Speaking at “hallowed ground” at the Pentagon yesterday, President Barack Obama  (peace be unto him) alluded to the controversy over a mosque — and a Florida pastor’s threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Muslim holy book. Obama made it clear that the U.S. is not at war with Islam and called the Al Qaeda attackers “a sorry band of men” who perverted religion.

“We will not give in to their hatred,” Obama said. “As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam.”

Excuse me, Mr. President, they sure do seem to be at war with us. 

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, released on September 9th, 49 percent of all Americans say that they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say that they have favorable ones.    This figure is almost 20 % higher than it was, immediately after 9/11/01.

I have a question for you, gentle reader.  How many well-known practitioners/leaders of Islam can you remember speaking out after the horrible events of  September 11th, 2001?

I’m waiting.

Not too many, huh.  If you can remember any at all, you can count them on one hand.  One that remains at the forefront of opposition to radical Islam to this day is Dr. M. Juhdi Jasser.  I’m sure you’ve seen him in his appearances on Fox News as a contributor.  

Do you remember when those 6 Imams behaved suspiciously on an airplane, resulting in their arrest?  After Dr. Jasser spoke out about the incident, he appeared on Mark Levin’s radio show and told him about the Muslim world’s reaction to his speaking out, which included being pulled from a 2007 PBS series which featured an episode titled Islam vs. Islamists:

The producers had seen my work and followed our travails with the moderates here, with what we’re doing against the fundamentalists locally. They came and spent the week with me and looked at all of our activities, the interfaith community, and spent time interviewing some of the imams locally [Arizona] and others… It is sort of a microcosm of what happened. People say, “Where are the moderates, why aren’t they speaking up?”

The movie looks at some of the response and how I’ve been demonized. I’ve been labeled as a false Muslim. I’ve been told that even though I’m proud to raise my kids Muslim and I pray and I fast that really I’m imposing a secular separation of religion and politics in our faith and for me to try to get the imams to stop talking politics in their sermons is to impose something false into our faith…

All I’ve tried to do is open the debate. The important thing this documentary did was to begin the debate and to say that certainly the fundamentalists are able to express what they want in our free speech but they shouldn’t suppress what I have to say. They should allow us to bring this debate into the Muslim community.

For this to get pulled really shows that our government and the mainstream media feel they’re basically tools of the Islamists. They’re going to respond to them and not push the issue and you wonder where the voice of the moderates is. The voice is in the wilderness because nobody [in the media] wants to hear it and nobody is going to give time…

According to the show’s producer, it was pulled on political grounds:

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide. Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank. “I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds,” Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

I related that moment from 2007 to try to explain what’s happening in this country today.  Yesterday, on the 9th anniversary of the worst attack ever on American soil, the American President was continuing to push a  message of reflection (on our bigotry) and service (atonement) on a day where Americans for the past 9 years have instead chosen to honor and remember those 3,000 innocent people who were murdered by Islamic Terrorists.  It was not a “man-caused disaster”.  It was an act of war.

Y’know, there’s a “moderate” Imam who wants to build a mosque at Ground Zero.  Did he condemn that horrific attack?  Nope.  He was interviewed on 60 Minutes by host Ed Bradley on September 30, 2001.  Here is a partial transcript:

BRADLEY: Are — are — are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

BRADLEY: OK. You say that we’re an accessory?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Yes.

BRADLEY: How?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Because we have been an accessory to a lot of — of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it — in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

This is a “moderate” Muslim?

While I don’t, as a Christian, condone the burning of the Koran or the ripping out of its pages, I do understand where the rage is coming from.  The oppression of the Politically Correct Elite, including those now in positions of power over us, has created a backlash.  In their zeal to forcibly unite a nation created on Judeo-Christian principles with a political ideology masquerading as a religion, Progressives have become responsible for the public demonstrations of dissent that they claimed were so “patriotic” during the Bush administration.  Unfortunately for the “smartest people in the room”, they did not realize how deeply Americans would resent being apologized for to those who view us as infidels.

Perhaps they’ll have a clue after November 2nd, 2010.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – First Amendment to the United States Constitution

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. – 1 Corinthians 6:12 – English Standard Version

A Florida “pastor” yesterday announced that he had called off his scheduled burning of a bunch of Korans after proclaiming that he had a deal that would move the abomination known as the Cordoba House away from the site of the 9/11 terror attacks.  However, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Ground Zero mosque quickly denied to ABC News that he had agreed to move his project.

