President Obama on Religious Freedom
I think that we should foster a culture in which people’s private religious beliefs, including atheists and agnostics, are respected and that’s the kind of culture that I think allows all of us then to believe what we want. That’s freedom of conscience. That’s what the Constitution guarantees.
And where we get into problems typically is when our personal religious faith or the community of faith that we participate in tips into a sort of fundamentalist extremism in which it’s not enough for us to believe what we believe but we start feeling obligated to hit you over the head because you don’t believe the same thing or to treat you as somebody who’s less than I am.
That’s an interesting proposed dichotomy: One’s religion is either a “private…freedom of conscience” or it is “fundamentalist extremism” that assaults another person.
President Obama’s full interview with Bill Maher can be viewed here, with the relevant section on atheism and religion here.
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Ironically, the President’s description of fundamentalism perfectly portrays the attitudes and actions of those pushing the LGBT agenda on society at large. Sadly, that brand of overt fundamentalism is celebrated at the expense of religious liberty these days. ‘Tis a topsy turvy world.
Indeed. Life has become unbearable since straight people were denied the right to marry. And with the upcoming criminalisation of straight sex, things are going to be terrible.
@Donalbain
It would take a pretty dishonest person to fail to acknowledge that some LGBT activists think “it’s not enough for us to believe what we believe but we start feeling obligated to hit you over the head because you don’t believe the same thing or to treat you as somebody who’s less than I am.”
My take-away was that President Obama said we should respect everyone for who they are in stead of who we think everyone should be.
Forget fundamentalist extremism, we are about to become a neo-fascist country…hold on!
@watchtower
Are you saying you can’t respect someone while disagreeing with them or their ideology?
Not agreeing with — and opposing — progressive, post-modern liberalism hardly makes one a fascist.
Even in his last days in office, Obama lies to the American people.