James Watkins Author Speaker Threat to society

‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ . . . and Barack

January 2009

To paraphrase the hit CBS sitcom from a few seasons back, "Everybody Loves Barack." (According to Gallup polls, the brand-new president has a 68 percent approval rating his first week in office. Only John F. Kennedy has had higher.) And that concerns me!

1. The media loves Barack
A late-night comic quipped that MSNBC was the "Obama for President Headquarters." The media is supposed to be a suspicious, cynical group of curmudgeons—and it performed its role with great enthusiasm during the George Bush administration. The media has traditionally been the fourth "checks and balances" component in government, but the unabashed gushing over the new president concerns me.

2. Congress loves Barack
I can't believe that Obama's choice for Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years while facing questions about the employment papers of a former household employee?and is still being considered by the Senate panel! Whether it was intentional or an honest oversight, it still seems grounds for disqualification, and that concerns me.

3. Pro-abortionists love Barack
The new president is probably the most anti-life president with his support for abortion, partial-birth-abortion and embryonic stem cell research. And that concerns me.

4. Gay rights activists love Barack
And the new president apparently loves them. On the official White House Web site (www.whitehouse.gov), there are several items listed under "Support for the GLBT Community" including adding sexual orientation as employment discrimination and expansion of hate-crime legislation. Conservative church groups and Christian organizations are concerned that they would a) have to hire openly gay people for ministry positions and b) that speaking out against what they believe is immoral behavior would be considered a hate crime. And that concerns me.

5. Church leaders love Barack
It's not surprising that so-called "liberal" church leaders love Barack, but "conservative" Rick Warren has walked through the moral mine field of hosting both Obama and John McCain at his church, inviting Obama to his AIDS summit, and praying at the inauguration, while still voicing disagreement with Obama's pro-abortion stance. The suspicious, cynical journalist in me suspects Rick Warren is being used by Obama simply to appeal to Christian conservatives, just as Republicans have used them in the past.

6. The world loves Barack
I do appreciate Obama's less confrontational and combative tone when it comes to international relations. Christians are taught to pray for peace. But in my darker moments—God forgive me—I think He'd make a great anti-Christ.

7. Ilove Barack
Barack Obama is charming, witty, gracious, thoughtful and articulate. I really love him as a person. But I'm deeply concerned when anyone is so likable. (Okay, there's that cynical, suspicious curmudgeon journalist in me coming out again.) I've met too many likable people who turned into monsters when they finally married the girl, took over power, or some crisis revealed the real person beneath the facade. (I hope his recent snub of Republican legislators with, "I won," doesn't confirm my concerns.)

Barack Hussein Obama took office in what resembled a Woodstock love-in, but love can be blind! So, I pray for the new president—and the media, the congress, the church and ordinary citizens.

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‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ . . . and Barack

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