Pastor Terry Jones was upset and said that the denial was “very disturbing” .  He told ABC News’ Terry Moran that the promise of a deal by Florida imam Muhammad Musri led him to drop his plan to burn Korans Saturday on the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks.

Jones said in an interview airing tonight on ABC News’ “Nightline”:

We were promised from the imam here.  In the meeting, there were several people who can confirm that. We find that very devastating. If that [denial] is true, that would mean the imam lied to us.

Imam Muhammad Musri said he was clear on Thursday when he told the Rev. Terry Jones that he could set up a meeting with planners of the New York City mosque, but insisted he never promised to shift the location. Jones announced after the meeting — with Musri at his side — that they had a bargain and that he would call off the Koran-burning for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, later said that Jones wasn’t confused or misled and that “after we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement. The imam in charge of the New York Islamic center and mosque project also quickly denied any deal was made.

Musri said Jones had instead caved into the firestorm of criticism from around the world and that his announcement might have been a ploy to try to force Muslim leaders’ hand on the Islamic center. “After we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement, Musri said.

Jones said later that he expected Musri to keep his word and “the imam in New York to back up one of his own men.” Musri said he still plans to go ahead with the meeting Saturday.

According to the Florida Imam, moving the mosque is not why Jones canceled his threat.  Instead, according to this character, Musri, he relented under the pressure from political and religious leaders of all faiths worldwide to halt what President Barack Obama called a “stunt.” Musri said Jones told him the burning “would endanger the troops overseas, Americans traveling abroad and others around the world.”

Musri said:

That was the real motivation for calling it off.

In reality, Jones had never invoked the mosque controversy as a reason for his planned protest at his Dove World Outreach Center.  Instead, he proclaimed that the Koran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) urged Jones to listen to “those better angels,” saying that besides endangering lives, it would give Islamic terrorists a recruiting tool. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even called Jones personally to ask him not to burn the Korans.

Jones’ church, which has about 50 members, most of whom are relatives, is independent of any denomination.  It follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern-day.

The cancellation also was welcomed by Jones’ neighbors in Gainesville, a city of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus. At least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in the city had mobilized to plan inclusive events, including Koran readings at services, as a counterpoint to Jones’ protest.

Jones claimed at the news conference that he prayed about the decision and concluded that if the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Koran burning.

Jones said, before he figured out that he was double-crossed:

We are, of course, now against any other group burning Korans.  We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.

In a related story,  the owners of the property that is scheduled to be turned into the Ground Zero Mosque, have turned down a lucrative offer from Real Estate Mogul Donald Trump to purchase the site.

Wolodymyr Starosolsky, a lawyer for the investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site, says Trump’s offer is “just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.”

In a letter released Thursday by Trump’s publicist, the real estate investor told Hisham Elzanaty that he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.

The letter said:

I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse.

Trump also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would have to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.

So, there you have it:  a bunch of publicity hounds seeking their 15 minutes of fame.  Yes, it is legal for “Pastor” Jones to burn Korans.  Yes, it is legal for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative to build a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero.  But, is it noble?  Is it respectful?  Is it helpful?  NO.

As Hurricane Earl steams toward the East Coast of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) and his administration are brokering the first face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in almost two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will sit down together today for the first of what Obama and his State Department hope will be a series of meetings that lead in a year’s time to an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state.

According to Obama, speaking from the White House:

This moment of opportunity may not soon come again.

Obama said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, which begin with dim expectations and have been marred by two shooting attacks against Israelis in as many days.

Held at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, the two leaders’ discussions face numerous obstacles, not least renewed violence and provocations from Israelis and Palestinians opposed to Obama’s goal of an independent Palestine and secure Israel.

Gunmen from the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which opposes the talks, killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders were to eat dinner together at the White House, gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

The top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected compromise with Israel in a fiery speech Wednesday.

Addressing Hamas members, Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar said the movement would resist peace efforts and criticized the Palestinian president for joining the negotiations:.

Today marks the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas have been battling each other since the group seized Gaza from Abbas’ forces in a violent takeover in 2007, leaving him only in control of the West Bank.
Before the White House dinner with Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Obama said they all had a stake in the peace efforts as leaders and fathers.

 Obama asked in the packed East Room of the White House:

Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?

