Attacked for Speaking Truth by Bill Tammeus

When it comes to politics I consider myself a moderate. On some issues I am on the right, and I am more to the left on others. When it comes to theology I am about the same. I am somewhere along the Via Media, one might say. This blog is supposedly about defending the Faith; however, what has been the representation of our Faith historically by certain so called believers in our historical past often times cannot really be defended because their actions were contrary to what the foundations of our Faith are all about. In fact, there are many illustrations of those contrary actions of which I speak. On December 12^th, 2010, I posted an article titled: The Crusades. The Crusades were a good example of those actions or events in history that cannot really be defended as a positive representation of what Christianity should be all about simply based on how Jesus said we should act or behave as his followers. The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain is another good example. Moreover, there are many times in our past that Christians have misrepresented the Faith by committing horrendous acts. During the Crusades Western Christians did not only fight Muslims, they also killed Eastern Christians and looted Constantinople. Christians also have a history of burning people. On October 27th, 1553, John Calvin had Michael Servetus, a known Spanish physician of his day burned at the stake just outside of Geneva because of his different doctrinal beliefs. Centuries ago, Spanish Christians burned many natives such as Hatuey in Cuba because they did not convert. The list goes on and on.  It is almost miracle the Faith has survived for 2000 years because some of those documented events were evil and dark, if you ask me. Well, Christianity survived because most of the time believers have done far more good than bad. However, this does not mean that we can deny or ignore what some have called an “inglorious past.” So, what is with all the Christianity bashing on this post, you might ask? Well, this brings me to a post I wanted to share that is a mixture of politics and religion…one of the two best topics to bring up anywhere which normally results in a heated dispute…lol.

The article I want to share was posted on February 10^th, 2015 by Bill Tammeus on his blog, Bill's 'Faith Matters' Blog, and it is titled: Attacked for speaking truth. The article is about President Obama, and how he has been attacked verbally by many for something he said during the National Prayer Breakfast last week. Of course, if you ask me what many have repeated that he said was really taken out of context for the purpose of politicizing, and that is not very Christian-like to start with…. What I like about the article written by Bill Tammeus is that he tells us what the President said clearly. I am sharing it because I want you to read and form your own opinion. I am not one who sides with the President on many issues, although I do agree on some. Anyhow, it was a great article! I really think the ones that made the criticisms are either very ignorant or they just like to politicize issues for their own convenience since they know many Americans are too lazy and do not bother reading an entire speech by the president. Many simply assume the person making the comments would never lie to them. I especially like the comment Bill made about what the president was really doing when he said what he said. The comment was the following: "It was exactly the right point to make at a prayer breakfast. In effect, he was mirroring Jesus when he told someone to remove the log from his own eye before attempting to remove the speck from someone else's eye. A little humility about our religious history is always in order." Anyhow, if you need a Scripture reference for this passage mentioned by Bill, it can be found in the Gospel of Mathew 7:3-5 or in Luke Chapter 6. Bill said at the start of his article: "I wish I could say I'm surprised at some of the blowback President Obama has been receiving from politicians and certain religious leaders to his remarks last week at the National Prayer Breakfast. I’m not. It's what we've come to expect from the far right of both politics and religion. But even if I'm not surprised, I am appalled." Behind all the criticism what was going on was not even propaganda, in my opinion, it was a lie that was being told. In the end, what really ended up happening was that the President asked for new authority to use force against ISIS. Read all about it: "White House to ask Congress for new authority to use force against Islamic State: http://reut.rs/1CRjV9B. " I really don’t want to get side tracked because I really want you to read the article by Bill Tammeus, and see why I thought it was a really great article. The link to it is below. 

Attacked for speaking truth: 2-10-15 (Bill's 'Faith Matters' Blog)




Reference:

http://billtammeus.typepad.com/my_weblog/2015/02/2-10-15.html