this is article by a Calvinist, so heads up, but he makes some decent points here and there:
“Hurricane Dyson” A Verbal “Katrina” Floods Us With Nonsense Re: Obama’s Religion, Islam — Everything He Talks About!
By John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is another individual totally freaked out because, according to polls, many Americans: (1) Think President Obama is a Muslim. (2) They think he is not a Christian. (3) They are unsure what, exactly, is Mr. Obama’s religion. Dr. Dyson says he is an ordained Baptist minister. He hosts a radio talk show. He teaches sociology at Georgetown University.
Have you ever seen Dr. Dyson in action? It’s quite a spectacle. There is no issue he’s asked to comment on that he cannot, instantly, at length — and I mean at length — relate to race. To see him talk, reminds me of something once said about Hubert Humphrey — that, hurricane-like, “he talks a thousand words a minute, with gusts up to 1,500 words, sometimes 2,000-a-minute.”
Talkwise, however, Michael Eric Dyson is very different from Hubert Humphrey. He is a verbal “Hurricane Katrina” all the time! And he was blowing wild in a recent appearance (8/20/10) on MSNBC’s “Countdown” show hosted by Keith Olbermann. The topic was these things said by the Rev. Franklin Graham on CNN:
“First of all, I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim. His father gave him an Islamic name.
“Now, it’s obvious that the president has renounced the Prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That’s what he says he has done. I cannot say that he hasn’t. So, I just have to believe the president in what he has said.
“But he — the confusion is, is because his father was a Muslim, he was born a Muslim. The Islamic world sees the president as one of theirs. That’s why Gaddafi calls him “my son.” They see him as a Muslim. But, of course, the president says he is a Christian and we just have to accept it as that.”
Here’s just some of what Dr. Dyson had to say in response to Graham and responding to Olbermann questions (fasten your seatbelts):
“[President Obama] didn’t renounce what he never embraced. He embraces Islam, he embraces Judaism, he embraces Christianity and all religions as expressions of people’s will to believe in a higher power. So he affirms them in that sense. But there’s no renunciation going on even if he disagrees with their ultimate faith project or if he happens not to be part of their community.
“He happens to be a Christian. I was a member of the same church that Mr. Obama was a member of. President Obama, I saw him in church. He went to Trinity United Church of Christ. He is a Christian. And it’s an insult to Muslims to even have to make that distinction because we acknowledge the beauty of their faith, and Christianity and Judaism and Islam share Abraham and a few other profits, including Jesus. So, the point is, they’re all in the same family. This sounds like interesting (ph) squabbles among bigoted religious people.
“I think Mr. Graham is on horrible ground here. If we’re looking at people’s Christianity, the Bible tells us, and I happen to be an ordained Baptist minister as well, to judge them by their fruit. Judge not lest you be judged.
“And so, he’s judging Mr. Obama. And then on the other hand, the Bible tells us not to judge but inspect people’s fruit. If you look at the fruit of Obama, he’s engaged in every form of manifestation of Christianity that his father did. Mister — that is Mr. Billy Graham, Reverend Billy Graham went to South Africa and refused to speak out against apartheid, saying he only wanted to speak to the souls of men and not their bodies.
“A lot of us who are prophetic and left-leaning Christians could say, you’re not a Christian at all because you failed to challenge the economic and social structure of the world. So, we don’t want to get into slinging accusations about who’s Christian and who’s not Christian.
“I think this game of innuendo and inference, asserting Mr. Obama to be Christian, in scare quotes, “If he says he is, he is,” is one of the most un-Christian, uncharitable things that could be done…. I mean, when you began the question about the racial factor, because if he was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed man, we wouldn’t be talking about this.
“Karl Rove would not be challenging whether or not he’s a citizen of the United States of America or the birthers or the Tea Party Movement. For that matter, can Karl Rove give us — if Obama is not from America, is Mr. Rove from this earth?
“So, the reality is, that we are challenging the authenticity and legitimacy of a man whose bona fides have been well-established. But, again, I think the racial subtext here cannot be ignored. And we’re trying to otherize him — we’re trying to make him something essentially different than what we are.