Each of the leaders expressed hopes for a breakthrough, with the U.S. playing the role of peace broker, but the event was subdued, reflecting broad pessimism about chances of success after nearly two decades of failed peace talks.

Israelis “recognize that another people shares this land with us,” Netanyahu said at the White House on Wednesday. However, he added that any agreement must guarantee Israel’s security and could not be a repeat of Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, where territory evacuated was seized by Iran-backed militants who launched further attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu said:

We left Lebanon, we got terror. We left Gaza, and we got terror once again. We want to ensure that territory we concede will not be turned into a third Iranian-sponsored terror enclave aimed at the heart of Israel.

Abbas joined Netanyahu in declaring that it was time to seize the moment:

We don’t want blood to be shed, neither that of Palestinians nor of Israelis. We want peace, we want normal life. We want to live as partners and neighbors

But Israel, Abbas added, needs to give the Palestinians tangible signs, including freeing all Palestinian prisoners and freezing all settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for their future state.

The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government’s declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.

According to Palestinians, settlement construction will torpedo the talks. The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could tear apart Netanyahu’s coalition. Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline. Speaking to Clinton on Tuesday, Netanyahu said his government’s decision on a 10-month freeze that would end in September remained in effect.

Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration has spent its first 20 months in office trying to get the two sides back to the bargaining table. Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.

But American officials are pushing to get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks, likely to be held in the second week of September.

That could be followed by another meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly near the end of the month in New York. The stated goal is to reach a final peace settlement within one year.

After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic:

I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, but hopeful.

As Obama attempts to complete his plan to divide Israel, Hurricane Earl is barreling toward America’s East Coast.  Coincidence?  Not according to believers like William Koenig, author of Eye to Eye – Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.

On the back cover of this book, last updated in 2006, Koenig asks:

What do these major-record setting events have in common?

 The ten costliest insurance events in U.S. history

The twelve costliest hurricanes in U.S. history

Three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history

The two largest terrorism events in U.S. history

All of these major catastrophes and many others occurred or began on the very same day or within 24-hours of U.S. presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush applying pressure on Israel to trade her land for promises of peace and security, sponsoring major land for peace meetings, making major public statements pertaining to Israel’s covenant land and /or calling for a Palestinian state.

In his book, Koenig presents significant events during Israel’s struggle for existence from its forming to 2006 and their correlation with natural disasters and terrifying events that occurred at the same time that Israel’s sovereignty was threatened in some way.

These two events happening simultaneously gives those of us who believe in the Sovereignty of God and His promises to His chosen people, pause to reflect on the administration’s policy toward Israel and its consequences.

That’s the problem facing the Progressive/Liberal/Democrat pundits today, in the aftermath of the Restoring Honor Rally, held on the Washington Mall, in front on the Lincoln Memorial, yesterday.

Obama’s name was not mentioned once in the whole event.  There were no threatening speeches (unless you have something against God).  However, according to the Libs:

…political overtones were unmistakable, and the rally drew an enormous crowd – including many who said they were new to activism – that was energized and motivated to act – washingtonpost.com

With Glenn Beck organizing the event  and Sarah Palin playing a role, Liberal heads are exploding.

For instance, Rev. Al Sharpton and others marched in a separate and much smaller event, to the Mall from Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington, to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech 47 years ago.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said at the Sharpton rally, referring to King’s speech:

The ‘March on Washington’ changed America.  Our country reached to overcome the low points of our racial history. Glenn Beck’s march will change nothing.

That was very weak, Eleanor.  You obviously were not paying attention.

The simultaneous rallies rendered the country’s political and racial divisions in stark relief.

Sharpton drew a mostly black crowd of union members (think SEIU), church-goers, college students, and civil rights activists.  The Obama administration weighed in, too, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking of education as the “civil rights issue of this generation.”   Extremely generous people have estimated the crown size at 3,000 (including pets, probably).

The Beck crowd, meanwhile, was anywhere between 300,000 and 1 million.  We won’t know until Beck releases the official total.

The mood was peaceful and calm at both events.  By the time the Sharpton march arrived on the Mall, the crowd from Beck’s rally had largely dispersed. The events appeared to produce none of the politically damaging imagery that emerged from some earlier tea party rallies, although there were tweets from the event that some Left-wing whackos tried to start trouble on the periphery of the Restoring Honor Rally.

