An agenda is an underlying, often ideological, plan or program to be considered for implementation that guides a person or group’s behavior, and although not always kept secret cannot be considered by any stretch of the imagination as being non-partisan. Admittedly, for ideologically-driven fanatics such as America’s Christian extremist movement the very concept of non-partisanship is an affront to their existence because they can never truly be free from their religious and political bias even when they accept an invitation to an event labeled “non-partisan.” Of all the “non-partisan” events one would think all attendees could set aside their ideological religious and political differences for a brief amount of time is the National Day of Prayer event held on Capitol Hill, but that would mean setting aside their deep-seated racist hatred of President Barack Obama as well as their evangelical extremism.
The annual National Day of Prayer gathering was touted as, and has always been, a non-partisan event whose mission is “to mobilize prayer in America and to encourage personal repentance and righteousness in the culture.” It is to secular humanists an abomination and frankly, an unconstitutional use of government resources. However, if it somehow succeeded in bringing together representatives from different faiths with a view towards working (not praying) for the benefit of all Americans, one could overlook the establishment of religion violation and hope that extremists in the religious right could restrain their racial animus and resist attacking President Obama if even for an hour or so. That was the belief of California Democratic Representative Janice Hahn who, as the co-chair of the weekly congressional prayer breakfast, only attended the event to hear the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham speak during the event. Hahn was unable to listen to Graham’s daughter speak because she stormed out of the event to protest Focus on the Family founder James Dobson’s 15-minute political rant against President Obama.
Hahn said she was appalled at Dobson’s remarks attacking President Obama as “the abortion President” that he claims the President campaigned on. According to Dobson, “Before Obama was elected, he made it very clear he wanted to be the abortion president. He didn’t make any bones about it, that this was something he (SIC) really going to promote and support. And he has done that. And he is the abortion president.” Dobson claimed that the President promoted policies to force taxpayers to fund abortion services and that it was offensive to his (Dobson’s) very conscience. Representative Hahn’s co-chair in the event, Texas religious freak Louis Gohmert, said he felt for Dobson and commiserated with the Christian fanatics inability to keep politics out of a typically non-partisan event. Gohmert said, “I can well understand Dr. Dobson’s frustration because it is Christian’s belief that assisting in any way, including providing funding, for abortion, is a sin. It’s not something he should support and so he felt like this was a good time to let people know what he was going through. So I understand that.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Representative Hahn said “We have this annual, national day of prayer, which is supposed to bring the whole country together to pray for our nation, and typically you put politics aside and you come together. James Dobson just absolutely violated that, and I really think he did damage to what we try to do up here in Washington, D.C.” Apparently the last straw for Hahn, and the thing that drove her to storm out of the event she co-chaired, was Dobson’s attempt to rally support from other people sitting in her row after his 15-minute rant against President Obama. Hahn said, “Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I stood up and pointed my finger at Dobson and said, ‘this is completely inappropriate for this day’ and I walked out.” Either Hahn is the personification of naïveté, or she is unaware of Focus on the Family or James Dobson’s hatred of the African American man sitting in the Oval Office. There is never an inappropriate time for evangelical fanatics like Dobson to attack the President particularly with a room full of Christians and video cameras rolling.
Dobson’s claim President Obama campaigned, and revels, in being “the abortion President” is driven by racism, evangelical fanaticism, and abject ignorance of statistics that should warm his black evangelical heart if he were not a Christian extremist. Under President Obama abortion rates are at their lowest point since 1973, the year the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that choosing to terminate a pregnancy is a woman’s right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment as their reproductive health choice rights. The reason abortion rates are falling and at their lowest point since 1973 is twofold. First, newer forms of contraception are more dependable and accessible, and the Obama Administration’s abandonment of “abstinence only training” favored by the religious right that increased unwanted pregnancies and abortions. It is an inconvenient truth religious right extremists avoid addressing because the concept that their biblically-driven “abstinence only” approach to birth control and opposition to contraception are biblical failures.
However, this accusation that Barack Obama is a fervent pro-abortion advocate has been a Christian conservative meme for five years and it boggles the mind how, on the one hand the religious right assails the President’s contraception coverage mandate to prevent more abortions, and the other that he actively seeks ways to advance more abortions. For the record, there are very few, if any, Americans who are “pro” abortions. There are, however, millions of Americans who are “pro-choice” that simply means it is a woman’s right to privacy to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy. The religious right believes the right to decide a woman’s reproductive health, choice of birth control method, or decision when to start a family rests with evangelical Christians. Dobson attacked President Obama during a non-partisan National Day of Prayer because the President adheres to the Constitution and not the religious rights’ fascist belief that evangelical men have the right to control women and their reproductive health choices.
Dobson violated the “non-partisan” condition of the National Day of Prayer event because he had a captive audience he was certain would hang on his every Christian extremist word attacking the African American President and join him in a rousing chant of “abortion president Obama.” He did not get that response from Representative Janice Hahn who did the only thing she could short of throttling Dobson on the spot; storm out and point her finger at Dobson and say “this is inappropriate for this day.” Kudos to Hahn for her decision to walk out, but shame on her for failing to tell Dobson that as a man of god lying about the President out of racial animus would land him squarely where he belongs. In proverbial Hell for being a racist, a lying Christian, and an ignorant sot for not acknowledging that the man he called “the abortion President” is presiding over the lowest abortion rates since 1973 when abortion became a woman’s legal, and Constitutional, choice.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
