Lawsuit seeks to take God out of Presidential inauguration

A number of atheists and non-religious organizations want Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony to leave out all references to God and religion.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, the plaintiffs demand that the words "so help me God" not be added to the end of the president's oath of office.

In addition, the lawsuit objects to plans for ministers to deliver an invocation and a benediction in which they may discuss God and religion.

An advance copy of the lawsuit was posted online by Michael Newdow, a California doctor and lawyer who has filed similar and unsuccessful suits over inauguration ceremonies in 2001 and 2005.

Joining Newdow in the suit are groups advocating religious freedom or atheism, including the American Humanist Association, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and atheist groups from Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; and Florida.

The new lawsuit says in part, "There can be no purpose for placing 'so help me God' in an oath or sponsoring prayers to God, other than promoting the particular point of view that God exists."

Newdow said references to God during inauguration ceremonies violate the Constitution's ban on the establishment of religion.

Newdow and other plaintiffs say they want to watch the inaugural either in person or on television. As atheists, they contend, having to watch a ceremony with religious components will make them feel excluded and stigmatized.

"Plaintiffs are placed in the untenable position of having to choose between not watching the presidential inauguration or being forced to countenance endorsements of purely religious notions that they expressly deny," according to the lawsuit.

Among those named in the lawsuit are Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, who is expected to swear in the new president; the Presidential Inauguration Committee; the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies and its chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California; and the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee and its commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Rowe Jr.

The two ministers scheduled to participate in the ceremony also are named: the Rev. Rick Warren and the Rev. Joseph Lowery. The document includes a quotation from Warren on atheists: "I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, 'I don't need God.' "

Newdow said that he didn't name President-elect Barack Obama in the suit because in addition to participating as a government official at the ceremony, he possesses rights as an individual that allow him to express religious beliefs.

"If he chooses to ask for God's help, I'm not going to challenge him," Newdow said. "I think it's unwise."

Newdow said that as a member of a racial minority, Obama should have respect for atheists, who also are members of a minority.

Newdow said religious references in the inauguration ceremony send a message to non-believers.

"The message here is, we who believe in God are the righteous, the real Americans," he said.

Newdow said it's unconstitutional to imply that atheists and others are not as good.

He acknowledged that his suit is unlikely to be successful.

"I have no doubt I'll lose," he said, adding that he hoped to eventually succeed through appeals and hoped future inauguration ceremonies would exclude religious references.

I'm wondering what my readers thoughts on this are? leave your comments on this topic.

Does it REALLY matter?

Does It Really Matter if Barrack Obama is Muslim?

A political posting this time around, on a subject that doesn't seem to want to go away..thought I would offer up some thoughts on it as well.....

First some background:

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the President-elect of the United States and the first African American to be elected President of the United States. Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 until he resigned on November 16, 2008, following his election to the Presidency.

President Barack Obama was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii,to Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansasof mainly English, Irish and smaller amounts of German descent.

His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student.The couple married February 2, 1961;they separated when Obama was two years old and subsequently divorced in 1964. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982

Obama is a Christian whose religious views have evolved in his adult life. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household." He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists") to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known." He describes his father as "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful." In the book, Obama explains how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change.He was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988.


Using the above stated facts, we are clearly able to deduce that Barrack Obama is not muslim.

Besides the stated facts above,We know this because:

- he has told us so.
- We know it because there is no credible evidence to suggest otherwise.
- We know it despite a campaign of lies and whispers from various bloggers, pundits and head cases.

President-elect Barack Obama is not a Muslim. But, what if he was? Does that really matter? would that really change anything?

After all, Same guy, Same charisma, same inspirational idealism. The same outlook at a positive future for a better tommorrow for America, But also, a Muslim. Not a crazy or extreme Muslim. Not a guy prone to strapping bombs to his chest in hopes of hooking up with virgins in heaven.
A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-type Muslim. A Dave Chappelle, Ahmad Rashad-type Muslim. A guy you like and admire, one you can look up to...who just happened to be Muslim.

Would it really matter? Should it?

The question bears answering because of the creepy, are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been attitude toward Islam that seems to be seeping into the public dialogue lately. As in that campaign of lies and whispers that keeps showing up where ever you look now - claims that Obama won’t salute the flag, Plans to take his oath of office at his inauguration on a Quran, tied to a terror cell and all sorts of other assorted idiocy.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams has apparently been getting the same e-mails. In moderating a Democratic debate, he flat-out asked President Obama about rumors “that you are trying to hide the fact that you’re a Muslim…”

The then senator laughed a heard-that-a-few-times-before laugh. Then he replied that he is a Christian, that he is a victim of Internet rumor, and that he trusts the American people to “sort out the lies from the truth.”

What bothered me is that, by its phrasing, Williams’ question presupposed there is something wrong with being a Muslim. And Obama’s answer left the presupposition unaddressed.

What if he answered in the affirmative, that, Yes he in fact is/was a Muslim? What then?

A 2007 Pew Research Center survey found that 43 percent of us have a favorable opinion of Muslims (make it Muslim-Americans and the number rises to 53 percent). Which may sound not so bad, except when you compare it to favorable ratings of other religious groups. Jews, for instance, are at 76 percent. Even evangelical Christians manage 60. And that ranking for Muslims represents a 5-point drop since 2004.

It’s no mystery why the nation’s opinion of Muslims is becoming less favorable. In a word, terrorism. And frankly, Americans are right to fear those Muslim with fanatical beliefs who embrace violence as a means of getting what they want (and not just muslims, anyone with those beliefs with that matter should be feared).

But, the key word there in that statement, is not Muslim. It’s fanatic. Yet some of us still think Muslim is the brand name for crazy. I think the only difference between religious fanatics here and in the Middle East is that Middle Eastern nations tend to be theocratic (i.e., the word of the holy book has the force of law) and to be intolerant - sometimes, violently so - of dissent. So no one dares tell them no.

But if Pat Robertson, to name an American Christian fanatic not quite at random, had the force of law behind him and the ability to silence those who disagree, don’t you think he would be as scary as the scariest of ayatollahs in Iran?

I do. That’s why I would never want to see him as president. Which is not quite the same as saying I’d never want a Christian to be president. I just prefer my presidents - regardless of their religion - reasonable and sane. That doesn't seem like a whole lot to ask for right?

Yet it’s a standard some of us now discard. The ongoing whisper campaign against Barack Obama, against his very American-ness, is a shameful appeal to ignorance and fear. Against that, I offer a simple statement the world’s most famous and well-loved follower of Islam made just after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I am a Muslim,” said Muhammad Ali. “I am an American.”

That says it all. Or at least, it should.

What do you think? would it/does it matter if President Obama is/was a Muslim? post your thoughts on this subject.