The attendance at Beck’s gathering is sure to be underestimated by the Main Stream Media.  They are already using the excuse that crowd sizes on the Mall are often controversial and notoriously difficult to estimate, so much so that law enforcement agencies have stopped providing numbers.

Beck knows this.  When he came on stage to being the rally, Beck joked that he had “just gotten word from the media that there are over a thousand people here today.” Later, he told the crowd he heard it was “between 300,000 and 500,000.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), speaking soon after the Beck rally at her own impromptu event nearby, said:

We’re not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today – because we were witnesses.

Beck, warned Saturday that “our children could be slaves to debt.”  However, during the rally, he kept repeating that the event:

…has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God, turning our faith back to the values and principles that made us great.

Martin Luther King’s niece Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist, addressed the rally with a plea for prayer “in the public squares of America and in our schools.” Referencing her “Uncle Martin,” King called for national unity by repeatedly declaring “I have a dream.”

Many in the audience said they had come because they fear that the country is at a perilous moment.

By the way, the Washington Post is begging for pictures of political t-shirts from the rally, to try to denigrate the message somehow.  Even they realize that their arguments are weak.

Others said they were motivated more by their deep appreciation of Beck, whose talk-radio show is the third-most popular in the country and who heavily promoted “Restoring Honor” on radio and on his television program on Fox News.

You will start hearing that Beck has a “Messianic Complex”.  I guarantee it.

Some came because they are frustrated at what they call the “ruling class,” at the health-care bill they say few supported, at schools that no longer require that students say the Pledge of Allegiance, and at elected officials who run on one platform and govern on another.

Linda Adams, 52, a university administrator who said her ancestors were on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution, said:

We want our country to get back to its original roots. 

John Sawyers, 47, an engineer who grew up on a farm in Virginia, said:

It’s not anger.  It’s more, ‘Guys, why are we going this way?’ It’s time for the silent majority to say it’s wrong.

Sawyers, a registered Republican, and Adams, an independent, said they were moved to attend by Beck’s theme of honor:

Both of us are unhappy with the perception Obama is apologizing for everything we ever did.

 Adams added:

And we felt we had to do something.

Democrats have desperately attempted to launch an offensive designed to link it to the Republican Party, trying to portray Republicans as extremists beholden to the tea party agenda.   Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, assailed Republicans for pursuing a “destructive agenda” and called out the tea party movement for pushing the GOP to the “extreme right.”

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the  reverent tone of Beck’s Rally will make this attack about as effective as a water balloon fight.

The event had a strong military theme, (another reason Libs’ heads were exploding) with Beck paying tribute to three soldiers. Beck asked for donations to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which funds scholarships for children of service members killed in action. During the rally, Beck announced that the foundation had raised $5.5 million for the event.

The idiots at the Washington Post intimated that Beck took money from this Foundation to hold the event.  He did not.  Epic fail.

Sarah Palin said she was at the rally speaking not as a politician but as the mother of a combat veteran.

She said the military is “a force for good in this country, and that is nothing to apologize for.” She honored three military veterans, hugging them onstage, and told people to look to them as inspiration, even when the nation’s challenges might sometimes seem “insurmountable.”

She added:

But here today, at the crossroads of our history, may this day be the change point.  Look around you. You’re not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them.

The crowd responded with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

In the short hours since the rally, it has been both amusing and baffling to watch the Liberals try to spin this event.  The Democrats know that they cannot attack God.  They cannot attack those who watched it on C-Span or the 130,00 that watched live stream on the Facebook page effectively either.  They can and will attack Beck and Palin.  However, that’s getting old and increasingly ineffective.  The appearance of professional race-baiter Rev. Al Sharpton on Fox News’ Geraldo at Large last night was an exercise in watching someone who does not realize that they are irrelevant.  Every argument he brought up was ineffective.  Even Geraldo was forced to say complimentary things about the event.  I know that killed his Progressive soul.

Once again, the Libs face a crisis that they have brought upon themselves.  75 % of Americans identify as Christians.  21 % of Americans claim to be staunch Liberals.  Did Obama and his Far Left Base really expect to impose their ideology upon Americans without awakening a Sleeping Giant?

Even as I compose this blog, the Lincoln Memorial grounds are awash with a sea of humanity, gathering for The Restoring Honor Rally, to be held from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Central today, August 28th.

