OPINION:
Other than the fact that a prayer breakfast is the wrong time to spout severe negativity about religion, there were several glaring mistakes made by President Obama in his assessment of Christianity, the Crusades, slavery and the Jim Crow Laws (“Obama and the National Prayer Breakfast,” Web, Feb. 4).
Insofar as the former, it is historical fact that fewer people died during the Inquisition over the course of over 400 years at the hands of Christians than on one day in America at the hands of Muslims (Sept. 11, 2001). Apparently the current president does not consider the all-important matter of degree while referring to Christians, and he never considers it when referring to Muslims. This is something any American of any faith ought to note.
As to slavery in America, it’s critical to consider the fact that the evil of human slavery was many centuries old when America was born. Of course it came to our shores. Our second American president, John Adams, gave poignant speeches on the matter, likely helping to propel a rebuke of slavery across the world. Then came Lincoln, and it was Christians, after all, who stopped slavery. Do those Christians who fought and died and killed their own brethren in the American Civil War not count? The Obama camp would do well to know that it was “in the name of Christ” that America fought and won that war and ended slavery.
The Rev. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam refuses to divulge what he and the president talked about in their private flights together. Mr. Farrakhan is as hateful to this country and to Christians as one could be. Perhaps those conversations he had with Mr. Obama were telling, as were the secretive talks Mr. Obama had with Muslim visitors to the White House some days ago. Just how high a horse do they ride?
The 44th American president shows an appalling lack of leadership and a one-trick-pony approach to violent extremists who viciously kill. Mr. Obama appears to stand with Muslims, whatever their machinations, at the expense of and grave risk to us all.
ROB ARNOLD
Arlington
Please read our comment policy before commenting.