Exodus 20:3

Okay, I admit it. I do favor Obama, I don't worship the ground he walks on but I think he's a swell guy. Now I know this is my 3rd blog on Obama, and my second in a row, but this recent video caught my attention.



So let's break this down. The sign says "America we have a Muslim president This is sin against the Lord! Exodus 20:3." Let's take this line by line.

America we have a Muslim president...

[Excerpt taken from The Raw Story]

The pastor of the Mark Holick is pastor of The Spirit One Christian Center in Wichita, Kansas where the sign is being displayed.

Holick told KSNW, "The main point of the marquee is to cause the Christians to understand he is not a Christian, Again, they will call me and they will tell me that he's not a Muslim because he is a Christian. That's not the point. The point is he's not a Christian."

So I guess the point Mr. Holick is trying to make is that anyone who is not a true Christian is a Muslim. So Taoist, Buddhist, Hindus, and I'm guessing even Christians who don't share their same beliefs are heaped together under the term 'Muslim'. Not only is this a black and white, Us vs. Them, with us or against us view it paints all other religions and viewpoints with the same brush effectively destroying diversity. In a sense Mr. Holick and those that believe likewise are an island of truth in an ocean of lies. There is no point in thinking differently because all other viewpoints are false. Believe like us or perish before God's wrath. This is sad but it exists.


This is sin against the Lord! Exodus 20:3

The verse in question Exodus 20:3 states "You shall have no other gods before me." Now this furthers Mr. Holick's belief that if you are of a different faith then you must be worshiping a different god, a false god. He doesn't even accept the fact that other faiths have different views (if any) on the same God but that they are so completely lost that their faith is being guided in the wrong direction.

In fact you could rewrite the sign to say "America we have a Godless president This is sin against the Lord! Exodus 20:3." A different faith is equated with no faith at all.

But the main, and sadly repeated, myth is that Muslims are THE enemy. There are a variety of books out there that explains Islam without the bigotry and the fear that has been bred into the Western identity. A couple that I've read recently and highly recommend are

• Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Conflict and Cooperation by Zachary Karabell
• Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam by Andrew Wheatcroft
  

I don't believe Muslims are the enemy in this case or even a threat to the U.S. Ignorance and blind hatred is what will tear this nation apart not people who read from a different holy book, call God, Allah, and pray 5 times a day. I repeat, Ignorance and blind hatred from anyone.