Glenn Beck, Fox News/Conservative Radio Host will be joined on stage by Former Alaskan Governor and Fox News Contributor Sarah Palin, among others.  Beck says that  the event, on the same steps where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech exactly 47 years earlier, isn’t a political rally.  Instead, it’s going to be a celebration of the military, patriotism and American heritage.

Over 300,000 are expected to attend.   Beck has been cautious about not overestimating attendance:

It’s going to be a little overwhelming as we see tens of thousands of people standing together, locked arm-in-arm, peaceful, happy.  This event is bigger than any single one person; it is not about one person.

Rev. Al Sharpton , he of the less-than-honorable Tawana Brawley fiasco and noted race-baiter, is of the opinion that Beck is offering a very different message from the one offered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech there 43 years earlier.  I’m shocked.

Beck’s statement that he is reclaiming the civil rights movement, Sharpton told CBS News’ Wyatt Andrews, reminds him of earlier claims that King was a communist: 

When Dr. King and others came here in ’63 to ask the government to protect the civil rights of people and the economic rights of people, they came to ask government to protect them from local states that were robbing them of economic and civil rights.

…Glenn Beck is coming here to ask government to leave us alone, so he’s trying to reverse what King did and there are those of us who are not going to allow that to happen.

Gosh, Al.  You’re having a hard time coping with being irrelevant, aren’t you?

They’re saying ‘we’re talking about the honor of America,’ they’re saying ‘we’re talking about restoring dignity,’ there is nothing more dignified than our country coming together and making sure that everyone has equal opportunity.  That’s not communism, that’s really what this country is supposed to stand for and what Dr. King gave his life for.

You’ve correct.  Equal rights isn’t communism, Al.  The Government controlling our lives is, though.

Beck has said that  the fact that his rally is being held on the anniversary of King’s speech is a coincidence.   He has gone on to say that King’s legacy does not only belong to African-Americans.   And that is what is getting professional race-baiters like Sharpton’s goat.

Sharpton went on to say that while King stood for the government helping poor Americans, Beck deems that “socialism” and “government ruling our lives.”

Actually, I have heard Beck say the same thing most Americans say.  Charity begins with community:  families, neighbors, and churches…a hand up, not a handout. 

Duct tape your head, here it comes:

It couldn’t have been more of a contradiction.  When government stayed out of people’s lives women and blacks couldn’t vote,   When government stayed out of people’s lives we were in the back of the bus. We need government to do what Dr. King came and asked government to do in ’63 and we need government to do that now.

When you start saying you’re going to reclaim the civil rights movement that’s not even coded, that’s a blatant attempt the hijack a movement that changed America.

You’re right, Al.  America is such a Raaaciiist nation.  Why, a black man could never become president.  Hey!   Waitaminute….

A Facebook friend of mine has a different viewpoint.

Dr. Alveda King is the director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life, and the founder of King for America.  Here is an excerpt from an article she wrote about today’s event:

Delineating ourselves as red state or blue, liberal or conservative, minority or majority, we have not quite reached the day when men and women are “judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character.” We are still marching toward that day. As Uncle Martin said, “we cannot turn back.”

The rally will also give America another chance to honor and thank the men and women in our armed forces for the dangers they face every day in our stead. Unless you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s too easy to forget that tens of thousands of Americans are far from the comforts of home, are directly in harm’s way, facing an enemy who hates us precisely because we are free. And coming just days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the day that roused us from our complacency, we could use another wakeup call, one of our own devising.

When I join Beck and all gathered at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, I will talk about my Uncle Martin and the America he envisioned. I will talk about honor and character and sacrifice. I will be joined by those who represent the diversity of the human race.

On Saturday, Uncle Martin’s dream of personhood and human dignity will resound across America. And the Park Police should consider themselves forewarned: As we stand in the symbolic shadow of the great American who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we just might sing.

Dr. Alveda King is a leader in the Pro-life Movement.  She has received all sorts of accusations and insults for her involvement in today’s event.

Whether you like Glenn Beck and/or Sarah Palin does not matter today.  Today is about recognizing that we live in the greatest country on God’s green earth and it is time to reclaim our heritage.  As President John Adams said:

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

It is time for Americans to remember our heritage and to realize the role that God and His Divine Providence played in the establishment of this country as the greatest on Earth.  It is time to restore honor.

On June 14th, 2010, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, an agnostic, said in an interview with Andy Ferguson of The Weekly Standard: 

… the next president, whoever he is, “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues. We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while,” until the economic issues are resolved. 

