Somehow, I started receiving a newsletter titled “Godthoughts Wired.” The e-mails act as though I had subscribed to it, but it is being sent to one of the side addresses that I don’t use for that purpose. So, I think that a spider crawling my expansive network of sites found it and subscribed me. I thought that the newsletter might be interesting, so I fished it out of my spam folder and decided to give it look.

The issue sent for October 21 raised an eyebrow. A lot of people in the religious right are going to great lengths to besmirch President Obama. It’s occasionally comical. I want to go on record first: I voted for Obama. I believed that he would do more to lead this nation out of its financial crisis than McCain would have. I’m still waiting. At this point, I’m probably not going to vote for re-election. The problem is that the Republicans seldom put up a candidate worth voting for. I’m usually trying to decide between the lesser of the two evils. But in this case, I really believed what Obama was saying. I really thought that he’d be the leader who pulled us out of this economic sinkhole. And, I looked forward to laughing at my fellow churchgoers who doubted that he could do that, all of whom were proudly displaying “McCain/Palin” yard signs and bumper stickers that they got from our church.

I just want everyone to understand this background. I was pro-Obama, and now I’m not so sure. He really hasn’t fulfilled his campaign promises. Go after him on those grounds. But what the Godthoughts Wired e-mail did was a bit different.

They say:

In 2009 a London reporter asked Barak Obama the following question, “Could I ask whether you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of ‘American Exceptionalism’ that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world?”

Obama answered, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Okay, Obama is being a politician and giving a political answer that isn’t really an answer. That’s typical. I hate it. I wish that more reporters would call politicians out on this crap, but that’s another article entirely. Godthoughts continued:

Hmmm…Any honest assessment of the history of the founding of the United States of America reveals that America was a country that once honored Christianity and the God of the Bible more than any country in the history of the earth. Thereby, the institutions of this nation rested upon the foundation of the Christian faith.

While I agree, despite numerous claims to the contrary, that the United States was founded on Christian principles (not necessarily as a safe haven solely for Christians, but as a place that allowed a free choice of religious worship–there’s a difference!), I’m not so sure I really see where this e-mail is going. Obama never denied American Exceptionalism. He just said that he figures (rightly) that other nations feel that they are also uniquely qualified to lead the world.

Because my bet here is that they are going to equate a denial of American Exceptionalism with a denial of Christianity. The letter concludes with these words from Pastor Brad (whoever that is):

To reject “American exceptionalism” is to reject the God who made America the most “exceptional” nation in the history of the world.

Yep, there it is. So, Obama’s words are twisted to mean that he denies American Exceptionalism, and that is twisted into a denial of Christianity.

There is plenty that you can attack Obama for. Why manufacture something that just isn’t there? And what is the purpose of trying to prove that he isn’t a Christian? Or that he isn’t an American citizen?

End of rant. And I’ll be unsubscribing from that newsletter.