American Christianity is extreme because it's a business. Is it any surprise that the US excels at selling the "Christianity" product? Lifestyle marketing is our specialty and religion provides the ultimate product for building Brand Identity.

Apple
Anthropologie
Urban Outfitters
Focus on the Family
Saddleback Church

Christianity in the US sells an identity to its followers. When done right, it's a carefully tuned brand that collects profits in both money and power.

In the finest tradition of religion.

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Why even have an invocation and benediction, haven't we had enough Jesus in the Oval Office to last an eon?

The selection of Rick Warren as well as the participation in Saddleback forum was simply pandering to evangelicals, and frankly they're far more dangerous to our society than any terrorist ever could be, and do not need any encouragement from a rational leader.

What a joke!

Of course those hucksters at Saddleback are involved.

Obama did support infanticide. It went beyond abortion to killing babies outside the womb when he continuously blocked the Born Alive Protection Act. He allowed late term babies born as results of failed abortions that could have been saved with medical care to be thrown into refuse bins while they were still alive and breathing. Then he dodged his record during the Saddleback Q/A and posted a retraction about it later after all his denials were plastered on TV. Considering that the RNC speeches were aimed to preach to the choir (same as DNC speeches), they know their target audience. This was a policy move from Obama that could most definitely destroy him in certain camps.

http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-facing-attacks-from-all-sides-over-abortion/84059/

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
I think a baby should have rights before conception. Menstruation is murder!


So is.. well.. you know what.

>> ^CaptainPlanet420:
And the crowd sincerely thanks you, Dr. Obvious.


I wish you were right about it being obvious. It seems like EVERYONE considers this an "issue" to vote on. Just google for candidate issues:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Issues.htm
http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

And if it's so obvious, why do they ask these questions and why does everyone go over the candidate's answers?

>> ^brain:
I hate to burst everyone's bubble here. But the candidates DO NOT CARE about abortion. AT ALL. It doesn't affect their daily worries as president. There's nothing the president can or will do about abortion, and the candidates realize that. They realize that these are just popularity contest questions that they have to answer to be elected. The same goes for gay marriage.


And the crowd sincerely thanks you, Dr. Obvious.

>> ^MarineGunrock:
dgandhi:
I always find it femur when people say pro-lifers ONLY want abstinence-only sex ed, but never offer up any citations whatsosever to back their claim up.

I have not claimed that. The social-conservatives in US play anti-sex and abortion to the hilt, the same people(political party) who work for one work for the other.

A very vocal section of the population, who have an anti-sex-ed position on the basis of a religious understanding of sex as a sin, have set the discourse for abortion-re-criminalization. I am not a pro-lifer, so I have no obligation to that community to make sure their position is articulated accurately. If some significant subset of the pro-life community is not anti-sex-ed, then they need to speak up and counter the hijacking of their own movement. Until then I will respond to the position presented, and point out it's failings, even if only a small minority actually believe what the movement espouses.

I'm all for an informed debate of the whole gamut of possibilities, but that seems to be what Obama is doing with this answer, finding a common ground where the standard political discourse offers none.

As for the bone ref, that's what I get for trusting spell check, which has been well established as the only method by which I am remotely intelligible.

dgandhi:

I always find it femur when people say pro-lifers ONLY want abstinence-only sex ed, but never offer up any citations whatsosever to back their claim up.

>> ^nadabu:
As for "brain waves", there is debate on what really counts as such.

That is analogous to arguing that Evolution by natural selection is debatable. Sure if people who are lying, or simply don't know what they are talking about argue against something you could say there is "debate", but their disagreement with the body of evidence and the understanding of people who work in relevant fields of study in no way undermines the validity of the general scientific consensus.

If your going to make a "brain waves" argument, taking whatever unsupported claim on when that happens you feel like, seriously weakens your argument.

If we agree to use brain-waves as the criteria, and it's well established among non-propagandists that this starts at about 20 weeks, then will you change your time-frame preference, or will you re-define "brain waves" to meet your already established preference?

>> ^quantumushroom:
Waiting 3 months to take care of an unwanted pregnancy smacks of sloth.

While this would be true in a perfect world, the same folks who champion criminalizing abortion have also eviscerated sex-ed, through their absurd "abstinence only" campaign, and as a result an alarming number of people are not aware ( or are intentionally mis-informed) of their options, and can not, in their ignorance, act responsibly.

The anti-sex/pro-baby position is working at cross purposes, they want things that either defeat each other, or require fascism to keep in check. Obama, for all his faults, does synthesize a coherent third path, which is to do what works to reduce unwanted pregnancies, while providing realistic options to abortion. He says "let's have a little socialism, instead of a little fascism", I find it humerus that Christians who have a long history of socialism, and a long history of problems with fascism would prefer the fascist route.

cp420: nice downvote rampage on the comments, is that because you somehow think we are all trolling, or are you just offended that somebody might make a coherent point with which you disagree?

* Condoms
* BC pills with 99% effectiveness
* IUDs
* The BC "ring" (Nuvaring)
* Morning-after pills

Ladies, if you're going a-whoring, you have no excuse for not being prepared.

Waiting 3 months to take care of an unwanted pregnancy smacks of sloth. If you're going to just lie around, do it with your knees closed.


Obama @ Saddleback = FAIL.

^LittleRed

I have a friend who got pregnant while using the NuvaRing and condoms. There is no guarantee that birth control will work.


Umm...You should tell your friend that the NuvaRing doesn't go in her ass and condoms go on penises before intercourse, not after. I keed I keed

Too soon?