Little did Governor Daniels know that social issues would soon rival, if not overshadow economic issues, in the eye of the American public.

Over the last several days, the buzz around the water coolers in America has been about:

The Ground Zero mosque. Gay marriage in California. The president’s religion. 

Granted, these issues have nothing  to do with the economy.  Obama’s failed economic policy has dominated the political scene in 2010 and caused a panic among incumbents up for re-election in November.   However, with a little over two months to go until the midterm elections, the three aforementioned social concerns have created a hurricane of political buzz,with the tornadoes of illegal immigration and health care swirling within the atmosphere. 

The all-knowing pundits (just ask them) say the economy is still the number one issue and that politicians need to stay away from the sticky issues revolving around morality, ethics, and, God forbid, religion, or else they will drive away independent voters who, the pundits assume, vote with their wallets.

Evidently, their parents never told these all-knowing pundits what assuming does.

In Florida, site of  primary elections this Tuesday, the top Republican candidates for governor are both echoing each other’s outrage over the Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. 

Billionaire Rick Scott immediately put out a campaign ad after President Obama launched the New York issue into the national spotlight by saying the developers had the right to build there. 

Scott’s campaign ad, to the backdrop of moody guitar music, declared that Obama was “wrong” and the mosque should not be erected “just yards” from where “Muslim fanatics murdered thousands of innocent Americans.” 

Opponent Bill McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, repeated the outrage: 

We’re still at war with Al Qaeda. They see this as a sign of weakness.  This is not just an insult to the families of the victims of September 11. It’s also a problem for our soldiers that are still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

In Missouri, GOP Rep. Roy Blunt’s Senate campaign posted a web video that had audio of Democratic opponent Robin Carnahan saying New Yorkers should decide the mosque issue for themselves — with a photo in the background of smoldering World Trade Center rubble.  Blunt eventually pulled the ad, but Carnahan said it went too far. 

Senate Majority Leader “Dinghy” Harry Reid, who faces a conservative challenge from Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, shocked  Washington by coming out against the mosque Monday. 

He had to protect his phony baloney job.

Political candidates in states thousands of miles from Ground Zero are publically expressing their opinions on the mosque debate. The hottest part of this political firestorm is in New York, where Republicans are blasting Democrats who have either sided with the proposed center or kept their mouth shut, trying to fly below the radar.

Rick Lazio, challenger to Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in the general election, has released an ad through the New York State Conservative Party slamming Cuomo for defending the Cordoba Initiative.

In the ad, Rubio says:

New Yorkers have been through enough.  Andrew Cuomo is very, very wrong. 

Republicans think that they have found a political hot button issue.   A Fox News poll released last Friday found 64 percent of voters think it’s wrong to put a mosque near Ground Zero. 

However, there are Republicans who seem to be preaching Moderation.  Oh, squish.   New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has warned lawmakers against getting too caught up in the debate.  Republican strategist Kevin Madden, former spokesman for ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Has anybody heard where he stands on the issue, by the way?), said candidates should beware the mosque:

What happens is candidates run the risk of looking like they are focusing on the trivial at the expense of the urgent — the urgent being the economy.

Trivial?  Not according to other Republican candidates.

According to Georgia Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey, the recent debate over whether the 14th amendment should be altered so that children of illegal immigrants are not granted automatic citizenship will be a “huge issue” come November. 

Hearkening back to the campaign of 2004, gay marriage was also tossed into the campaign season mix when a federal judge earlier this month ruled that California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The decision is being appealed. 

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman on Friday seized the opportunity to blast California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, her Democratic opponent, for not defending the law in court. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she promised to defend the law as governor. 

The hottest social issue of the week was a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center which showed voters’ views on the president’s religion are either murkier, or possibly clearer, than ever.  The poll showed 18 percent of Americans believe the president, who claims to be a practicing Christian, is a Muslim — that’s up from 11 percent in March 2009.  A third  identified him as a Christian and 43 percent said they don’t know what religion the president practices. 

 Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, told Fox News that in light of the numbers the White House will probably be more “persistent” in letting reporters know when he’s attending services or consulting with pastors. He said that may help “moderate” the false impression about his religion. 

