We know that last week the hate spewing, far right wingers started a smear campaign against Barack Obama questioning his faith and making it seem he was "secret" muslim. Late Friday afternoon, I received the first of two e-mails on the subject, sent out as a chain mail to dozens and dozens of people.
You know the heading: Be careful, be very careful. Then it went into a short verison of the smear started on Faux News. I've pasted the chain mail below, but unlike a lot of chain mail, I responded to ALL of the individuals who received this communication.
You can see the email that started it and my response below the fold. I would encourage each Kossack to cut, paste and edit the response and send it out to anyone/everyone who sends you the Obama lie to counter the impact these lies might have to the ignorant. More below:
The opening paragraph let it be known that Obama's mother was an unChristian white...fill in the blank...
It read:
"Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (black muslim) of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. (white atheist )."
"When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro -- a Muslim -- moving to Jakarta with Obama when he was six years old. Within six months he had learned to speak the Indonesian language Obama spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school" in Jakarta. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim, mitigating that damning information by saying that, for two years, he also attended a Catholic school. Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia. He met Obama's mother, Ann Dunham a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Obama, Sr. and Dunham divorced when Barack, Jr. was two. Obama's spinmeisters are now attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came from his father and that influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya immediately following the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Dunham married another Muslim, Lolo Soetoro who educated his stepson as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta 's Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the industrialized world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim."
I could not STAND to let this lie continue to float around the internet so I wrote the following and did a bulk response for everyone who was on the original list:
This is one of the most unChristian things ever to show up in my e-mail box. As an ordained Reverend, I can tell you that Barack Obama is a Christian - more so than any of the individuals who started this bald face lie.
For those of you who do not know how a person becomes a Christian, I will tell you. You publicly state before another Christian that you have accepted Christ as your personal savior, that he is your lord god whose death was a means to your salvation. A lot of people do that before a congregation but that is not necessary, only the acceptance of Christ into your heart and the recognition of him as your lord is necessary. Barack Obama accepted Christ into his heart and professed him to be his lord and saviour. He is a Christian.
For those of you who think you are a Christian but continue to accept and pass lies about this man, or any other person, you should seriously study the Epistle of James in the new testament, Chapter 3:5 to 3:12. The New International Version reads like this:
(5) Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ( 6) The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
(7) All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
(9) With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. (10) Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ( 11) Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? (12) My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Before you pass a lie and question a person's faith, look into your own actions and your own heart to see how far you have fallen from the path that Christ has called you to follow.
Shame on you all.
If it's useful - cut and paste and pass it around. You might need to take out the Reverend part (unless you are.)