Obama Enlists Religious Left to Win Support for Healthcare Reform

by Barbara Sowell

Yesterday’s teleconference with President Obama, "40 Minutes for Health Reform," was organized by a network of religiously progressive faith-based organizations that support Obama’s plan to change our nation’s health-care system.

The 40 minute teleconference was the launch pad for a 40-day push to guilt-trip religiously naive Americans into accepting a public option for health care reform. It is no accident that proponents of Obamacare chose the symbolism of the number 40.

Jesus was tempted by the Devil after fasting for 40- days and nights in the desert. Appealing to pride, Satan challenged Christ to prove that He is the Son of God by jumping off the temple so that all can see the angels catch Him.

The Lord is tempted when He is in a weakened state, after fasting for over a month. Christ's fasting for 40 days and nights is also akin to the fasting of Moses (Ex. 34:28). God had promised that one would come after Moses who was like Moses (Deut 18:18). It may not be too much of a stretch to see this as pointing to the prophecy. In any case, we can expect that Satan will try His tricks when we are physically weak.

Jesus's scriptural response to Satan is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

The nation is in a weakened state. We are tired of well over 40 days and nights of fruitless health care-reform debate. Obama hasn’t fared well as all polls show that the majority of Americans don’t want a public option. Now Obama is going on the offensive. He is again reaching out to the very churches that got him elected. Can the religiously left turn the tide?

Here’s their simple strategy:

According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Obama, who joined the last few minutes of the teleconference, used religious references such as "I am my brother's keeper" and said that misinformation being spread about reform had "a lot of folks bearing false witness." . . .

The implication is clear. If you think you are your brother’s keeper and you don’t want to bear false witness, then you will jump into the arms of awaiting health-care reform angels.

But, is Obama’s public option going to save our brother or eventually destroy him? Is it bearing false witness to point out that under a public option, health care rationing is a distinct possibility, and that the Democrats have failed to put wording in the current house bill that will insure that we won’t eventually pull the plug on someone’s Grandma???

Many of the 30+ organizations that participated in the teleconference are members of Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which President Obama established by executive order on February 5, 2009. The above link provides a partial list of members.

The following churches sponsored the “40 Minutes For Health Reform” teleconference:

CALL SPONSORS:

AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (AME)

CATHOLICS IN ALLIANCE FOR THE COMMON GOOD

CATHOLICS UNITED

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

DISCIPLES CENTER FOR PUBLIC WITNESS

DISCIPLES JUSTICE ACTION NETWORK

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

FAITHFUL AMERICA

FAITHFUL REFORM IN HEALTH CARE

FAITH IN PUBLIC LIFE

GAMALIEL FOUNDATION

ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

JEWISH COUNCIL FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS

JEWISH WOMEN INTERNATIONAL

NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION, USA, INC.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN CHRIST

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN

NETWORK, A NATIONAL CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE LOBBY

PICO NATIONAL NETWORK

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA), WASHINGTON OFFICE

PROGRESSIVE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION

RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER OF REFORM JUDAISM

SAMUEL DEWITT PROCTOR CONFERENCE

SISTERS OF MERCY OF THE AMERICAS

SOJOURNERS

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

THE LATINO LEADERSHIP CIRCLE

THE NEW EVANGELICALS

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH GENERAL BOARD OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY

WASHINGTON OFFICE OF WOMEN’S DIVISIONS, GENERAL BOARD OF GLOBAL MINISTRIES, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Technorati Tags: faith-based organizations,Health Reform,teleconference,Healthcare,40- days,Religious Left,Obama,brother's keeper,bearing false witness,temptation,Jesus,Christ,fasting

Stopping ObamaCare!

Stopping ObamaCare.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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We have roughly 30 days to kill socialized medicine in the United States. The ObamaCare enthusiasts are pulling out all the stops, during the month of August to push whatever their healthcare overhaul FINALLY turns out to be.

You see, even the Obama Administration and the democrats on Capitol Hill have NO IDEA, at this point, exactly what their “healthcare” bill will include and what it will exclude. They have been jumping around all over the healthcare map, like fleas on a hotplate, trying, desperately, to come up with something, anything; the American people will swallow hard and accept. Problem is… the American people simply don’t want what they are selling! But the democrats are frightened, witless, that their new president is about to get his first “slap-down” by the electorate and the democrat/socialists are desperate to prevent that. If ObamaCare can be stopped, it will be a great victory for Amereicans who want no part of socialized medicine in the United States… plus it would be a tremendous embarrassment for Obama. Even Republican Congressman Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, claims it could be Obama’s Waterloo! Now, that IS embarrassing!

To make matters decidedly more difficult for the ObamaCare crowd, Rasmussen released a story on Monday (08-03-09) that made some folks in DC sit up and take notice. The report (out 08-03-09) says Confidence in the U.S. Health Care System Has Grown in Recent Months.

Rasmussen says that forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 19% rate it as poor. These figures reflect a significant increase in support for the health care system over the past few months. In May, just 35% of adults nationwide rated the system as good or excellent. A year ago, just 29% of Likely Voters rated the system in such positive terms.

And check this: The new polling also shows that 80% of those with insurance rate their own coverage as good or excellent. That’s up from 70% in May. You’ll find the entire eye-opening article HERE.

The democrats absolutely must get something through the Congress the President can lay claim to as the HIS Healthcare plan, even if it bears no resemblance to the glorified “pie-in-the-sky” healthcare, or Government-Run Healthcare, or Universal Healthcare, or Nationalized Healthcare, or Public Option Healthcare, or whatever they are calling it today. For our part- we are still referring to it as ObamaCare, or Socialized Medicine.

So, the plain truth is – neither Obama or his henchman on Capitol Hill have any idea what will be in the bill when they finally manage to scrape something together they can get enough votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass and send to the President for his signature.

Now, here’s the thing: During the next month, or so, primarily August, they will be back home back-slapping and glad-handing and trying, like crazy, to get you to support a bill the contents of which they haven’t a clue! In other words, the democrats and Obama are now at the point in their Socialized Medicine threat of trying to sell America what we in the Carolinas would refer to as a “Pig-in-a-Poke”. Interpreted that means simply, you can tell something is in the bag, but you have no idea what it is. It could be a pig or a polecat! And… you don’t get to find out which it is - until after you buy the bag!

Get ready for the letters, the phone calls, and the knocks on the door, the TV and radio ads, and the columns and articles in the newspapers and, of course on the Internet boosting ObamaCare during the month of August because they are going to be pouring it on.

If we are to kill this socialized medicine, we are going to have to meet them blow for blow. We have to tell our Congresspersons and our senators that if they are so weak as to vote for ObamaCare they can forget about our vote next time they stand for re-election. Help them understand they can expect an early retirement from the nation’s legislature.

You must remember that, first and foremost, the Obama Administration is going to force you to have health insurance, whether you want it or not. It is called the “Individual Mandate.” Yes, dear reader, this bill will affect EVERY American, healthy or sick, young or old. It will make no difference.

J. D. Longstreet

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