Obama: The Next Best Thing To An Atheist President

There is no denying that Obama is a "man of faith", but as a responsible president intent on upholding the constitution - something which the religious right always claim to be in favour of - He is the next best thing to an atheist president regarding his position on the separation of church and state and his unwillingness to introduce public policy forcing people to abide by a particular religions rules.

America, despite being continuously and wrongly called a christian nation, is still the only nation on the planet to have it's secular status written into it's constitution, and Obama, thankfully, understands the implications of this and understands that a president, regardless of his personal beliefs, is responsible for an entire nation and their well being, not just the majority and their imagined rules.

In his short time in office i have been impressed with Obama regarding his attitude to those who don't ascribe to his beliefs.

I was impressed with his talk about why government needs to be secular, calling the sermon on the mount "a passage so radical, it's doubtful our own defence department would survive it's application".

I am impressed with his plans to rescind Bush's conscience clause, a law permitting medical practitioners to refuse treatment to people on religious grounds.

I'm impressed with him sending invitations to the white house Easter egg roll to families lead by homosexual couples.

I'm impressed that every time he talks about religious groups he acknowledges the fact that atheists exist and that he has to accommodate them too.

I'm impressed by his reversal of legislation prohibiting federal funding being used on stem cell research, legislation introduced because a bunch of radicals assume that every cell has a soul.

Do i agree with everything Obama has done? No. But as long as his motivation is not a religious one i can't help but respect the method he uses to make his decisions.

Obama: First President Not To Swear On The Bible

After the initial cock-up on Inauguration day where Chief Justice John Roberts tripped over what is arguably the most important collection of words in American history - prompting Obama to do the same - it was decided that the oath should be taken again. This time behind closed doors amidst a select few reporters and officials in the white house map room.

The retaking of the oath went without a hitch and Obama was successfully sworn in, a second time, as president of the United States Of America. But this time he done it without his left hand on the bible.

Obviously this is not that much of a big deal and the second taking of the oath was just, as the white house lawyer put it, "out of the abundance of caution". But it is refreshing to see that Obama doesn't attach much important to religious pomp and ceremony.

it is not known if "so help me god" was crow-barred in at the end like it usually is which renders an otherwise poetic and powerful oath jitterly and awkward.

My Advice To Obama; Distance Yourself From Religious Leaders

If i had to give president elect Barack Obama one piece of advice it would be to refrain from affiliating himself with religious leaders.

The first time this became a problem for him was when the pastor of his church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, A man who has a history of giving inflammatory sermons and posses a hatred for America that would make even the Taliban blush, Gave a sermon in which he damned America, The country he resides in, and claimed they had "brought on" the September 11th attacks.

Well, it looks like Obama hasn't learned from this particular mistake and has given the task of inaugural invocation to Rev. Rick Warren, a man who, In his own words, thinks homosexuality, Paedophilia and incest are "equivalent" and a man who worked on passage of California's Proposition 8, Which is a proposition making gay marriage a criminal offence.

Rev. Rick Warren's own website stated, before this shit storm erupted and they pulled it, That homosexual people can't be members of his Saddleback Church.

This is the kind of lazy mistakes we would have expected from Bush, after all, he was a cretin and he didn't care who knew it, but Obama is supposed to have a little more sense. And it's even more disappointing when we remember the speech he done on the importance of a secular government, which makes his allegiance with such radical religious leaders even more surprising.