Thomas Martin
Thomas Martin is the O. K. Bouwsma Chair in Philosophy at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Along with his fellow colleagues who are dedicated to the study of the Great Books, he teaches the works of Plato, Aristotle, and G. K. Chesterton.
At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on February 6, President Barack Obama claimed that "killing the innocent" is the "ultimate betrayal of God's will."
In speaking of terrorists, Obama said:
Extremists succumb to an ignorant nihilism that shows they don't understand the faiths they claim to profess, for killing the innocent is never fulfilling God's will. In fact, it is the ultimate betrayal of God's will.
If President Obama means what he said, then he is an American.
Americans, lest we forget, side with their forefathers and declare:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Every rational person must ask, what is the difference between a terrorist who kills the innocent and a government that has supported the abortion of 1.2 million innocent, unborn babies in the last year alone - babies guaranteed the unalienable right to life as Americans?
Be rational and not emotional.
Read on Americans and remember that beside the three divine rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is a fourth right stated in the Declaration of Independence:
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
When the government becomes destructive of these ends - the three unalienable rights - it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute a new Government.
In philosophy when we speak of ends, we mean things that have final causes that exist in nature. Man by nature is created for happiness, and he is inherently tending to this end for which God has created him. Therefore, by being God's creation, we can only be truly happy when doing God's will. This is the source of our peace and joy.
President Obama continued at the National Prayer Breakfast:
So here we put aside labels of party and ideology, and recall what we are first: all children of a loving God; brothers and sisters called to make His work our own. But in this work, as Lincoln said, our concern should not be whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God's side.
While Obama can stand in prayer and professes to put aside party and ideology, he does not believe or support the first unalienable right of American babies.
In all likelihood, he did not script the words he spoke. He is yet another politician who is out to sway the vote by teleprompting whatever the audience wants to hear.
Who in their right mind thinks "brothers and sisters called to make His work our own" means that denying innocent children life is God's will?
It is important to remember that words do not mean anything by themselves. Rather, the person who is speaking means what he says or he does not - making him not good for his word.
Actions speak louder than words.
It is time to alter or to abolish this government for the sake of each citizen whose birthright has been denied by every President in the last forty years, for they have not attended to Lincoln's exhortation "our concern should not be whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God's side."
Abortion may be a pragmatic answer for messy situations, but we are reaping the harvest of not aligning ourselves with our Creator: child abuse and neglect, child pornography, children killing children, and so on.
Alter or abolish? *
