Wednesday, September 30, 2009

From the "Are You Kidding Me?" File



I really don't know what to say about this. This is scary!

Praying to Obama? It reminds me of this picture I posted previously.

This ain't right at all!

[HT: Mark Kelly, via Facebook]

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Addendum:

One commenter pointed out that this video is influenced by the text written across the screen. He included in his comment a response by the Gamaliel Foundation, who sponsored the event:

As a faith-based organization, it is customary for Gamaliel Foundation affiliates to begin and end every action with prayer. At no time, however, have we prayed to President Barack Obama. In the form of call and response, those who took part in the UnitedHealthcare action can be heard saying, “Hear our cry oh God,” “Deliver us oh God,” etc.

You can read the full text of the response here. You can also see the original video posted by the Gamaliel Foundation here.

You can read more about the Gamaliel Foundation here.

I will leave it up to the viewer to decide; if you close your eyes, there are two separate occasions in which you may hear "Hear our cry, Oh God"; however, it, in my opinion, is very unclear.

4 comments:

Monk-in-Training said...

As a matter of fact, it appears they are kidding you, Pastor.

If you close your eyes and listen, it sounds to me more like they are saying "Hear us, oh God" which would be the normal phrase I often hear in our litanies, and it does sound like this.

By adding text to the video, it alters the experience, and makes it appear something it is not.

However there isn't any need to take my word for it, it appears the organization has responded, this is an excerpt from that response.

As a faith-based organization, it is customary for Gamaliel Foundation affiliates to begin and end every action with prayer. At no time, however, have we prayed to President Barack Obama. In the form of call and response, those who took part in the UnitedHealthcare action can be heard saying, “Hear our cry oh God,” “Deliver us oh God,” etc.

I would be a MONSTROUS Blasphemy to pray to this or any other human being, our devotion belongs to God alone.

Conservative Blogger Rod Dreher has a posting discussing this, and bringing to light the actual text used, which says "Hear our cry, oh God!" and "Deliver us, oh God!"

Rick Boyne said...

I would certainly hope that this wasn't the case. I did what you requested and listened to it again, without looking at the text. I had to do it 2 times before I heard "Oh God", and then on only two muddled occasions. I am familiar with liturgical prayers that say, "Hear our cry, O God" and "Deliver us, Oh God". That was what I was expecting when I heard the words for the first time. I will certainly admit that I am easily influenced (aren't we all) and the written words play a part of that influence.

I don't know anything about the Gamaliel Foundation; but in these days, I also simply don't trust anything just because it has the words "faith" in it. People have faith in a whole lot of weird things, these days.

So, I am going to leave the video up, but I'll add a disclaimer on it, so that folks can judge for themselves.

Thank you, brother James, for pointing this out!

Monk-in-Training said...

Rick,
This video has me thinking. When I first saw it, I did just as you did, and was outraged at what I was seeing. My comment was made several hours after my initial viewing.

Recently I got another video link from a friend about Pres. Obama being the anti-Christ.

Doing due diligence, I took it to a friend that until recently taught Bible at a local Baptist School (he is a Pastor now). His response surprised me and though he explained the video and the Hebrew text associated it, he was very concerned that this video and others like it are undermining Christian credibility.

It is second nature to many people to google things now, and my teacher friend said that when these videos are so easily disproven, then the Gospel can also be discreditied.

Who added the text to the video and falsely accused these people of blasphemy? Deut 19:19 says they bear the penalty of what they accused these people of doing. This is not a small sin to be messing with.

It is so easy to forward these emails, and I have done so myself, and if this had been in one, might have done it again. But starting about 3 years ago, I have been checking and finding so many of these things are nothing more or less than false witness, and I feel that simply isn't something that will ever advance the Gospel.

Acts 17:11

Rick Boyne said...

I am pretty sure I've seen the video that you talk about. That one surely didn't make the cut to get on my blog! I think the scholarship is stretching it a bit much, as intriguing as it is.

I don't agree with your friend who says that if the video's can be discredited easily, so can the Gospel. The Gospel is on a much higher level and has stood the test of time, blasphemy and dilution for nearly 2000 years. The Gospel is a covenant between God and man; it isn't something to prove or disprove, merely to accept or reject.

Because of your previous comment, I also checked into this. I find it difficult to believe that people would actually pray to Obama, but I also believe we are in the last days of this earth, and I've read Matthew 24. I said I found it difficult to believe, but not impossible. People HAVE lifted Obama up to messiah status, at least in their own minds. I've seen many videos that testify to this. (inauguration, rallies, etc) I just keep mindful, in the back of my head, Matthew 24:24, "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect"

And I intend to not be mislead.