President Barack Obama -- much to the chagrin of some religious persons -- did not include God in his 2011 Thanksgiving address. Instead, President Obama focused on thanking military personnel, persons who are volunteering in soup kitchens, the persons who “helped make this country what it is” and called for unity amongst the American people.
President Obama's 2011 Thanksgiving address drastically differed from his 2010 address which included the phrases “gifts of a gracious God,” “providence bestowed upon our nation” and “we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for our many blessings, for one another, and for our nation.”
Some persons voiced complaints about President Obama's 2011 Thanksgiving address.
Todd Starnes, a writer for Fox News Radio, noted “[Obama's] remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God” and also wrote, “But nowhere in the 11-paragraph address does [Obama] mention the Almighty.” Comments on this article include what appear to be many enraged Christians who believe Obama erred in his Thanksgiving address.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “Republicans and others tweeted their discontent with the reported omission of God from Obama's address. Comments included “So Sad!” and “God help us!” […] “To give thanks for luck is to deny God much less omit!” tweeted “PastorJeffBrown,” whose Twitter account lists him as a rural Oklahoma husband, father and Baptist pastor.”
Others were not critical of Obama's omission of God, but rather were critical of those who are unhappy with Obama.
One commenter on the Los Angeles Times page writes, “Obama is the president. He is not a priest, pastor, or church leader. He leads a country not a congregation and the country that he leads is a religiously independent one.”
A Gawker.com article titled “Obama's 'God'-less Remarks Ruined Wingnut Thanksgiving” mocks those who criticize Obama for not mentioning God in his Thanksgiving address and is careful to note that not all people, of course, believe in God. The “wingnuts,” the Gawker article notes, “spend their holidays writing, blog-commenting, and tweeting about how Obama is a militant atheist, a turkey, and a “proponent of separatist multiculturalism and its inherent disruption of progress toward a unified American and the common good.”
With the typical excessive 'God language' surrounding various holidays combined with many religious persons claiming that holidays 'belong to them' or are 'religious holidays,' secular Americans ought to be relieved when President Obama fails to include mentions of God in his addresses.
In 2009, atheist blogger Jen McCreight, commenting on a past Thanksgiving address given by Obama wrote, “If our president invokes God like belief is normal, required, and patriotic, it alienates the “Nones” of America. By simply keeping his Thanksgiving proclamation secular, Obama is making baby steps toward a more inclusive environment.”
Are you thankful for President Obama leaving God out of his Thanksgiving address? Will this be the start of a manufactured 'War on Thanksgiving?'
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