It has been very interesting this week to observe the MSM, the Progressives, and the Northeast Moderates all trying to spin these social issues that are so upsetting to the American public.  Just as Beltway Republicans have been trying to steer their party away from Reagan Conservatism, saying that it was a failed model, so are these elements in our society trying to tell the American people that right and wrong are relative things, and that traditional American values are passe’.

Reality check, people:  75 % of Americans proclaim their Christianity.  The overwhelming majority of Americans were raised with traditional values.  They believe in the concept of right and wrong.  They have been working hard all of their lives and now, a bunch of clowns in Washington are trying to tell them that they need to give more of their money to them, just so this Regime can destroy what it took over 200 years to build.  At the same time, they see a president, currently on his 6th vacation of the year, who has said that we no longer consider ourselves a Christian nation and that the Muslim call to prayer is one of “the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”.  Not only that, but he can recite the Call to Prayer in perfect Arabic.  Funny, I’ve never heard him recite The Lord’s Prayer.  What are Americans supposed to believe about this man?

Yes.  We are all struggling to survive due to the worst economic policy in the history of America.  However, strictly campaigning on the issue of economics alone, with no ethical and moral stance to back it up, will not win an election for the Republicans.  After all, Mussolini made the trains run on time.

On Friday night, during his monumental announcement of support for the planned Muslim symbol of victory at the scene of the worst Islamic Terrorist attack on American soil in history, President Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be unto him) championed the building of the mosque as an exercise in Religious Freedom, in the spirit of our Founding Fathers.  These remarks came from the same man who cancelled the National Day of Prayer White House Breakfast each of the 2 years since his ascension to the presidency.

Obama has been supportive of Muslims in America since his Presidency began.  In a speech he delivered to the Muslim world on June 4, 2009 at Cairo University, Obama said:

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”

Time out, Scooter.  John Adams also said:

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

Now, back to the Cairo Speech.

And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

However, what the Liberal Main Stream Media never reported, was the fact that Thomas Jefferson kept a Koran in his library in order to gain a better insight into the way Muslims think, because of the War with the Barbary Pirates.

Obama and his minions are trying desperately to rewrite history , by trying to somehow subliminally imply that Muslims go all the way back in our nation to the Founding Fathers.  That is not the case.

From adherents.com:

There were 95 Senators and Representatives in the First Federal Congress. If one combines the total number of signatures on the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution with the non-signing Constitutional Convention delegates, and then adds to that sum the number of congressmen in the First Federal Congress, one obtains a total of 238 “slots” or “positions” in these groups which one can classify as “Founding Fathers” of the United States. Because 40 individuals had multiple roles (they signed multiple documents and/or also served in the First Federal Congress), there are 204 unique individuals in this group of “Founding Fathers.” These are the people who did one or more of the following:

– signed the Declaration of Independence
– signed the Articles of Confederation
– attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787
– signed the Constitution of the United States of America
– served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
– served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress

The religious affiliations of these individuals are summarized below. Obviously this is a very restrictive set of names, and does not include everyone who could be considered an “American Founding Father.” But most of the major figures that people generally think of in this context are included using these criteria, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and more. 

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Religious Affiliation of U.S. Founding Fathers	# of Founding Fathers	% of Founding Fathers
Episcopalian/Anglican	88	54.7%
Presbyterian	30	18.6%
Congregationalist	27	16.8%
Quaker	7	4.3%
Dutch Reformed/German Reformed	6	3.7%
Lutheran	5	3.1%
Catholic	3	1.9%
Huguenot	3	1.9%
Unitarian	3	1.9%
Methodist	2	1.2%
Calvinist	1	0.6%
unknown	43	%
TOTAL	204

Here are some quotes about God and Christianity from 3 Presidents of the United States whom you might recognize:

John Quincy Adams

My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.

The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made “bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [Isaiah 52:10].

In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

Thomas Jefferson

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

George Washington

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.

The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.

Mr. President, this is not an issue of Religious Freedom.  There are a lot of mosques in New York City.  This is nothing but an opportunity for the enemies of American Freedom to spit in our eye and gloat over the murder of 3,00o on our soil.  This is political propaganda of the most blatant kind.  You said a while back, that we are no longer “just” a Christian nation  and through your actions, you have tried to back that up.  The problem you face is the fact that 75% of this nation proclaim Christianity and only a little over 1 % claim to be Muslim.  Those of us belonging to the 75% percent believe as Founding Father and President John Adams did when he said:

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

All sources for the preceding post are embedded.