Sad But True: President Obama and 2009 Saw the Erosion of Christian Ideals

President Barack Obama, a mainline Protestant who currently has no home church, dominated much of the United States religion news in 2009, reports the USA Today website. His inaugural address called the United States "a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers."

In his first months as President, Obama lifted a Bush administration ban on federal funding for groups that offer abortion information and services abroad, and expanded the policy permitting federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

Scores of Catholic bishops called it a travesty that Notre Dame -- a flagship Catholic university -- awarded Obama an honorary degree and invited him to deliver the commencement address in May. In fact some invited honorary guests -- including the Indiana Catholic bishop whose jurisdiction includes Notre Dame -- redused to attend the graduation because of Obama's support of abortion.

Obama used his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway to lay out the theology of a "just war" and the morality of standing for the good in a world where, he said, "evil exists."

Disgusted by the United States government's trend during the past year to erode Christian ideals, many Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian leaders -- in a show of unity, strength, and determination -- drafted the Manhattan Declaration in October 2009, in which they defined life, marriage, and religious liberty as these ideals were defined by Christ. Already signed by more than one-half million people, the Manhattan Declaration makes it very clear that Christians will not agree to non-Christian viewpoints, such as abortion. To emphatically delineate this standpoint, the Manhattan Declaration concludes, "We will render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but we will not render unto Caesar that which is God's."