Some Thoughts on the Presidential Prayer Breakfast

Last Thursday was the National Presidential Prayer Breakfast held in Washington D.C.  Back in 2007, Marlys and I had the privilege of attending that event.  I am not sure why they call it a "prayer breakfast" - you do eat a nice breakfast and you do get to meet some wonderful Christian people from around the country, but there is very little praying that is done.  There is always a guest speaker - this year it was Darryl Waltrip, the famous racecar driver.  The year we attended, it was Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Genome Project.  Most of the Congressmen and Senators are present, along with cabinet members, and of course, the President of the United States. 


This past Thursday, during his remarks to this Breakfast Meeting, President Obama said that we, as Americans, had better get off our "high horse" and remember that Christianity has been guilty of many of the same atrocities that IS is perpetrating today  He said, "Unless we get on our high horse and think this (beheadings, sex-slavery, crucifixion, roasting humans) is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ."


In an article posted at the Middle East Forum website, titled, "Obama" We're No Better Than Islamic State," the author writes: "First, the obvious: the wide gulf between violence and hate 'justified in the name of Christ; and violence and hate 'justified in the name of Muhammad' is that Christ never justified it, while Muhammad continuously did.  This is not just a theoretic point; it is the very reason that Muslims are still committing savage atrocities.  Every evil act IS commits - whether beheading, crucifying, raping, enslaving, or immolating humans - has precedents in the deeds of Muhammad, that most 'perfect' and 'moral' man, per Koran 33:21 and 68:4."


The author continues, "Does Obama know something about Christ - who eschewed violence and told people to love and forgive their enemies - that we don't?  Perhaps he's clinging to that solitary verse that academics like Philip Jenkins habitually highlight, that Christ - who 'spoke to the multitudes in parables and without a parable spoke not' once said, 'I come not to bring peace but a sword' (Matt. 10:34, 13:34),  Jesus was not commanding violence against non- Christians but rather predicting that Christians will be persecuted, including by family members (as, for example, when a Muslim family slaughters their child for 'apostatizing' to Christianity as happens frequently)."


The author then proceeds to remind us that the Crusades were a response to the same atrocities being committed then as they are today.  The author says, "The true lesson of the Crusades is that Islamic violence has been remarkably consistent, down to its very patterns of persecution.  And, according to primary historical texts - not modern day fantasies peddled by the likes of Karen Armstrong - Muslim persecution of Christians was indeed a primary impetus for the Crusades."


"In short, Obama's claim that there will always be people willing to 'hijack religion for their own murderous ends' is patently false when applied to the Islamic State and like organizations and individuals.  Muhammad himself called for the murder of his enemies; he permitted Muslims to feign friendship to his enemies in order to assassinate them; he incited his followers to conquer and plunder non-believers, promising them a sexual paradise if they were martyred; he kept sex slaves and practiced pedophilia with his 'child-bride,' Aisha.  He, the prophet of Islam, did everything the Islamic State is doing.  If Muslims are supposed to follow the summa or example, of Muhammad, and if Muhammad engaged in and justified every barbarity being committed by the Islamic State and other Muslims - how, exactly, are they 'hijacking' Islam?  Such is the simple logic Obama fails to grasp.  Or else he does grasp it - but hopes most Americans don't." 


You can find the article at www.medforum.org/5015/obama-were-no-better-than-islamic-state. 


The day before the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, President Obama met in the White House with "Muslim leaders" across America.  The meeting was held in secret and only now are we finding out the names of those who attended, including members of known jihadist groups.  You can access this article at: www.news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/020615-738417-secret-white-house-meeting-included-known-jihadist-group-members.  It is a most enlightening article - makes one wonder what is really happening in the White House.


Friends, there is cause for concern.  We have an Administration that seemingly has not come to grips with the intent of these radical Islamic groups.  Yes, they are radicals.  But they are radical Islamists.  And that is the fact that the Administration does not want to address.  Yes, those who participated in the Crusades and during the time of the Inquisition did some incredibly evil things...in the name of religion.  But, and here is where the similarity stops...the Church eventually condemned those acts...the Crusades were abandoned...the Inquisition was stopped.  But the evils committed by radical Islamists back in the 11th-13th centuries still persist today.  And, although there are some voices within the Muslim community calling for the eradication of IS, they are voices that are not being heard loudly enough.  And so, IS grows...perhaps even here in the United States.  And the indifference toward them is growing.  How confused are our times!