“First, they tried to say he was un-American. Then they said he was communist. How can he be an un-American communist Muslim? Because Dr. King said, Christianity and other great religions have an essential contradiction between themselves and communism, and now, but he’s a communist — but then — now, he’s a believing communist. Well, he is a Muslim and communist and un-American. Which one is it? The jumble of epithets that are being hurled with lethal insensitivity against Mr. Obama are nothing but the made-over bigotry of people trying to find newfangled ways to dress up old oldfangled bigotry….
“It’s really unfortunate. I think, the reality is, is that, look, he’s fighting an uphill battle. He’s got racial issues. He’s got religious issues. He’s got issues of American citizenship. So, I think what Mr. Obama has to do, President Obama, during the campaign, they put out, you know, a Web site that try to fight some of this. That’s one way.
“But another way is for not only Mr. Obama but members of religious communities — of Christian communities — to step out on their faith and say, look, let’s stop haranguing this man, let’s stop berating him. He is a Christian by any other measurement that we measure anybody else. We judge anybody else. He says he is. We believe he is. He’s been accepted into the faith. Then let’s perform it. Let’s not talk about it. Jesus said a lot of people who call my name will not ultimately be in the kingdom with me. So, it’s not what you say out of your mouth. It’s what you perform in your heart.
“I’m an ordained Baptism minister for more than 30 years. I’d rather be with an atheist who claims never to believe in God but who does good works than side with people like Franklin Graham who say they know the same God I know, yet I can’t discern any credible connection between the God I worship who is about justice and mercy and truth and love — and the judgmental, harshly indifferent to the plight of the poor God Mr. Graham seems to worship. I’d rather be with those who perform the reality of the faith than who claim it out of their mouths.”
Olbermann: Only one word for that. Amen.
Well, there are, of course, many words that could be said in response to Dr. Dyson says none of them should be “amen” which indicates approval. For example:
DYSON: [President Obama] embraces Christianity and all religions as expressions of peoples’ will to believe in a higher power.
COMMENT: Would a real Christian do this? I think not.
DYSON: [Mr. Obama] is a Christian. And it’s an insult to Muslims to even have to make that distinction because we acknowledge the beauty of their faith, and Christianity and Judaism and Islam share Abraham and a few other prophets, including Jesus. So, the point is, they’re all in the same family. This sounds like interesting squabbles among bigoted religious people.
COMMENT: This is really bad. A real Christian would, in no way, see Islam, a false religion from a Christian/Biblical view, as a “beautiful” faith. And Christianity teaches that Jesus is God, not merely a “prophet”! And we are not all in the “same family.” Jesus says that those who say He is not God are children of the devil! (John 8:44ff.)
DYSON: We don’t want to get into slinging accusations about who’s Christian and who’s not Christian.
COMMENT: Sure, we do, but with the Bible as our standard of judgment. This is a very important issue — to know who is a sheep, who is a wolf!
DYSON: I’d rather be with an atheist who claims never to believe in God but who does good works than side with people like Franklin Graham who say they know the same God I know, yet I can’t discern any credible connection between the God I worship who is about justice and mercy and truth and love — and the judgmental, harshly indifferent to the plight of the poor God Mr. Graham seems to worship. I’d rather be with those who perform the reality of the faith than who claim it out of their mouths.”
COMMENT: Very revealing here re: Dyson’s lack of Biblical discernment, Scriptural knowledge. First, no such thing as “atheists.” As St.Paul tells us in Romans 1:18ff: All human beings know there is a God but suppress this truth in unrighteousness, etc. Thus, no “atheists.” Secondly, no unbeliever (“atheist”) does any “good works” because, as Jesus says, there is no good except from God! Thus, “good” equals “Godly;” therefore, because “atheists” never do anything because God requires it, they never do anything for Godly, “good” reason so works never “good” (Godly.)
Remember: Even the plowing of the wicked is sin (Proverbs 21:4). No unbeliever ever does anything for the right/Godly reason so no unbeliever can ever do a good (Godly) work.
Topic: White House claims Obama is a Christian (Read 4835 times)