On Thursday, The Daily published Charles Collins’ article suggesting President Barack Obama was not a “genuine Christian.” The column cited his support of the Freedom of Choice Act and statements about sin from a past interview. The article asserts that the Freedom of Choice Act will “force others to commit sin” by not allowing doctors to abstain from performing abortions and by “forcing taxpayers to pay for many abortions.” These assertions call into question whether the parties responsible for the article have even read the bill in question.
H.R. 1964, or the “Freedom of Choice Act,” a stated attempt to codify Roe v. Wade, has died in committee both times it has been introduced. It prohibits governments at federal, state and lower levels from interfering with the rights of women to bear a child and to terminate a pregnancy before the fetus is viable. It also protects abortion after fetal viability if the woman’s life or health is threatened. Finally, it prohibits government from discriminating against individuals who exercise the rights it protects. The bill does not at all mention forcing doctors to perform abortions or using federal money to fund them. When Collins asks whether a Christian would “force doctors and others to act against their own consciences,” he is at best working with a radically inaccurate interpretation of the bill. At worst, he is actively deceiving readers by misrepresenting the bill in question.
Inaccuracies aside, the entire premise of the article is flawed and offensive. It is extremely derisive towards Obama because his religious views do not “coincide with what Jesus taught.” That even a different interpretation of the same religion draws so much criticism and animosity from a “genuine” Christian calls into question the level of tolerance these “genuine” Christians have for those of us of different faiths or of no faith at all. When this derision comes from adherents of a faith ostensibly based on tolerance in a country supposedly founded on religious freedom, it is easy to see why Thursday’s article was so disturbing.
Thursday’s article reflects a substantial problem with modern American political discourse. As a generation, we face two ongoing wars of questionable success with no discernable exit strategies, a financial crisis, a recession, and a healthcare crisis, all with the national debt increasing ominously in the background. That our discourse is so often the uselessly quixotic, inaccurate exploration of nonissues like Thursday’s article suggests that we as a nation are simply underprepared.
Ian Wright
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scs3000 3 years, 1 month ago
I'm all for liberals aborting potential future liberals. Keep up the good work, guys.
jfreezy 3 years, 1 month ago
well said.