Obama not Smarter than an 8th Grader

By W. Michael McCormack

Senator Barak Obama recently expressed his opinion about the beginning of life to Reverend Rick Warren at the Saddleback mega-church in California in a televised interview. To quote, he said that to answer when human life begins was “above my pay grade”. Now, we all know that this is a euphemism for, “I don’t want to answer what I really think because it might get me in trouble with my pro-abortion base of supporters.” We also know that this is politics in our generation. There are precious few statesmen and too many politicians. I have two observations in regard to this.

The first observation is that Senator Obama must either be dumber than an 8th grader or he is disingenuous. Here’s the rub. Every 8th grade biology student knows that the life of every individual organism, human or not, begins when ‘the chromosomes of the sperm fuse with the chromosomes of the ovum to form a new DNA complex that thenceforth directs the ontogenesis of the organism.’ What we are talking about is the clear line that exists in the life of every individual from the moment of fertilization of a single cell. Life begins exactly then. Such debated subjects as religion, God and the nature of man are not the core issue. This is not faith or dogma but science. Science that our liberal, science-worshipping, liberal citizens choose not to believe in as though they were reading a menu in a Chinese restaurant and don’t want a selection from column A.

The second observation is that our so-called mega-church “openness” must be a stench in the nostrils of God. The leaders of the mega-church, seeker sensitive movement lead in a “nice” way. We don’t want to be seen as being fundamentalist or nasty. Well, I have something to say to Pastor Warren. God is not nicely predisposed to those who support the killing of His unborn babies. The moment you decided to be “nice” to Barak Obama, that’s the moment you crossed over to the other side. You see, Pastor Warren, in the First Century Church, one must first have had to believe in Jesus and his teachings about life, then one had to behave like he believed in the teachings, THEN he could belong to the church.

You, Pastor Warren, seem to be turning church history and polity on its head by asking people to belong, THEN hoping that they will truly believe and behave. The trouble with that is when you say that they can belong “just like they are”, then you ask them to behave, they have a problem with your reasoning. You end up with a church that is, theologically, a mile wide and an inch deep; a mega-group of those who belong to each other and have little clue as to the fundamentals of the teachings of God. That is not a God thing. It is something else. Good luck with that. You’re on your own in the 7th grade with Obama.

Now, in my opinion, there are God-following mega-churches. One of them is Grace Community Church led by Pastor Steve Riggle in Houston, Texas. In his book, The Sharper Edge, Steve quotes Solomon; “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything.” (Ecl. 11:5)

It seems that both Barak Obama and Rick Warren are watching the winds of supporter opinion and regarding the clouds of “belonger” polls. God and millions of babies are watching us. I’m on their side.