly administration. Collins, contrary to other scientists, firmly believes that morality is a not a fortunate byproduct of evolution, but was actually given to us by God in later stages of evolution. Francis publicly stated on Real Time with Bill Maher that he literally believes in talking snakes, zombies, strange rib women, men made of nothing but sand and magical trees that have the power to end "paradise." He also refers to atheism as "dogma," thus outing his as a man who would serve better on the board of an intelligent disign institution as opposed to a legitimate, federal scientific foundation. Truly, this should scare the vast majority of logical and mentally healthy people in the world.
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