RELIGIOUS right-wingers unhappily anticipated a bumpy ride when Barack Obama won the keys to the White House, but it’s unlikely that they would have guessed just how soon they would need to buckle their safety belts.
President Obama: the gloves are now off!
In just under a week in office, Obama has infuriated conservatives in three areas – by reversing the imbecile Bush’s ban on funding international aid to charities that perform or provide information about abortions; by slapping down right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh; and by approving the first human trials of embryonic stem cells.
When he signed the executive order reversing the abortion-funding ban on aid agencies abroad, the reaction, reports the Telegraph today “was brutal”.
Family groups accused him of plotting the “infanticide” of African children. Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, president of the American Values pressure group, said:
It is both sad and infuriating that in the same week President Obama extended new rights to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and began planning to release men whom we know have murdered Americans, he is preparing to sentence innocent children to death through abortion.
His swipe at Limbaugh was provoked when America’s highest-paid talk show host declared on air that he hoped Mr Obama would fail as President because otherwise it would usher in socialism.
We are being told we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over and grab our ankles … because his father was black, because he’s the first black president, we’ve got to accept this.
Obama retorted:
You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.
Meanwhile the decision by the Food and Drug Administration to approve the first human trials of embryonic stem cells, anathema to the Christian right, has intensified the bubbling culture war.
The White House’s failure to arrange for television cameras to record Mr Obama’s second swearing in, held last Wednesday night because he and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts botched the wording at his inauguration, angered both broadcasters and the Christian right, which suggested, inaccurately, that Obama might not be a legitimate president because he did not use a Bible for the second swearing in.
This prompted a group of British fruitcakes, the Evangelical Alliance, to send him a copy of the Bible Society’s Poverty and Justice Bible to make sure he always has a Bible to hand in the future.
Said Dr Krish Kandiah, Director of Churches in Mission for the Evangelical Alliance:
President Obama’s commitment to the scripture was obvious during his inaugural address, when he quoted Paul’s letter to the Corinthians – so when we heard he didn’t swear on a Bible the second time, we could only assume it was because he couldn’t find one. We are sending him a copy of the Bible in case he is ever biblically caught short again.
Do the right thing, Mr Obama – bin it!
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 26th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Barack Banana is an evil man of sin. His support for the abortion Holocaust puts him under the judgement of God and he must repent or face Hellfire when he dies.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Bob, you are a bigger twat than I gave you credit for. Your narrow minded, shit headed views are just the kinda thing Obama is going to try to stamp out and there is nothing you can do about it! Not only is he going to put right some of the wrongs done by bigoted Bush but he’s gonna piss dickheads like you off in the process, which makes him a great guy in my eyes!
January 26th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Bob Hutton, evangelist from Broadstairs in Kent, I have warned you to keep the fuck off this blog! How bloody thick is your skull, dummy? Go be queer for Jesus elsewhere!
January 26th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Wow! Bob’s back with his wacky brand of sanity. To quote from Bob’s latest – ‘Barack Banana’ – my that’s just a bit racist! And shake the dust from between your ears as well! Fuckwit.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Obama. (In my book) Marks out of 10 for the first few days of presidency 9.5. Pity about the ‘so help me god’ in the swearing in. Talking about the proposed reforms, did anyone else notice the (lying) BBC say that the stem cell research was ‘going to be the first in the World’ (I’m surprised that they didn’t say Universe). No mention about the fact that we, in the UK, have been doing it for a few months, if not years, now. I know that the BBC have a strange agenda, but I do wish that they would make some attempt at seeming to get their facts right.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Let us not forget the superstitious wackos who condemn many Africans to death by AIDS because they have outlawed the use of condoms. Also, the inhabitants of Africa are rather good a slaughtering each other anyway, but the religious nutters who go out there spend their time forcing xtian –insanity on the unfortunates rather than keep the warring factions apart. Hypocrisy – it must be religion!
Bob, you really, really are a tedious twat, I suggest that you test the theory of gravity – as you xtains say a theory is only a theory – by jumping of a very tall building. Good afternoon.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Barack Banana? That’s a tad racist. And if Christians object to abortion so much, why do they also object to sex education, condoms, the pill, IUDs etcetera, which would have the effect of reducing unwanted pregnancy? At least try to be a bit consistent.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Valdemar: Barack Banana racist? Maybe Bob’s seen him in the shower and is using his nickname… do you think?
January 26th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Is “Obamas in Pyjamas” racist too? or maybe there’s a sliding scale of racistosity?
January 26th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
The Marie Stopes Clinic has suffered a lot from Bush’s policies. They were quoted, when our government were looking at the Human Embryology (late abortions), that a large percentage of late terminations were caused by the women getting bad advice from those with a ‘religious conscience’. How nice of them! These clinics do good work. I find it despicable that the church whines on about contraception, then when a woman gets pregnant they whine even more. No-one else is entitled to decide for a woman about her sexual health except her. I find the thought of a wizened, aged virgin with testicles (?) trying to control women’s sex lives disgusting. They don’t seem able to think of anything else. I hope Barack Obama will keep these ignorant fundies in their place – in the swamp (sorry frogs).
January 26th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
So far so good. Obama is upsetting the right people so must be on the right track.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Thanks for mentioning our press release.
We made no claim that Obama’s second sweaing in was illegitimate but we did send him a Bible as he apparently couldn’t find one in the white house.
I know you will want to be accurate in your reporting.
PS. I am not a fan of fruitcake either.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Krish, I believe the report is accurate as it stands, as it does not say or even imply that you claimed the second swearing in was illegitimate.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Bob is a glutton for punishment–he probably feels its his religious duty to post to this blog in order to be” persicuted” by the unbelievers. Bob why not go and nail yourself up somewhere else
January 27th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Yes. It’s so much nobler to encourage women to spawn en masse. Then you let countless children suffer die because you don’t want to pay those “lazy welfare mothers” any of your “hard earned tax dollars”. Go ahead and vote down every after-school program, health care initiative, housing assistance program, etc. Let homeless people die in the streets because you can’t be bothered to part with a few extra dollars a year to help them out. To hell with people who can’t afford health insurance. But you’re “pro-life” because you champion the rights of fetuses in the womb, even if the woman was raped or molested by her father.
Bloody hypocrites.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Krish, thank you so much for confirming that god-botherers are always seeing things that don’t exist. Once you learn to stop wandering around in a fog of make-believe, you might start reading things as they are written.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
haha this is the first good thing ive heard about obama, shame about taking troops out of iraq and sending um to afghanistan instead…
January 28th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
The day Obama took over the oval office, the sun was brighter, the sky clearer and the scent of hope for the future was in the air again.
Okay having waxed lyrically, anyone who can piss off the far right and religious twats in one fell swoop can’t be all bad. You go Obama you go man and more power to you.
As for slurs such as ‘Barack Banana’ … the man was born in 1961. He has grown up struggling to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage and his own experience of a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect. Those that seem somehow hung up on what the man is rather then who the man is are giving a greater insight into their own inadequacies then Obama’s.